The Three Sisters

The Haudenosaunee (They Dwell in Long Houses) say that a being called the Sky Holder dwelt in the Sky-World and beside his lodge stood the Great Tree of Light, so called because the flowers of this tree gave off a great light. The Sky Holder was caretaker of the tree but his wife wanted the tree uprooted for she was convinced that beneath it must surely lie a world even more wonderful than their own. Finally the Sky Holder gave into her and uprooted the tree leaving a great hole in the Sky World. As his wife leaned to peer over the edge and see that was beneath, she fell through the hole into the world of darkness and endless water below. As she fell, the creatures of the world below understood that she had the power to create life so the birds interlocked their wings and caught her. But the world was endless water and there was no place to put her. So muskrat dived to the bottom of the water and brought up mud and put it on the back of the snapping turtle and this was where the wife of The Sky Holder was set. She began to walk windershins around on the mud and as she walked, it expanded in ever widening circles and became the land.

She then gave birth to a daughter and all the male beings of that world took on human form and became suitors to her daughter. The daughter chose the being who wore leggings with scalloped fringes and a large robe on his back, the Turtle Being. He laid two arrows on her as she slept and she became pregnant and bore twins. The second twin was born through her armpit and so she died in childbirth. Her mother buried her in the ground and from her body grew Corn, Beans, and Squash; the Three Sisters. She became known as Earth Mother.

Her first son whose name was He Grasps the Sky With Both Hands placed Grandmother Moon and Elder Brother Sun in the sky as well as the Morning Star and the Milky Way which is the pathway to the Sky-World. He also created day and night and the seasons and every animal and plant and mineral. The elder son came to be known as Sonkwaiatison, the Creator.

Thus the Three Sisters are siblings of the Creator Himself and were before the world and before time.

Today the children and I made our annual pilgrimage to the corn patches to clear them of last years haulms and prepare them for this year's Three Sisters. The Three Sisters is the spiritual heart of the garden. Our agricultural method is from the stone age and is little different from how corn was grown in North America for several thousand years. The popular view is that the Indians in North America were hunters who did a little farming on the side but all the evidence points to them being master horticulturists who did a little hunting on the side.

Oh, we might be more inclined to use compost rather than dead fish in the hills of corn, but give or take a few such inessentials and our experience with corn spans the millenia. Hills are drawn up with a hoe about every four feet in all directions and about 30" across. Five or six corn seed are planted in each hill and it is covered with compost. When the corn is about a foot high, a few bean seeds are put in each hill and one squash or pumpkin seed. The beans climb the corn stalks and fix nitrogen in the soil. The broad squash leaves shade out the weeds without interfering with the corn or beans. Racoons don't like negotiating the canopy of squash leaves and are much more reluctant to raid the corn.

Corn is a promiscuous plant and so different varieties of corn must be separated by enough distance to discourage cross pollination. Several varieties are grown here but the mainstay is the pearly white large seeded Hicory Cane or Hickory King corn:

Still of the night
moon on the wane
sun deep in sleep.
Cricket, bird, and wind lay low
as rhythms of the earth and sky
suspend
prepare to turn.

Awake in the dark
you know
I know
We many not make it.
Mother Earth may not make it.
We teeter
on the turning point.

Against the downward pull
against the falter
of your heart and mine.
I offer you a gift.
a seed to greet the sunrise.
Ginitsi Selu,
Corn, Mother of Us All.

(Wilma Mankiller)