Our Precious Corn
Yukwanenste
Published on 1. May 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
350 pages
978-1-938065-30-9 (ISBN)
Description
For the Oneida people, yukwanenste has two meanings: our corn and our precious. Corn has walked alongside the Oneida and other Haudenosaunee people since creation, playing an integral role in their daily and ceremonial lives throughout their often turbulent history. The relationship between corn and the Oneida has changed over time, but the spirit of this important resource has remained by their side, helping them heal along the way. In Our Precious Corn: Yukwanenste, author Rebecca M. Webster (Kany??take?lu), an Oneida woman and Indigenous corn grower, weaves together the words of explorers, military officers, and anthropologists, as well as historic and other contemporary Haudenosaunee people, to tell a story about their relationships with corn. Interviews with over fifty Oneida community members describe how the corn has made positive impacts on their lives, as well as hopeful visions for its future. As an added bonus, the book includes an appendix of different cooking and preparation methods for corn, including traditional and modern recipes.
Reviews / Votes
Rebecca Webster knows corn. Her beautiful book, Our Precious Corn: Yukwanenste, is an insightful window into her community's relationship with corn as a relative, not as a commodity. Anyone who is interested in food sovereignty should read this book.-Patty Loew, PhD member of the Mashkiiziibii-Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, journalism professor and inaugural director, Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, Northwestern University
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
East Lansing
United States
Publishing group
Michigan State University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
11
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
885 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-938065-30-9 (9781938065309)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rebecca M. Webster is an enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. She serves on the faculty at the University of Minnesota Duluth in their Department of American Indian Studies. She is a founding member of Ohe?laku (among the cornstalks), a co-op of ten Oneida families that grow multiple acres of traditional heirloom corn together. She and her husband also own a farmstead on the Oneida Reservation where they primarily grow Haudenosaunee varieties of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, sunchokes, and tobacco. Their philosophy is that every time an Indigenous person plants a seed, it is an act of resistance, an assertion of sovereignty, and a reclamation of identity. In light of this philosophy, an Oneida faithkeeper named the ten-acre homestead Ukwakhwa: Tsinu Niyukwayay?thoslu (Our Foods: Where we plant things), a name which also lends itself to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Ukwakhwa Inc., that Webster formed with her family to help advance their goals of helping share knowledge with the community.
Content
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1. Tsi?tsyotashawau (Of Where It Began)
Chapter 2. Kanehelatuksla (To Extend Greetings and Thankfulness)
Chapter 3. Kayanlasla?kowa (Great Matters)
Chapter 4. Wahutatya?thewewe (They Arrived)
Chapter 5. Wohotiliwahokenha (They Tangled over Matters)
Chapter 6. Kaliwihyo (Good Message)
Chapter 7. Wayukhinukulha?te Okhale Wayukhinato?li? (They Dismissed Our Thinking and They Disrupted Our Towns)
Chapter 8. Wayukwahutsyakwa Okhale Wayukhiwilahkwa (They Have Taken Our Land Away and They Have Taken Our Children Away)
Chapter 9. Wayukhinikuhla?khashyi (They Have Separated Our Minds)
Chapter 10. Ohutsyo?ku? Wahatiha?wihte (They Took It to under the Earth)
Chapter 11. Ona Waekwatahtaskenha (Now We Have the Means to Help Ourselves)
Chapter 12. Ohe?laku (Among the Cornstalks)
Chapter 13. Yukwaliwisa?ahtu (How We Tie Our Matters Together)
Chapter 14. Tsi? Nahte Olihwaka?yu? Okhale Oli?wase (Of What Old Matters and New Matters)
Chapter 15. Ohutu Yukwatkattuhati (We All Are Looking to Our Future)
Appendix. Tsi Twakhunihe (How We Cook Our Foods)
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Chapter 1. Tsi?tsyotashawau (Of Where It Began)
Chapter 2. Kanehelatuksla (To Extend Greetings and Thankfulness)
Chapter 3. Kayanlasla?kowa (Great Matters)
Chapter 4. Wahutatya?thewewe (They Arrived)
Chapter 5. Wohotiliwahokenha (They Tangled over Matters)
Chapter 6. Kaliwihyo (Good Message)
Chapter 7. Wayukhinukulha?te Okhale Wayukhinato?li? (They Dismissed Our Thinking and They Disrupted Our Towns)
Chapter 8. Wayukwahutsyakwa Okhale Wayukhiwilahkwa (They Have Taken Our Land Away and They Have Taken Our Children Away)
Chapter 9. Wayukhinikuhla?khashyi (They Have Separated Our Minds)
Chapter 10. Ohutsyo?ku? Wahatiha?wihte (They Took It to under the Earth)
Chapter 11. Ona Waekwatahtaskenha (Now We Have the Means to Help Ourselves)
Chapter 12. Ohe?laku (Among the Cornstalks)
Chapter 13. Yukwaliwisa?ahtu (How We Tie Our Matters Together)
Chapter 14. Tsi? Nahte Olihwaka?yu? Okhale Oli?wase (Of What Old Matters and New Matters)
Chapter 15. Ohutu Yukwatkattuhati (We All Are Looking to Our Future)
Appendix. Tsi Twakhunihe (How We Cook Our Foods)
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index