QUESTION: Why are corn, beans, and squash often called the Three Sisters by Indigenous peoples such as the Monacan, Cherokee, and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)?
MU’s Food For Thought Garden
ANSWER: Corn, beans, and squash nurture each other like family when planted together! In a method called “companion planting,” Indigenous tribes, such as the Monacan, Cherokee, and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) plant corn first, which offers structure to support the vining bean growth. The beans enrich the soil by providing nitrogen, and low plants like squash provide shade for weed inhibition and moisture retention.
MU’s Food For Thought Club grows produce (e.g., corn, beans, candy roaster squash) on campus and donates it each season as part of Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture’s Plot Against Hunger program, which works to decrease local food insecurity through sustainable, urban agriculture.
The Delaware and other Algonquian-speaking tribes, along with the Cherokee and other Iroquois-speaking tribes, make artwork, long canoes, and many medicines (e.g., for treating colds, coughs, and skin rashes/cuts) from the eastern white pine.
Red maple (Acer rubrum)
Location: Grove of trees by campus entrance from North Glebe Road
Indigenous peoples of the Algonquian and Iroquois language groups, including the Cherokee, make food (e.g., sugar, syrup, bread), bowls, furniture, and medicine (e.g., for treating hives, inflamed eyes, and cataracts) from the red maple.
Ornamental holly (Ilex sp.)
Location: Row of dark green trees along North Glebe Road
The Cherokee, Delaware, and Rappahannock, among other Indigenous tribes, appreciate the usefulness of a similar, common native Virginia tree of this region – American holly (Ilex opaca var. opaca) – when making spoons and other cooking tools, decorations, dyes, and medicine (e.g., for treating skin rashes).
Holly is a year-round habitat for wildlife such as turkey and small mammals, which are important sources of food and clothing.
Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Location: Tall tree in mulched bed between North Glebe Road and parking lot (often has flat seed pods in the winter)
Indigenous tribes such as the Cherokee and the Delaware make food and medicine (e.g., for treating cough, fever, and congestion) from the eastern redbud.
Ornamental birch (Betula sp.)
Location: Behind guard house, close to parking lot
The Cherokee are among the Indigenous peoples who make medicine (e.g., for treating intestinal and urinary tract infections) from a similar native Virginia tree, the river birch (Betula nigra).
The Indigenous Seed Rematriation and Food Sovereignty movements are thriving!
“It’s not just about growing seeds…It’s about cultivating the relationship and the whole history of that seed and why our ancestors did everything they could to protect them…You can’t have food sovereignty without seed sovereignty and that’s why this work is so important.” –Jessika Greendeer (Ho-Chunk Nation)
Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota, Foraging Wild Ramps (DThompson1313, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
FOLLOW the work of award-winning chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota Sioux) to revitalize Indigenous foodways!
BUY seeds from the Alliance of Native Seed Keepers!