                                  T H E

                               Z E P H Y R

                      __     M A G A Z I N E
                     {__]++++++++++++++++++++++++++[]
                     Issue #46                9-11-87

                A weekly electronic magazine for users of
                            THE ZEPHYR II BBS
                        (Mesa, AZ - 602-894-6526)
                    owned and operated by T. H. Smith

                        Editor - Gene B. Williams

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                                (c) 1987

    THIS ISSUE:

       A while back ago Chris Mitchell put up a bulletin on The
    Silent Side. It came from a guy out of Tucson named Kevin Dahl.
    Chris has since changed the BBS program, and the bulletin is no
    longer available there.
       Well, now you can get it here. And it will become a
    permanent part of the available magazine downloads.

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                   /\     Native Seeds/SEARCH    /\
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                         Saving the Southwest's
                      Native Agricultural Heritage

                              by Kevin Dahl
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         When I admired the colorful ears of corn artfully accenting
    the vast array of Indian jewelry for sale in the small shop, the
    saleswoman told me proudly that her ex-husband had grown the blue
    corn in their fields near Laguna, New Mexico. The almost-black
    blue corn has been used for centuries to make corn tortillas and
    super-thin piki bread, and has recently interested gourmets who
    claim corn meal made from it tastes better than yellow corn meal.
    Other ears displayed throughout the store on shelves and in the
    counter displays had different colors: deep red kernels, light
    pink, mixed yellow and gray, and pure yellow. I remarked on the
    particular beauty of the "chin-marked" maroon and gold corn next
    to the Hopi inlay silverwork. We agreed that the cobs were too
    long to be Hopi grown, and were probably from one of the New
    Mexico Pueblos like Laguna.
         Warming up to talking about Indian corn, Tillie told me what
    has come to be my favorite story about cross-cultural misunder-
    standing. A while back she was showing some of the rings to a
    doctor and he, too, admired the corn. "Is this Indian corn?" he
    asked. "It must take you all a long time to paint each one of
    these kernels." When Tillie and another salesperson burst out
    laughing, the embarrassed doctor hurriedly left the store. To
    this day, whenever Tillie goes to the health clinic she tells
    them that she must be seen by a doctor right away, as she has
    to get home quickly to paint all those corn kernels.
         The Hopi silverwork was next to the fateful corn ear display.
    Finely crafted inlay designs: flute-players, bear claws, butter-
    flies, water and cloud symbols, and... corn. As I looked at the
    rings with corn Tillie told me, "You know what corn symbolizes:
    Life."
         Native Seeds/SEARCH is a nonprofit conservation group
    working to preserve the many separate varieties of crops -- such
    as the many different types of corn -- grown by Native Americans
    in U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. The group was founded by a
    nucleus of people who were working on a program to prevent hunger
    and nutrition-related illness on an Indian reservation near
    Tucson through the use of native foods. In their work they
    recognized the need to locate and preserve the availability of
    native crop seeds, and their preservation efforts eventually
    outgrew the original program.
         In her excellent book, The Heirloom Gardener, Carolyn Jabs
    explains why heirloom crops like these must be saved: "Each
    time we permit an old variety to become extinct, we sacrifice
    part of our heritage. Those who ask why we need more than a few
    varieties of beans or corn might as well wonder why a library
    needs more than one book on a subject. Each heirloom variety has
    distinctive characteristics. One grows in clay; another in sand.
    One tolerates drought; another does best in humid conditions. One
    keeps well; another is resistant to disease. The list of charac-
    teristics is endless. As many as 10,000 genes combine to make
    each variety unique."
         Native crops, in a sense, are the ultimate heirloom.  They
    are different from heirloom varieties from Europe, Africa or Asia
    because they have not had to re-adapt to different growing
    conditions. They are "native" because they are suited to the
    growing season length, the soils, the wind and rain of a
    particular region. They are "native" not merely because Native
    Americans farm them, but because most of them evolved from wild
    relatives which can still be found in or nearby these fields. One
    example of how this evolutionary history helps plants such as
    squashes fit in to their environment is the fact that they are
    pollinated by endemic solitary bees. Certain bees, which
    coevolved with particular American plant genera, are much more
    efficient in pollen transfer and more faithful to their crops
    than are honeybees.
         The diversity of characteristics found in native crops are
    building blocks that can be used by plant breeders to develop the
    latest hybrids used in modern agriculture. The world learned how
    important it is to maintain this diversity in the last century
    when Ireland's dependence on one variety of potato was
    responsible for the death of one million people and the forced
    immigration of another million. The blight that caused the Irish
    potato famine would not have been a threat if Ireland had grown
    the variety of potatoes found in Peru, where potatoes originate.
    There you can find potatoes in all shapes, sizes and colors --
    many with immunity to the particular blight that devastated
    Ireland.
         It has become clear that at this point in history native
    crops are endangered. In many areas, Indians have been forced to
    change their lifestyles. As changing lifestyles and other factors
    serve as disincentives for native farming, traditional varieties
    have disappeared or are in danger of imminent loss.
         Native Seeds/SEARCH's conservation strategy contains several
    aspects. The first and foremost method is to encourage the
    continued farming and use of native crops by Indians. This not
    only helps preserve the plant varieties themselves, but the
    farming practices and body of knowledge that comes from centuries
    of growing and living with these crops. Such encouragement can be
    as subtle as simply showing appreciation and respect for this
    season's yield, or as involved as purchasing part of the crop for
    use as seed. Native Seeds/SEARCH makes its seeds available to
    Native Americans free, and has been instrumental in returning to
    tribes crops that were collected by plant scientists decades ago
    but had been lost by the tribe in the intervening years.
         Another part of the conservation strategy is to collect
    representative seedstock to be kept in a seedbank. Native
    Seeds/SEARCH maintains such a seedbank and cooperates with other
    seedbanks including the federal government's. To remain viable,
    seeds kept in long-term storage must be regularly grown out,
    which Native Seeds/SEARCH accomplishes with the help of volunteer
    growers.
         In the past five years, Native Seeds/SEARCH has grown to a
    membership organization of more than 1200 members with numerous
    projects. It maintains its seedbank, public education office and
    demonstration grow-out gardens at the Tucson Botanical Garden.
    It's most visible effort is an annual catalog of seeds for sale
    that offers more than 200 varieties of both well-known native
    crops -- beans, squash, corn, gourds, sunflowers, chiles, tobacco
    and cotton -- and some unusual items like amaranth, tepary beans,
    panic grass, and teosinte.
         Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) is a grain usually associated with
    the Aztecs but also used by native peoples throughout Mexico and
    the U.S. Southwest. It's use was prohibited by Spanish who
    objected to its association with sacrifices and other blood-
    letting ceremonies, but it nevertheless survived. It has enjoyed
    recent interest as a potential modern crop because it is high in
    protein, and has started to show up in health-food breakfast
    cereals and other products.
         Tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) grow both wild and
    domesticated in the hottest parts of the southwestern deserts. It
    is just about the most tolerant to drought, heat, alkalinity,
    bruchids and bean blight of any cultivated legume. Though it
    doesn't produce well in humid climates, it has much potential as
    an arid-lands commercial crop.
         Panic grass, so named not because it is cause for alarm but
    because of its scientific name, Panicum sonorum, is a native
    domesticated millet-like grain. It was thought to be extinct,
    wiped-out by damming of the lower Colorado River where it was
    once grown, until Native Seeds/SEARCH explorers discovered it
    growing in Mexico and revived its use in the United States.
         Teosinte is a wild relative of corn, thought by many to be
    one of corn's progenitors. There is both an annual (Zea mexicana)
    and perennial teosinte (Zea diploperennis). The repeated back-
    crossing of corn with its parent is partially responsible for the
    enormous varieties of corn races in existence today.
         When Thanksgiving rolls around and "Indian corn" goes on
    sale in produce departments for seasonal decoration (as a
    decoration, by the way, it has usually been sprayed with a
    preservative making it unfit for eating), I think of Tillie's
    doctor and his painted corn.
    -----------------
         You can get our latest catalog by sending $1 to Native
    Seeds/SEARCH, 3950 W. New York Dr., Tucson, AZ 85745. Membership
    costs $10/year. They are "native" not merely because Native
    Americans farm them, but because most of them come from a
    particular native region.

    Until Next Time

       Contrary to what many people think, our Valley of the Sun has
    been rated by more than a few experts as being the most fertile
    area in the entire world - more fertile even than the Nile River
    Valley.
       Despite the lack of water and the harsh sunlight, growing a
    backyard garden is easier here than in most areas of the country.
    If you're one of those who likes fresh veggies, maybe you can
    make use of Native Seeds/SEARCH seeds. Not only can you grow stuff
    to eat, you can have fun doing it by growing things that few, if
    any, of your friends have ever seen.
       Could be fun!
       Besides, we're approaching the planting season again. The
    vicious summer weather is about over. Planting corn is best
    left to the spring, but that gives you between now and then to
    prepare the ground and the mulch and compost you'll need. Other
    plants do best right about now, or in the next month or so.

       Next time?
       At present I'm well over a month ahead. I have no idea what is
    going to come up between now and when the next issue is due. For
    example, I have 2 new book contracts just about ready to sign, and
    several others in the works.
       Some suggestions would be nice. Is anyone interested in how
    to work in a darkroom? Or maybe in photography in general?

Zephyr Magazine is © Gene Williams. All rights reserved.