The Three Sister Garden of the First Peoples

Although we grow many of the same crops as Native Americans, our gardens look very different.  Today we plant our gardens in neat rows that are carefully spaced and our crops organized for crop rotation.  A patch of corn here and a few rows of beans over there and then there are large commercial farms with hundreds of acres of a single crop. Native Americans developed a unique system of companion planting that was well established before Europeans arrived.  Corn, beans, and squash were gifts of the Great Sprit and were called the Three Sisters and always planted together in the garden.  The Three Sisters Garden has always fascinated me for I am the oldest of 3 sisters and we all love to garden.

There were many tribes in North America and many had their own legends about the Three Sisters and there were variation in the garden design as well.  Some gardens were large circles with mounds of soil spaced 4- 5 foot apart.  The mounds were about hand high and 20 inches wide, with a flat top.  The corn was planted first.  Many of the First Peoples looked for a sign from nature to tell them it was time to plant. My father always said to plant corn when you hear the Whip-poor-wills calling at night.  

Planting the Sisters

Men hunted, fished and tended the tobacco plants. Women cleared the land and did most of the vegetable planting.  Four corn seeds were planted on the top of the mound in a circle spaced about a hand stretch apart. Often the seeds were lined up with the compass points to honor the four directions.  When the corn reached about hand high, the beans were planted in between the corn to complete the circle. After the beans were up the squash was planted on the side of the mound.  The three sisters helped each other as sisters do. The beans could climb up the corn and provide the corn plant Nitrogen in the soil. The squash would run about on the ground and shade the soil keeping moister in and weeds out.  There were some variations; sometimes the squash was planted on smaller mounds in between the larger corn and bean mounds.  The First Peoples cook corn and beans together in a dish called succotash.  The Proteins from the corn and bean combination is equal that of meat. 

Some eastern tribes planted Sunflowers Helianthus annuus along the north edge of the garden. Tribes west of the Mississippi planted Cleome hassieranna around the garden.  Lewis and Clark called the cleome the Rocky Mountain bee plant.  These flowers provided food for the pollinators and the sunflower seeds provided food for the people too. 

 Pumpkins are the unruly sister and were planted in a separate patch because the vines could climb up the corn and the heavy weight of the fruit would pull down the corn.   Did the Pilgrims serve pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving? Probably not, since sugar, flour and Crisco were in short supply in 1621. Traditionally a whole pumpkin was placed on a bed of hot embers and roasted until it collapsed and then served without any Cool Whip. 

Kathy Rice Woolsey