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More information on ancient corn growers
 
 
 
 
 

Corn spread south into the lowland tropics of Central America shortly after its first domestication. From there, before 5,000 B.C., it found its way to the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. All of the high civilizations that arose in North and South America planted corn as their principal crop. Throughout Mexico and Central America, corn and corn gods played a dominant role in native religion. Present holidays in that region often date back to festivals in honor of "The Giver of Corn."

Corn cultivation made its way north much more slowly. It was first grown north of the Valley of Mexico about the beginning of the Christian Era. It reached the upper Rio Grande Valley about 700 A.D. There, people known as the Anasazi built centers like Pueblo Bonita (Chaco Canyon, NM) and Mesa Verde (CO), Hovenweep (UT) and Canyon de Chelly (AZ).

Corn reached the Mississippi Valley and Atlantic Coast of North America within the next 150 years. By 1100 A.D., an extensive civilization known as the Mississippian culture, based on corn planting, had arisen there. The areas was cropped almost as intensively as today. Vast areas were devoted to farming, which supported between 15 and 20 million people. The dense forests found in the Mississippi Valley by 18th century European colonists were all secondary growth forests. They came after the Mississippian civilization collasped from depopulation by European diseases introduced in 1540 by the DeSoto expedition.

Corn gave Mississippian rulers the energy and populations necessary to build large cities such as Cahokia (IL), Chucalissa (TN) and St Louis (MO). Their farms extended from horizon to horizon. Their corn fields occupied most of the arable land. The area of the Southeastern States also produced a similar high culture based primarily on cultivation of corn. The cities of Etowah (GA) and Moundville (AL) were among more than 1,100 different centers built between the arrival of corn about 950 AD and the catastropic collapse of native populations in after 1540.

Corn cultivation extended as far west as the four corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. It was the staple food of the Anasazi, Mogollon and Hohokam cultures in the Southwest. It was an important crop to the Mandans of North Dakota, the nations of the Iroquois confederation in New York and the Great Lakes Region. From the Central Andes and Amazon Basin to Northeastern Canada and the American Great basin, native subsistence farmers grew corn as their principal source of food energy.
 

Corn was the Native American's greatest contribution to world agriculture. Corn has kept pace with our need for food for an ever expanding population.
 

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