Three Sisters Agriculture

The Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash grown together in a single mound — is the foundational agricultural system of Indigenous North America, practiced by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Cherokee, Pueblo, and dozens of other nations for thousands of years before European contact. The Three Sisters is not just a planting technique; it is a nutritional system (corn provides carbohydrate, beans provide protein and nitrogen fixation for the soil, squash provides vitamins and its broad leaves shade the ground to retain moisture) and a cultural philosophy (the three plants are understood as inseparable sisters who care for each other). The system predates European arrival by at least 3,000 years and represents one of humanity's great agricultural innovations — a polyculture that produces more nutrition per acre than any single-crop system. · Presentation And Philosophy