Why was corn sacred to the hopi?

Answer 1

Not just the Hopi people, but most Native Ameridians.

Corn is one of the "Three Sisters", the other two are Squash and Beans. They are one of the earliest examples of companion planting; growing different plant species together for mutual benefit. The Three Sisters were the first 'farm' crops grown by anybody in North America. They were vital to survival. Without the harnessing of these plants for human consumption, the human history of this continent would have been very different and much slower.

Most North American Native peoples had a version of the Three Sisters, each variety adapted to the growing conditions across the continent. They were considered gifts from the Great Spirit, sacred.

Of the Three, Corn is the oldest plant grown by mankind in N. America. It has no wild form growing naturally - teosinte is a cousin, but corn (properly called "maize". "Corn" is an English term) needs a human hand to reproduce itself, and there is no history to tell us when the Hopi took maize and domesticated it - but for certain it was a very long time ago, as the original wild plant are only found as fossils). There are 3 main types of maize: flint, dent, and sweet. Flint and it's subvarieties like popping corn, is the oldest type of corn. Dent comes next, with its Flour subvariety, and Sweet Corn is the newest. It is believed Sweet Corn was a mutation coming out of the Eastern Seaboard Iroquois maize. All corn types can be eaten unripe by humans, with varying degrees of starch and sugar in them.