Three Sisters Native American Gardening

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by Rob Cardillo
'Cherokee' multicolored popcorn. The concept of companion planting, in which one plant helps the other, is the basic idea behind the Three Sisters, but focusing on this alone glosses over many of the nuances in native garden traditions.

Connect to an ancient heritage by growing a three sisters Native American garden, including these rare vegetable varieties traced back to Native American gardens. 

Considering how corn, beans, squash and other “New World” foods have changed the course of human culture, the time is ripe to take a fresh look at Native American gardening. Here, within easy reach, is one of the greatest horticultural treasures — a system of gardening that is, by definition, an icon of biodiversity. Offering a rich array of unusual tastes and textures, the Native American garden is part and parcel of what I consider the “soul” of American food. And yet the full story is not exactly a happy one.

Years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with the late Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899-2005), a Mohegan anthropologist with whom I discussed some of the pressing issues facing Native American gardening. She expressed frustration about Mohegan garden seeds not being preserved during the 19th century, and how this loss is reflected by what Mohegans — tribespeople from upstate New York and later Connecticut — grow in their gardens today.

Chief James “Lone Bear” Revey (1924-1998) of the N.J. Sand Hill Band of the Delaware Nation also devoted many hours to passionate discussion with me on the seed losses taking place among his people. The causes have been many — inroads of changing lifestyles, poverty, government programs forcing native peoples into a mainstream mold, the loss of foodways and native religions — and the results have at times been devastating.

  • Updated on Sep 15, 2023
  • Originally Published on Jan 14, 2013
Tagged with: Native American, Native American farming, three sisters, three sisters gardening
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