The Indigenous practice of growing heirloom seeds alongside other vegetables has been around for thousands of years — and, in some gardens, the method yields more vegetables than genetically engineered seeds.
Other vining vegetables like pumpkins or gourds can replace the squash in the sisters’ system, and sunflowers can be added as a ‘fourth sister’ to provide more structural stability and attract pollinators.
Growing food independently is about more than just sustenance — it can challenge systemic oppression.
For many Native people, growing and eating your own food can be a way to reclaim Indigenous identity, Patricia Austin, a staff member at Gedakina, a Vermont nonprofit that provides Native Americans with resources to navigate oppression, said. “Growing a garden is very grounding and nurturing. It’s a way to be in relationship with the land. It’s reciprocal.”
Art made by Judy Dow, the executive director of Gedakina.Courtesy of Judy Dow
There is a lack of access to nutritional and affordable food for Indigenous communities, especially for women and children, which has caused disproportionate rates of diabetes in these communities. In 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services found that Indigenous adults in the United States were diagnosed with diabetes 36 percent more often than the total population.
For Indigenous gardeners, farmers, and chefs, the “three sisters” companion growing method symbolizes much more than just an effective growing strategy — it is emblematic of Native American strengths, like tapping into the power of sisterhood, leaning on community for support, and gaining wisdom from nature’s teachings.
“Every year, there’s something a little different that we learn, and we learn it from the seeds in the land. You know that those are our teachers,” said Judy Dow, Indigenous educator and executive director of Gedakina. She said heirloom seeds in Gedakina’s experimental garden produced five ears of corn on one stalk, double the average of genetically modified seeds.
Companion growing embodies the practice of “braiding” together crops to find mutual benefit, she said, rather than genetically engineering seeds that bypass the need for collaboration. “It’s so important to not blend things together, but to braid them together, because if you braid them together, they’re individual strands . . . and together, they’re stronger,” Dow said.
Gedakina provides programs that support leadership development, community health and wellness, traditional ecological knowledge, traditional food systems, and cultural revitalization, according to its website.
The word “gedakina” comes from the Wabanaki languages and means “our world, our way of life,” which harkens back to the Native belief that all living things are interconnected with the environment and that both are needed for survival.
“We want [women] to be able to reclaim their knowledge and find balance and self, determine a good path in life for themselves,” Dow said of Gedakina’s work in teaching traditional ecological knowledge to clients.
Dow said it’s especially important that younger generations of Indigenous people are taught the importance of reclaiming their Indigenous identity through ecological knowledge and traditional eating.
“If I sit down and I have a bowl of cornbread with nut milk and jam that I made, it is so fulfilling compared to a piece of sliced bread from a bag,” Austin said. “There’s no comparison.”
Kelly Broder can be reached at kelly.broder@globe.com.
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