The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans & Squash

By Elizabeth Rump

To Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands the term “Three Sisters” referred to corn, beans, and squash. These three crops give a lesson in environmental cooperation that Native Americans still feel should be emulated by humans today. Environmental cooperation between vegetables and fruit? How? Actually, quite easily. The corn provides a climbing stalk for the beans; the beans provide nitrogen to the soil to nourish the corn; and the squash leaves spread out, preventing competition from unwanted vegetation and shade for corn’s shallow roots.

In the early 17th century, Native Americans showed colonists at St. Mary’s City in Maryland how to make bread using corn. In Plimouth, Massachusetts, the Wampanoag Indians also showed the Puritans the uses of corn and pumpkins. If not for this information, the early settlers may have perished from starvation. Initially the colonists traded for these foodstuffs; eventually they learned to grow what became diet staples for our early forefathers.

If available, fertile flood plains were utilized for planting. If these were unavailable, fields for planting were hacked out of the woods, using slash and burn techniques: trees were felled using stone axes and the area then burned. Rather than rotating fields as we do today, summer villages were rotated. Women were the primary caretakers of the fields. Delaware women, not the men, owned the house, its contents and the fields.

The Lenape grew many varieties of corn. These were planted in succession to assure a continuous harvest throughout the summer and early fall. Corn was prepared in many ways. It was boiled, roasted, made into flour, hominy, or mush, and used with fruits or meat; one’s imagination and what the family would eat was the limit. Corn could be stored for the winter by braiding its husks and hanging it from the house supports or in bark or mat-lined storage pits. Corn husks were used for mats, dolls and masks. Corn stalks could be used for fuel. In nearby Concord Township, Indian corn was planted more often than other varieties of grain, and John Chads’ father built and ran a “Corn Mill.”

There can be no doubt that pumpkins were readily available in this area. According to Jane Levis Carter, the Okehocking clan of the Lenape derived their name from “Mokahoki” or “People of the Pumpkin Place.” Their pumpkin was not the round, orange, jack-o-lantern type that immediately comes to our minds; rather, it was a crooked neck variety which kept longer. Pumpkin could be stewed or could be dried and stored for use throughout the winter.

Fresh young beans were included in stews, while more mature beans were dried for the coming winter. Beans provided a source of protein during the winter when game was made scarce by the weather. Braided together using the stems and vines, beans also were hung from the house supports. By soaking the dried beans, boiling and adding a few additional ingredients such as animal fat or a bit of squirrel meat, Native American mothers were able to see their family well fed during the cold winter months.

Next spring as you plant your garden, think about the “Three Sisters” and consider incorporating a little environmental cooperation into your garden and into your life.‡

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References Cited:
(All of the following books are available in the Historical Society’s Library)