Corn Mothers

PHILOSOPHY

Strive to live the law of love.

To do that, you must face fear. Fear is what keeps us from accomplishing anything, so if you are afraid of something, it’s important to face that fear and challenge it. Never make a decision out of fear — it will always be the wrong one.

If you can’t achieve living the law of love on your own, you can do it by being of service to others. This helps you forget yourself and lets you feel purpose, which empowers us to overcome fear.

I wanted to make my life worth it. I wanted to be a part of the positive in life and contribute as little as possible to the negative things that I saw in the world. I needed a life that would allow me to raise my own children, not have them go to a daycare. I wanted them to be environmentally responsible and make positive ripples.

We can choose to design our lives, choose how to view things, and try to understand the choice we have of trusting others. I believe that our conditioning has led many people to view themselves as victims, something we must recognize and move away from.

I believe that our job is to make our hearts happy and to take care of our own existence and of the impacts of every action (practice mindfulness). I believe that all our actions affect our generation and future generations.

Being socially responsible is easy. You just need to take care of yourself and be mindful and aware; our actions will then have a positive impact on the world around us.

My Corn Mother, Kazuko Nosaka

One day in a canyon, I met Kazuko, a Japanese woman who had been living in the mountains for twenty years with her six children, all birthed at home. She fed her family from her amazing garden, raised chickens for eggs and meat, and was the best hunter I had ever met, getting an elk for her family every year. She practices Native American folk crafts and, according to her account, was adopted by the Zuni. She taught me useful crafts, including leatherwork, beadwork, featherwork, quillwork, and teepee making.

She had been living simply in the remote forest for about twenty years. She was a woman of wisdom, and I felt drawn to her fortitude, high standards, and directness.

I lived with Kazuko and her family before moving elsewhere on the land. Later, I had both of my children at her house, aided by Kazuko and midwife Maria De La Cruz, who is one of the women who has been honored in the Corn Mother project. Kazuko was the first woman I had ever known who could do just about anything with the resources she had in the forest. She has the stamina of an elk, the diligence of a mouse, and the (useful) stubbornness of a bull. She is the godmother of my children; together we are a canyon family.

What I admire about her most, and what she taught me to do, is that she is a master of living well and happily in the forest. She can do just about anything with the resources there, which takes great ingenuity and determination.

She was living as close to a native way as I had ever experienced, which had great appeal for me. We shared a quest for knowledge of the wild world and began sharing it with each other. Soon we became great friends, and I lived with Kazuko and her children on their 120-acre property, working in trade for camping. I was seeking a teacher at the time. I knew I could learn a lot from her, so I decided to just be of service to what she and her family needed.

Kazuko is a storyteller, telling of her amazing journeys and experiences. In 1969, when she was in college, she heard of the cultural revolution happening in the U.S. and, on a whim, went to check it out, leaving Japan and the Tokyo Art School behind. Kazuko arrived in San Francisco in 1969, a few years after the “Summer of Love.” She became a nature writer and the housekeeper for Beat poet Gary Snyder, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She was attracted by his devotion to Buddhist spirituality and nature and the research he had done on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon. She also became best friends with his Japanese wife Masa.

What Kazuko really wanted to find was a hippie commune that was living “true to the land,” where people were not attracted to things like money and cars. She looked at many different communes in the Southwest to find her ideal situation. Eventually, she found a tribe of long-haired hippies on the Hopi Reservation. They shared her values and loved the philosophy of Native people. They were literally living her dream.

After coming to the commune on a horse and wagon, she learned traditional native crafts and the art of tipi making. The commune raised sheep and traded with the Natives. She focused on learning all the native crafts she could absorb and said she was adopted by the Zuni. Later, she married the wagon driver.

Her travels continued, and her first child was born on the road in a bus. Later, she and her family lived in a hogan near a reservation in Arizona. She and her husband became known for making tipis and participating in the American Indian Movement. A 24-foot tipi became home for their six children.

She and her family lived in the tipi for 15 years before finishing a log cabin house. When I met her, she had recently been divorced, with only two kids left in the home. She homeschooled all her children, a task that requires total dedication, and which I greatly admire. She raised abundant crops at 8500 feet and hunted elk and deer for meat. Her craft skills are top quality, and she did museum-quality quillwork, beadwork, and leatherwork. She passed her native craft skills to me through the years and taught me gardening and essential homestead tricks.

She earned money by making tipis and by using her extensive knowledge of traditional native crafts. Being so dedicated to Native ways, she became an expert at many forest tasks and crafts, which I greatly admire about her and which helped me learn so much.

She was an excellent huntress, skilled fisherwoman, and master gardener. She taught me that if you stick to your passions, you will inevitably get better and master the task. Kazuko taught me that even in the forest, you have everything available around you to live a beautiful, simple life. She had the stamina of an elk, the diligence of a mouse, and the stubbornness of a bull. I will feel forever grateful for all she has taught me and the confidence she has inspired me with.

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