This week we talked about agriculture, as opposed to foods that are hunted and gathered, and focused specifically on a companion planting technique invented and perfected by Indigenous peoples in present-day Mexico who then shared it with other Native peoples throughout North America. Students first watched a short film, An Oneida Elder Speaks About the Three Sisters Garden, where an Indigenous leader describes the deep relationship people have had with corn, squash, and beans for centuries.
Most of the fourth and fifth graders have had exposure to the Three Sisters in a garden class at Harvey Milk before and we had fun reviewing the concepts together. The eldest sister, the corn, is the tallest and provides structural support for the middle sister, the beans. The beans climb up the corn stalk and pull nitrogen, a major component of chlorophyll, from the air and fix it back into the soil, providing the plants with important nutrients to survive and thrive. The youngest sister, the squash, grows along the ground. Its broad, round leaves help the soil retain moisture and prickles on its stem help to ward off pests.
In what is now Southern California, the Mohave and Quechan are two tribes that farm corn. We talked about the difference between gathering acorns beneath native oak trees and the forces, perhaps both accidental or intentional, that led humans to domesticate a wild grass and slowly increase its nutritional content, help it to become easier to store, and turn it into the juicy sweet corn we know today - a true technological marvel as impressive as the iPhone!
Together, we ate a bowl of Three Sisters stew, made from a recipe from the Chickasaw Nation. Students garnished the soup with fresh parsley, and many delighted in showing their empty bowls to each other on the Zoom. Our breakout room prompt for the week, inspired by the Oneida Kanehelatúksla, or Thanksgiving address, was to share something we are thankful for.
