Traditional Iroquois Planting Methods
Still Relevant

Most agronomists look to their laboratory, greenhouse, or research farm for innovative new cropping techniques. But Jane Mt. Pleasant, professor of horticulture and director of the American Indian Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., has taken a different path, mining her Iroquois heritage for planting and cultivation methods that work for today's farmers. Mt. Pleasant studies what traditionally are known as the "three sisters": beans, corn, and squash. These staples of Iroquois cropping are traditionally grown together on a single plot, mimicking natural systems in what agronomists call a polyculture. Though the Iroquois technique was not developed scientifically, Mt. Pleasant notes that it is "agronomically sound." The three sisters cropping system embodies all the things needed to make crops grow in the Northeast, she says. She presented her work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. The talk, "Polycultural Cropping Systems From an Indigenous Perspective: Using Iroquois Worldview to Understand the Three Sisters," was part of a symposium on research methods in native science. This is the second year that such a symposium has been held at the AAAS.

Corn and beans are used throughout the Western Hemisphere, said Mt. Pleasant. "Both do better when they are grown together." Corn provides protection from weeds and insects and acts as a scaffold to support bean plants. The beans, in turn, produce nitrogen, essential for plant growth. Adding squash to the mix also controls the growth of weeds, and recycling crop residues (the "leftovers" of a harvest) back into the soil promotes fertility. A monoculture, in which only one crop variety is grown on a plot of land, is a relatively recent agricultural technique, noted Mt. Pleasant. Though it is suited to high-yield mechanized harvests, it leaves crops vulnerable to disease and insects. A polyculture reduces the risk of an entire harvest being wiped out.

The role of the three sisters in the Iroquois diet is mirrored by the crops' place in Iroquois worldview and culture, where they are visualized as three siblings with very different personalities. Corn is austere, standing straight and tall; shy Beans clings to her legs; Squash is the "wild and impish" troublemaker. In the Iroquois creation story, they are the seeds that issue life on Earth, and they are woven into the laws that bind the Iroquois Confederacy. The three sisters are thanked for the sustenance they provide in the Thanksgiving Address recited at the beginning and end of ceremonial Iroquois meetings. (Cornell Press Release, 2/15/04).

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