What Are the 'Three Sisters' of Native American Agriculture?

A centuries-old system of growing corn, beans and squash together, it reflects Indigenous agricultural knowledge and teachings about cooperation and balance.

By Vincent Shilling

For centuries, Indigenous communities across North America have grown corn, beans and squash—known as the "Three Sisters”—in close proximity to each other. Not only do these staple crops provide excellent nutritional sustenance. Planted together, they form a symbiotic system that reflects generations’ worth of agricultural knowledge and cultural teaching about balance, cooperation and interconnectedness.

How does planting the Three Sisters together work?

The Three Sisters embody a methodology known as companion planting. When grown together in the same mound of earth, the plants support one another in a mutually beneficial system. “Corn offers a structure for the beans to climb,” writes Mardi Dodson, co-author of Companion Planting & Botanical Pesticides. “The beans, in turn, help to replenish the soil with nutrients. And the large leaves of squash and pumpkin vines provide living mulch that conserves water and provides weed control.”

How widely is it practiced?

Versions of the Three Sisters planting system have been practiced by many Indigenous nations—from the Haudenosaunee in the Northeast and the Cherokee in the Southeast to the Mandan and Hidatsa on the Plains and the Hopi and Zuni in the Southwest. Each adapted the trio of corn, beans and squash to its own environment and traditions. Today, the practice continues and has been revived as part of Indigenous food sovereignty movements. Tribes such as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe still teach this methodology to students at the Akwesasne Freedom School. The Chickasaw Nation offers public presentations about the practice during its Three Sisters Festival.

Why are the Three Sisters sacred to Native people?

While the Three Sisters agricultural system is widespread across North America, the stories attached to it—many ancient in origin—vary significantly by nation and region. There is no single tale or meaning shared uniformly across Native cultures. In the Mohawk creation story, for example, corn, beans and squash first came with Sky Woman, who brought them from Sky World, says Kay Olan, a retired Mohawk schoolteacher and traditional storyteller.

The Three Sisters story is perhaps the most fully developed and widely cited among the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (which includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations). In their tradition, the Three Sisters are personified as a trio of women who cared for each other, despite having disparate personalities. In the story, they separate, then eventually reunite, expressing their wish to never part again. Olan says learning of their collective strength when reunited—like corn offering support, beans bringing strength and squash providing protection—is the message of the story. “When we're eating corn, beans and squash together, we're reminded of that lesson in cooperation.”

How did the arrival of European settlers affect the cultivation of the Three Sisters?

Under pressure from European settlers, tribes in the 19th century were forcibly displaced to reservation lands that were often barren and unconducive to traditional agricultural practices. Over time, Indigenous people became increasingly reliant on processed and nonagricultural commodity foods such as white flour, lard and sugar, says Olan. Unaccustomed to digesting such fare, Native Americans experienced a sharp rise in diabetes and other health problems.

“That's why we have to relearn what those foods were,” says Olan, referring to the Three Sisters and other traditional fare, “and how to prepare them so that we can become healthier again.”