Special Request for the Children of Mother Corn
Zuñi (Traditional)

Perhaps if we are lucky
Our earth mother
Will wrap herself in a fourfold robe
Of white meal,
Full of frost flowers;
A floor of ice will spread over the world,
The forests,
Because of the cold, will lean to one side,
Their arms will break beneath the weight of snow.
When the days are thus,
The flesh of our earth mother
Will crack with cold.
Then, in the spring when she is replete with living waters,
Our mothers,
All different kinds of corn,
In their earth mother
We shall lay to rest.
With their earth mother's living waters
They will be made into new beings;
Into their sun father's daylight
They will come out standing;
Yonder to all directions
They will stretch out their hands calling for rain.
Then with their fresh waters
[The rain makers] will pass us on our roads.
Clasping their young ones in their arms,
They will rear their children.
Gathering them into our houses,
Following these toward whom our thoughts bend,
With our thoughts following them,
Thus we shall always live.

1.	SEQUENCE What season of the year is described in the beginning of the poem?
2.	QUESTION To what do you think the word arms refers?
3.	ANALYZE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Why do you think that the poem refers to the world as "our earth mother"?
4.	SEQUENCE What change in the natural world does this line describe?
5.	COMPREHENSION What activity does this sentence describe?
6.	CULTURE What part of the natural world is a father figure in this Native American culture?
7.	SEQUENCE What process does this line describe?
8.	QUESTION What do you think is meant by rain makers?
9.	ANALYZE CULTURE What is the importance of corn in this Native American culture? How does the poem reflect this importance?
10.	CONNECT Do the attitudes of the Native Americans toward their crops have any connection to our society today? Explain.