From the sugar shack in the spring to the corn roast at the end of the summer, passing through the meetings around winter hockey games, the Québec identity is expressed in many symbols. But what part of these activities is in fact inherited from the Aboriginal peoples who welcomed the first settlers here? Our series of texts “Quebec métis” delves into the question. Last of three articles.
In the Iroquois myth of the creation of the world, three seeds were planted on the tomb of mother earth: one of corn, one of bean, one of squash.
These three seeds — the “three sisters” — are traditionally grown together. And to protect them, Steve McComber also planted marigolds, a plant native to Central America. “The maize serves as a support for the bean. And together, they shade the squash, which can grow easily,” explains the traditionalist elder from Kahnawake, giving a tour of his garden at To have to.
Corn (or corn), which marks the end of summer with delight, was part of the daily diet of the Iroquoians of the St. Lawrence whom Jacques Cartier visited during his travels. It was, he writes in his diary, “the bread on which they live in the said land”, note Alain Asselin, Jacques Cayouette and Jacques Mathieu in Curious stories of Canadian plants.
The cultivation of maize is extremely old: it would have started nine millennia ago in the south-west of Mexico. When he visits Hochelaga, Jacques Cartier also compares corn to millet grown in Brazil. “The explorer describes the making of coarse millet bread. This bread is more of a pancake when compared to wheat bread. The description of the grinding of grains into flour with a wooden mortar and pestle is faithful to other later descriptions and to archaeological evidence,” write Asselin, Cayouette and Mathieu.
Species that have become rare
Steve McComber, on the other hand, dries his corn cobs and braids the leaves together. He then cleans them with wood ash to remove the skin, then uses the pulp to make soup. “I learned how to do that from the elders,” he says. In his bunch of corn, you can see a few red cobs. “I also grow blue and black. The seeds have been given to me by Iroquois elders for the past forty years. They are rare: you cannot buy them in stores. »
In 1724, the Jesuit Joseph-François Lafitau recounts that once the harvest has come, the Aboriginal people devote themselves to braiding the leaves of the ears of corn. “The weaving of corn from India was accompanied by rejoicings and, according to Lafitau, it was the only time when the men took part in an agricultural task, generally devolved to the women, because they did not meddle in the fields. nor of harvesting”, we note in the virtual exhibition on the customs of here of the Network of diffusion of the archives of Quebec, connected to BAnQ.
In Curious Plant Stories from Canada, Asselin, Cayouette and Mathieu also refer to letters written between 1732 and 1760 by Marie-Andrée Regnard Duplessis, who became a mother of Sainte-Hélène, a religious hospitaller. According to his correspondence, popcorn, an Aboriginal invention, had a romantic use. “One of their caresses, for example, is to throw a small stone or grains of Indian corn. As soon as the stone is gone, the gallant looks elsewhere. When the beauty rejects it, it is proof that hearts are on good terms, otherwise the suitor must withdraw, ”she writes.
Later, red ears of corn (which we no longer find in our supermarkets) also inspired an old custom among French Canadians, who make the famous corn roasts a privileged gathering moment.
In 1856, the notary Éraste d’Odet d’Orsonnens, who was also mayor of Hull, published a short story entitled Corn roast that a “student of law” would have shared with him. In the story, the young man goes to a roasting-pot where, according to custom, whoever discovers a red ear earns the right to kiss the girl of his choice. The student finds the coveted object there, but decides not to kiss the one he covets: he chooses her sister instead, to arouse his jealousy.
The Quebec roast roast tradition has its roots in New France, where it first took the form of an end-of-harvest chore. The custom then wanted to hide a red ear and a blue ear, which would designate the king and queen of the event.
It also exists across the Atlantic, where it is rather called “stripping”, but also “stripping”, “stripping” or “stripping”, specifies for her part Danielle Turcotte, linguistic director of the Office québécois de the French language. In the United States, we talk about husking bees when discussing roasts.
According to the Réseau de diffusion des archives du Québec, it was in 1866 that it appeared for the first time, in The Country Gazettethe detailed description of “the custom of stripping or shelling the ears as a family celebration” among French Canadians.
Traditions put to the test
Today, red, blue, green or black corn cobs have disappeared from supermarket counters in Quebec. And with them, the games that our ancestors organized. “Now corn is all the same,” laments Steve McComber. “Several are genetically modified. And in addition, they are treated with chemicals. »
With the advent of intensive agriculture, Quebec has abandoned what it calls “the culture of companionship”, he sighs.
Corn, beans and squash, “these are things that grow well together”. “There are seeds that don’t. For example, I have to keep potatoes away from squash. […] And onions and garlic don’t mix well with beans. They are allergic to each other. »
“Corn is a very important crop for us. We use it in most of our ceremonies. But for us, beans, squash and corn are equal. »
With his hand, Steve McComber picks a pod of beans and places a handful of black beans with mauve reflections in ours. The Iroquois peoples call these ancestral beans “bear paws”, because they have the shape. It is a gift perhaps more precious — and rarer — than one might think.