Cooking Blue Corn * Indigenous Science

G’ad Bit’eezh * Juniper Ash

By: Asdzaan Nez

Fruitland, NM

Grandma’s Teachings

Shimasani carefully puts water on the stove. She heats it until just before boiling. In a separate bowl, she combines dry roasted blue corn with cold water until it’s evenly mixed. She pours the blue corn into the water that is heating on the stove, while stirring continuously. She adds a spoonful of fine, white Juniper ash into the pot (G’ad bit’eezh). I take over stirring the blue cornmeal for her. She says that we will know when the Toshchiin (blue corn mush) is done cooking when the color of the blue corn changes and becomes more brilliant. This makes sense to me because g’ad bit’eezh (Juniper ash) is also used as a mordant in our traditional plant dyes for weaving. The ash helps the colors become more brilliant when dying sheep wool, and helps the dye set more deeply into the wool. 

This changing of color is a chemical reaction that is happening between the ash and corn, or wool. This chemical reaction and how it allows us to get the most nutrition out of our food is what we are going to explore today. It is also what improves the flavor of the corn, and our ability to work with it to shape into dumplings, tamales, traditional corn breads, tortillas, etc.

The nutritional value and healing properties of blue corn dishes prepared with g’ad biteezh (Juniper ash) in Dine culture are significant. Traditionally among some families, after a woman gives birth, she eats tooshchiin (blue corn mush) and juniper tea to heal and recover her strength. Blue corn dishes also hold ceremonial value. Before hat’aali (medicine men/women) were compensated with money, they were paid with these valuable, sacred foods. Blue corn meal and other corns are used in various ceremonies and are offered during personal prayers made to plants and sacred sites when corn pollen isn’t available. Corn is embedded in the oral traditional and spiritual cosmology of Dine, as well. It is believed to be a staple food that was brought from worlds previous to this one we live in now by toozhi (turkey). Yet corn is a plant that provides very few nutrients in its raw, unprocessed form. It is the combination of corn and g’ad biteezh (Juniper ash) that makes it a nourishing, wholesome food. Without this process, the corn and its nutrients would pass through our digestive tract without any absorption or use to our benefit. 

G’ad (Juniper) also holds deep spiritual and utilitarian significance. Juniper tea is prepared and drank during Enemy Way ceremonials to help heal people who have PTSD from war. My father boils his Peyote gourds in this same tea, prior to fixing them for prayer services. Navajo historian Wally Brown also speaks of G’ad (Juniper) as a primary medicine that helped Dine survive from illnesses they otherwise had no immunity against, brought by Spanish captive women and children abducted during raids and brought into Dine communities. G’ad (Juniper) continues to be used to treat headaches, influenza, stomach-aches, nausea, acne, spider bites, and postpartum pain. 

G’ad (Juniper) can be used as the wood for the canopy of cradleboards, while the seeds from its berries are worn on infants’ wrists to protect them from bad dreams and negativity. Female children wear them on their right wrist while male children wear them on their left. They say that the outer finishing coil on Navajo wedding basket is designed after the patterning of a g’ad  or Juniper branch, discovered when Ma’ii  (Coyote) threw one in the lap of a basket weaver when she was contemplating how to finish her basket. This pattern is known in English as the ‘Herringbone Rim Finish.’ Because g'ad (Juniper)  burns hot and the smoke is clear, it is a good wood to cook with. Juniper is also a key wood used in building everything from the roofs of hogans, to livestock corrals, fences and cha’oo (shade houses).

Ashes, Minerals & Nutrition

While grandma puts one to two spoonfuls of ash in the cornmeal before or after we begin cooking it, other people put g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) in the water then strain it out before adding the blue corn meal.  If G’ad (Juniper) is not available where you live, you can also burn and use the ash from Da’ak’oozh deenini (Fourwing SaltBush) or K’iiltsoi nitsaaigii (Rabbitbrush). Hopi also use Suwvi or Rabbitbrush, which is very high in calcium and potassium. But how are Dine, Hopi and other Indigenous people able to use the ash from different plants for the same purpose? 

The earth holds rich amounts of different minerals and nutrients in the soil. These minerals and nutrients are food that trees and plants rely upon to be able to grow.  There are two types of nutrients they pull from the earth through their root systems: macro- and micro-nutrients. Macronutrients are minerals that trees and plants need in large amounts: calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and sulphur. Micronutrients are minerals that are also necessary for healthy plant growth, but in much smaller amounts: iron, zinc, chloride, boron, manganese, copper, sodium, etc. Trees and plants pull these minerals into their bodies through their roots systems. When the trees or plants are burned, certain minerals like calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, etc. are left behind in the ash. 

These minerals are transferred into the water and then into the corn when combined together, which is where the chemistry of maximizing the nutrition in our corn happens. This is why for example, g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) increases not only the amount of calcium in blue corn, but also zinc, iron, copper, magnesium, etc. It is rare for plants to be deficient in calcium being that most soils are abundant in calcium, -especially within Dinetah (Navajo homeland) and the larger Southwest. 

Additionally, g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) has been found to be ‘highly soluble’ (dissolvable) in stomach fluids, which contributes to these minerals in the ash being easily absorbed into the body as valuable nutrients. Processing the corn with ash also reduces the amount of phytic acid in the corn, -an acid that blocks our bodies ability to access and use minerals like calcium, zinc, and others. This combination of factors helps our bodies achieve optimal mineral & nutrient absorption from the corn we eat. But ash is not the only ingredient we can use to achieve this.

Shells = Lime

My Pueblo auntie remembers how her grandmother would send her to the desert hills to dig for fossilized shells, -artifacts left from when our lands were covered in water. Her grandmother would bake them outside in her traditional oven until they’d turn to a powder. She’d then put this powder in a jar and label it as ‘Lime.” This is not to be confused with the green citrus fruit. Lime is a calcium-based mineral. Auntie’s grandmother would combine the lime, whole corn kernels and water and bring it to a boil. When the corn was soft, she’d rinse it and process it through a hand cranked grinder in order to make dough for blue corn enchiladas, corn mush, corn patties, etc. She said when she was growing up, she always assumed her grandmother used this lime simply to deepen the color of the blue corn in the same way grandma’s g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) does.’ At the time, she did not know the other benefits of her harvesting those shells for her grandmother. 

This process of baking shells to create this food-grade lime is called ‘calcination.’ it breaks the calcium carbonate down into calcium oxide. This can also be done with limestone.

Different Indigenous peoples today continue to create lime by baking, burning or using the ash from the shells found in their homelands. -Particularly among Indigenous people in Meso-American territories. Similar to auntie’s grandma’s recipe, Meso-American people typically bring water, lime and corn to a boil. Then they steep and soak the corn in this solution for 8-16 hours. The outer coating of the kernel known as the hull is partially dissolved by the alkalinity in the lime, which is what encourages it to separate from the corn seed. The corn is then rinsed and rubbed by hand to discard of the outer coating of the corn that separates from the kernel. The corn is then either stone ground or milled before being made into dough for tortillas and other traditional foods. It can also be dried and stored for later use.
Processing whole kernels of corn is also done up north in Haudenosaunee territories among the Oneida, but with hardwood ash and over a shorter amount of time. Also, the corn is boiled the entire time until the outer coating of the corn let loose of the kernel. After which, they rinse and rub off these coatings in cold water before further cooking the corn. The chemical reaction between their white corn and these ashes results in a florescent orange flash of color. This is the same reaction as the deepening of blue in the corn our grandmas back home cook.

Nixtamalization

My auntie and I both admitted that we wondered how our grandmothers knew to process corn in these different ways, with variations in material and technique, but with the same results. And how did Indigenous people so far away from us like the Oneida also figure it out? Where did these traditional teachings come from? It turns out that this practice is common among Indigenous peoples who subsist upon a corn-centered diet. This process of preparing corn in combination with water and ash or lime is known as ‘Nixtamalization.’ It is a Nahuatl word (Aztec) that comes from “Nixtli” = ashes, and “Tamalli” = unformed corn dough. 

There are thousands of different varieties of corn, and thousands of different Indigenous peoples that these heirloom foods originate from. This includes the Dine, Hopi, Zuni, Apache, Tohono O’odham and many Pueblo villages up and down the Rio Grande river. Nixtamalization can be found: as far northeast as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy/Iroquois people’s territories from Wisconsin, northern New York, Ontario and Quebec, as well as; directly below in the southeastern region of the United States where their brother nation, the Tuscarora, and the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ of Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Seminole, and Chickasaw live. Also, further south into Mexico, Central, & South America the Aztec, Maya, Inca, Chibcha, Raramuri (Tarahumara) and other Meso American peoples who depend upon corn as a staple also nixtalamize their corn. 

Each tribal peoples have their own unique creation stories and oral traditions that describe their relationship to corn and their practices of nixtamalization. All of them are tied together by a ‘hemispheric corn culture,’ -each having their own unique way of nixtamalization.  These Indigenous peoples’ stories are true and important, regardless how western science may or may not honor and recognize their validity. Their teachings are rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, -environmental scientific genius unique to each peoples’ lands and spiritualities that have been refined over many, many thousands upon thousands of years. To seek true expertise as to why different tribal nations process their corn the way they do, we must defer to them for the final, accurate answer regarding the origins for their science and technology of their lands. We must not allow non-Native scientists and experts to speculate narratives that silence their traditional stories. Their traditional knowledge should always hold weight over western scientific theories and findings. 

That being said, it is speculated that nixtamalization could have originated in homelands of peoples like the Aztec from southern Mexico & Mayans from Guatemala, where natural limestone is prominent. Likely, they heated these limestone chunks and added them to water to boil and cook their corn. Archeological evidence reveals that in southern Utah, ancestral peoples likely used this same technique. Perhaps they noticed the corn’s color change and brighten in the same way auntie and I do when cooking blue corn with our grandmothers. 

Then, slowly they must have begun to uncover the benefits of adding these alkaline minerals to their corn. One of the most obvious benefits is how much easier the corn is to work with, being that it sticks together better and is more easily formed into cakes, tortillas, piki bread, etc. Depending on the resources available in each Indigenous people’s unique homeland, they adapted and utilized different nixtamalizing ingredients to process their corn. Yet the benefits remained the same. 

Alkaline Cooking

Ash, lime and limestone are all minerals that are highly alkaline. Meaning that their pH levels are higher, as opposed to things that are acidic which have a lower pH. If traditional corn is not processed with an alkaline ingredient, a huge amount of nutrition is lost, it is not as flavorful and the corn isn’t as easy to work with. For example, g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) not only adds different specific minerals to the corn. It also enhances the nutrition that already exists in the corn but otherwise wouldn’t be available for our bodies to absorb. Using Lime accomplishes the same results. When one of these alkaline ingredients is combined with heat, it assists the chemical reaction in the corn. This process is called ‘thermal-alkaline processing.’

Alkalinity is also the reason that corn changes color when ash or lime is added. According to the article “Transforming Corn” in Cook’s Illustrated, “almost immediately, the color of the corn brightens and intensifies as the rise in pH alters its pigment compounds,” -deepening yellow corn, darkening pink corn, transforming purple corn into vivid red, changing pale white corn into slightly yellow and, of course, darkening and brightening blue corn from a blue-grey to a deep blue. 

Calcium

Lime is a calcium-based mineral. G'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) is also a mineral high in calcium. When we add them to water, then add corn and heat, the corn absorbs the minerals present in the ash or lime. A Dine graduate student Daniel Begay at Northern Arizona University did a study on the traditional use of G’ad bit’eezh (Juniper). He found that every gram or tablespoon of ash he tested had 280-300 milligrams of calcium in it. This is almost equivalent to the amount of calcium in a cup of milk, yet the calcium from g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) is more absorbable by the human body than that from milk. Calcium can increase up to 750%, with 85% absorption into the human body. 

Calcium is necessary for strong bone formation. Calcium from ash or lime combined with corn is an ideal calcium alternative to cow’s milk. Milk is a food introduced through colonization and isn’t ideal for the majority of Native peoples. According to Daniel, “although most Native Americans, due to being lactose intolerant, are unable to consume dairy products, previous research has demonstrated that elderly Native American women had fewer hip fractures than elderly Caucasian women.”  This is because blue corn processed with g’ad bit’eezh was a staple food for our people up until the very recently. 

Niacin

Niacin is a B vitamin that helps our bodies turn our food into energy. It supports a healthy nervous & digestive system, keeps skin healthy and bad cholesterol in check. Corn is naturally abundant in niacin, but it is ‘hemicellulose bound.’ -Meaning it is ‘bound’ or trapped within rigid cell walls that make it impossible for our bodies to access and use nutritionally. In the same way that the outer coating or ‘hulls’ of the corn seeds partially dissolve and release from the corn kernels, the alkalinity in the lime or hardwood ash partially dissolve the cell walls of trapped niacin, freeing it and making it available to be absorbed and used in the human body at Vitamin B3. 

What specifically is it in the ash or lime that partially dissolves corn’s hulls and the cell walls of trapped niacin? What allows this chemical reaction to occur? The answer is found in the calcium. 

Calcium (Hydro)xide

A chemical compound known specifically as ‘calcium oxide’ is present in ash and lime. It is also what makes the ash or lime alkaline (with a pH of 12.4). It is this alkalinity that breaks down the plant’s cell walls. When added to water (hydro), it becomes ‘calcium hydroxide.’ Pectin and hemicellulose are sugar-based compounds that make up the structure of the cell walls that coat both the corn kernel and the niacin. 

Calcium hydroxide binds with these sugars to make a new complex chemical compound that is highly soluble (dissolvable).  The building blocks of cell walls (hemicellulose and pectin) that make the outer coating of the corn kernel shiny and rigid, partially dissolve and begin to  break down. As a result, the corn softens, takes on more water, the starch in the corn gelatinizes and thus sticks together better. This is what makes the formation of tortillas, enchiladas, dumplings or thick corn mush possible. This is also what frees the niacin from its cell walls and allows our bodies to absorb and use it as vitamin B3.

According to Cook’s Illustrated article “Transforming Corn,” the pectin residing both on the exterior and interior of the corn that dissolves into gummy molecules is also what allows:  

The corn to be formed into a cohesive dough after it’s ground. How? Individual molecules of pectin have the shape of long branching chains. Where there’s calcium in their vicinity -as there is in calcium hydroxide solution used for nixtamalization- adjacent pectin chains grab onto each other, a phenomenon called cross-linking. This cross-linking forms a mesh of pectin, which holds onto water, binding into a gel. (Pectin gel is also the active ingredient that makes jams and jellies do what they do.) Some of the pectin and hemicellulose molecules break apart during nixtamalization as well, releasing gummy sugars that also help bind the dough together.

This gel-like substance is what helps the corn stick together. If you have ever tried to make tortillas or enchiladas with cornmeal that has not already been nixtamalized, you know that they crumble and do not hold together well. Tooshchiin (blue corn mush) also doesn’t have the same creamy consistency without g’ad biteezh (Juniper ash) added. 

Most commercialized pre-packaged cornmeal, tortillas, and tamales sold at the store will include in its main ingredients lime, calcium salts or calcium carbonate. If it does not, then it is important you nixtamalize the cornmeal or understand you are not getting optimal nutrition from your food. When making posole, steamed corn stew or dumplings, it is also necessary to nixtamalize corn in advance.

Malnutrition Diseases

Historically, dire consequences have come to those who appropriated corn but ignored the necessity of nixtamalization. Epidemics of Pellagra       -a chronic wasting disorder caused by a lack of niacin- occurred in France, Egypt, Italy, and Northern Spain for decades. Other diseases like Kwashiorkor caused by lack of protein devastated parts of Africa. During the Great Depression, the American south experienced nearly three decades of Pellagra outbreaks, while their Indigenous, Latino and Hispanic neighbors did not. This led to at least 100,000 deaths, and 3 million known cases of the disease during this time.  -All of which could have been prevented had nixtamalization been adopted.

‘Cook’s Illustrated’ speaks further on this unfortunate history: 

When Christopher Columbus brought corn back from the New World, it became a staple food in rural communities throughout Europe over the next couple centuries. Unfortunately, he did not bring back nixtamalization. Therefore, many people dependent on corn in those rural European communities developed symptoms including peeling, scaly skin that was painful when exposed to sunlight (according to one theory, this gave rise to the legend of the sun-averse vampires); hair loss; and dementia. The mysterious disease was given the name pellagra, from the Italian word for “sour skin,” but it wasn’t until the 20th century that science figured out that the disease wasn’t caused by a poison in corn but rather a deficiency in the diet [of niacin or Vitamin B3). 

Calcium oxide also has anti-microbial properties, which kills or disrupts the replication of bacteria, fungus, etc. This likely explains part of the reason why g’ad (Juniper) it has been used by Dine as a traditional medicine and healing food. This is also likely why nixtamalization is used to kill mold and their mycotoxins that can grow on the corn when in the field or being dried after harvest. 

Nixtamalization also helps prevent corn from sprouting, which is helpful if the corn is going to be dried and stored for later use. Additionally, calcium hydroxide is used as an alternative to baking powder. Some Dine elders say that g’ad biteezh (Juniper ash) helps cornmeal rise and cook thoroughly. Soaking Juniper berries in water to extract their white powdery coating can also be used in different breads to ensure they rise and cook if baking powder or yeast is not on hand. This powder is likely calcium oxide, which becomes calcium hydroxide when added to liquid.

Other Nutrients

There is a chemical compound in corn called phytic acid, that blocks the nutrients discussed in this article from being absorbed by the human body. The niacin or vitamin B3 released in the corn when combined with ash or lime reduces the effect of this acid in blocking our nutrients. This is one of the reasons why our bodies are able to better absorb the nutrients from corn after it is nixtamalized. This process also unlocks and increases other nutritional value in corn, as well.

For example, there are proteins that exist in corn, yet they are incomplete proteins that are locked away inside the kernel. According to Navajorecipes.com, g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) “enhances the quality of corn protein” by altering “the protein content to make it a more complete [balanced] protein.” Additionally, Vitamin A is also unlocked and made available for nutrient absorption, along with 7 of the 9 essential amino acids our bodies need. As the starch in the corn turns gelatinous, this gel holds onto the nutrients rather than allowing them to escape into the alkalinized water and be lost for consumption.  

Grandma & Auntie’s Final Teachings

I sit at the table with my grandmother eating the tooshchiin (blue corn mush) we made together. We discuss this article I am writing for you, the reader. We move our spoons through the tooshchiin (blue corn mush), examining it and discussing how the g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) we used this time hadn’t been sifted as thoroughly as we would have liked, leaving small remnants of charcoal in the corn. We are happy to see that they are no longer visible after being cooked. She asks if I want salt, sugar or honey. But the corn tastes flavorful. We eat it plain, old style. I share with her what I have been learning about the corn’s nutrition increases when we use the ash and how g'ad (Juniper) healed our people from foreign diseases centuries before. 

Then she says, “remind them to pray. Pray while picking the g’ad (Juniper). Pray while making the ash. Pray while cooking the tooshchiin (blue corn mush). The whole thing is a prayer.” She speaks of how our great grandmother taught her to do this -offering the cornmeal in each direction and praying as she would stir it into the hot water. 

Later in the evening, auntie calls me. She clears her throat then says, “sustainably harvesting requires prayer. Encourage them to take only what they need. Pray for the plants, the water and the earth. Acknowledge and thank them for helping feed the people. Feed them with words and love, in return. Pray that they & the land regenerate so they can live on for future generations to use.”

A few days later, grandma calls me. She is feeling unwell from her second Covid 19 vaccination. I come over and prepare for her tooshchiin (blue corn mush) and ch’il gaweehe (Indian tea). After eating, she goes to bed and I leave. Later in the evening, she calls me. “You sound better, shimasani.” She responds, “it’s because you came, shiyazhi.” 

But I know the truth. It was the g'ad bit'eezh (Juniper ash) and tooshchiin (blue corn mush) that healed her.  That old, sacred, healing food.