Iatiku

Iatiku, the Corn Mother, is the central maternal deity of the Keresan pueblos and the direct source of the people and their institutions. Daughter of the creator Uchtsiti and younger sister of Nautsiti, she emerges from the underworld into the light and there brings the world into human order: she plants the corn that is her own body and namesake, sets up the clans, brings out the katsina, founds the medicine societies, and appoints the cacique to stand for her among the living. From her the medicine men receive the iariko, the feather-dressed perfect ear of corn that embodies her presence. After the ordering of the world she withdraws to Shipap, the place of emergence in the north, where the spirits of the dead return to her. Among the eastern Keres of Sia the same first mother is called Utset.

Parentage

• parent: UchtsitiStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 1-2. (primary)

Children

• Koshari

Domains

• corn
• underworld
• ritual

Powers

• gives birth to and orders the clans, societies, and offices of the people
• receives the spirits of the dead back into the place of emergence

Epithets

• Iatiku — Corn Mother, mother of the peopleStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), p. 6. (primary)

Relations

• parent: UchtsitiStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 1-2. (primary)
• sibling: NautsitiStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 2-10. (primary)
• companion: TsichtinakoStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 2-6. (primary)
• child: KoshariStirling, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 34-37. (primary)

Sources

• Iatiku is the Corn Mother and mother of the Keres people who, after the emergence, institutes the clans, the katsina, the medicine societies, and the sacred offices.: Stirling, M. W., Origin Myth of Acoma, BAE Bulletin 135 (1942), pp. 6-45. (primary)
• She gives the iariko corn-ear fetish and remains at Shipap in the underworld, receiving the dead.: White, L. A., The Acoma Indians, 47th Annual Report BAE (1932), pp. 122-146. (primary)
• The eastern Keres of Sia know the corresponding first mother as Utset.: Stevenson, M. C., The Sia, 11th Annual Report BAE (1894), pp. 26-40. (primary)