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Three Sisters Garden

More Information on the Garden Beds Mentioned in the Sign at the Bronson Park Three Sisters Garden

 

Much of what is known about the indigenous garden beds was written about by settlers and early historians. These are the resources we used to compile the information on the Three Sisters Garden bed sign in Bronson Park.​

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Archaeological atlas of Michigan by Wilbert B. Hinsdale. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections, https://name.umdl.umich.edu/1265156.0001.001 

  • Page 11 (VII. Garden Beds section)

  • Page 23-24 (shows the bed illustrations and has a little more description)

  • Pages 48 and 55 (key of symbols and map 4 that includes Kalamazoo County)

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Memorials of a half-century by Bela Hubbard (1887). New York: G.P. Putnam's sons, https://archive.org/details/memorialsofhalfc00hubb/page/242/mode/2up

  • page 242 Ancient Garden Beds of Michigan 

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Landscape

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​Burr oak plains were noted in the above earlier writings. Archaeological evidence in more recent studies

has shown that the physical landscape was changing due to intensive agriculture of corn, beans, and

squash. See pages 10-13 of  Evan Peacock’s 1998 “Historical and Applied Perspectives on Prehistoric Land Use in Eastern North America,” http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/2951.

  • Peacock, Evan. "Historical and Applied Perspectives on Prehistoric Land Use in Eastern North America." Environment and History 4, no. 1 (February 1998): 1–29.

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​Local Native American History

 

The Kalamazoo Public Library has several online articles about the history of this area’s Native Americans.

 

To learn more about the heritage of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, visit https://gunlaketribe-nsn.gov/about/heritage/

 

The trails Native Americans used, the locations of reservations, and more were recorded by the state’s land surveyors, like Orange Risdon. We used the General Land Office (GLO) site to search plat maps and survey notes, specifically for Kalamazoo County.

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Agricultural Practices

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The cultivation of corn, beans, and squash is a common indigenous agricultural practice. These plants are called the three sisters because of the way they take care of each other. The corn creates a strong structure for the beans to grow on. The beans enrich the soil with nitrogen for both the corn and the squash. The squash protects the beans and corn by providing shade over the soil and warding off animals that would eat the crops with its thorns. The three plants work together to provide for each other and grow. This technique is called companion planting.

Left: Three Sisters planting method, Grace Rodgers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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