(This is Lesson Plan 2 for Crystal Boulton-Scott and Joseph Scott’s curriculum, “Tribal First Foods: American Indian first foods, legends, and traditional ecological knowledge along the route of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery.”)
Essential Questions
How are ways of knowing among tribal peoples shaped by important First Foods, and how is this reflected in many Native American peoples’ understanding of connection, community, and communication as these relate to culture?
What does the term “sacred” mean, and how does it come to describe food?
First Foods Education Concepts Review
When an educator is ready to share this lesson, both educator and learner benefit from a review of the traditions outlined in Lesson 1. The tools can provide some basic guides for a deeper understanding of the ways in which many Native American cultures view their place in the world, and the ways First Foods are guided by the natural cycles and elements associated with cardinal directions. All living things are tied to these ways of knowing. Season, element, direction, and community may be particularly important as the educator seeks to share not only knowledge, but WAYS of knowing. Cultivation practices described in this lesson can generally be attributed to the Iroquois Tribe. With that in mind, the Iroquois Tribe has historically occupied a large territory including what is now considered the Northeastern United States
Use “Assessment 1: First Foods Enduring Understandings” Rubric to evaluate the understanding of the following Enduring Understandings words and concepts:
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The Three Sacred Sisters Enduring Understandings: |
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| People(s) | Place | First Food | Cultural Components |
| *Tribal Nation(s): Iroquois Missouri Yankton and Teton Sioux Ankara Mandan Assiniboine |
Now known as Northern Pennsylvania along the route taken by the Corps of Discovery to Fort Mandan | Co-planting of American corn, beans, and winter squash | Significance of the Three Sacred Sisters as culturally and nutritionally necessary for spiritual and physical prosperity |
* The technique of co-planting of corn, beans, and squash is common among many, many tribes and bands to be found throughout what is now known as the Americas. Given the vast territory in which this method has been, and still is used, an important lesson to be learned is that of the falsehood of homogeneity among American Indian peoples. This point in the lesson offers an opportunity to discuss the incredible diversity of cultures, homelands, and ways of knowing across Indian Countries. Please be sure to note that the activities found in this Three Sacred Sisters lesson provide a very general description of techniques used by some tribal peoples, but certainly not all. This point is further explored through the reading of the Three Sacred Sisters origin stories shared later in this lesson.
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The Three Sacred Sisters Enduring Understandings: |
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| The original outsiders making their way across the Atlantic to the erroneously named Americas encountered the Three Sacred Sisters—corn (maize), beans, and squash—long before the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery gathered on ceded Iroquois land to begin their journey west. What sets this method of growing First Foods apart from many others is the simple fact that without the wisdom of indigenous people in abiding ancient wisdom and observing practical horticulture in “co-planting” the Three Sacred Sisters, one could argue that these aforementioned original outsiders would never have gained a foothold in North America, to begin with, and the series of events ultimately leading to the westward expansion of the United States would never have taken place. Regardless of this speculation, the Corps of Discovery wintered at Fort Mandan in 1804, where they encountered the Mandan people co-growing the Three Sacred Sisters. | |
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The Three Sacred Sisters Enduring Understandings: |
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| First Foods | Sacred | Companion Planting | Crops | TEK |
| Foods grew by tribal people for health and wellbeing since the beginning of time | To be treated with special respect and reverence. (First Foods are frequently regarded as “sacred”. | Planting two or more plants together to improve the health, strength, and vitality of each. | Plants are grown and gathered to be used for food, medicine, and/or trade. A product of TEK agriculture. | “Traditional Ecological Knowledge”: An understanding of the unique relationship between Self and Place that has been passed from generation to generation since time immemorial |
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Cultural Universals Focus of Lesson 2: The Three Sacred Sisters |
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| Food | Transportation | Entertainment | Government |
| Clothing | Science | Communication | Tools/Technology |
| Shelter | Medicine | Medium of Exchange | Family/Kin |
| World View | Arts | ||
First Foods Environmental Teaching and Learning
The exploration of first foods goes far beyond the study of plants and animals crucial to the dietary needs of tribes encountered by the Corps of Discovery. First foods embody a deep and sacred understanding of self and place. These understandings shape tribal societies and guide the rounds that tribal people have made since the beginning of time as they pursue physical, cultural, and spiritual prosperity. Carried within these rounds are the laws of Creator, the values of the people, and an understanding that tribal people are not simply from a place. Tribal people ARE that place as much as any other part of the landscape. The knowledge of traditional foods is often where western science and traditional ecology meet. In good times, first foods are plentiful, lush, and full of the nutrition that sustains old and new generations. This is a time for celebration. In hard times, the Human Beings know in their hearts that the Creator has purpose and justification for sending a challenge. Tribal ways of knowing offer non-natives a science for the academic understanding of traditional knowledge.
When and where will this lesson take place?
In general, this unit’s teachings about first foods and the role they play in the health and well-being of human beings proceeds on an endless continuum. They follow seasons that are often marked by the solar phenomenon of solstices and equinoxes. While lunar cycles are also often consulted and celebrated; the teachings found in this particular unit will generally follow the solar calendar. Once one solar cycle has passed, the next immediately follows.
This is one of many First Foods “enduring understandings”; the fact that while the calendar with which many educators and learners are familiar begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st, the world never stops turning, the seasons never stop changing, and the ways indigenous people have traditionally observed these phenomena provide a perspective in which stewardship, place, and spirit can exist outside the constraints of linear perception. This has been the way since the beginning of time, and this will continue until the end. While one full year consisting of four seasons can be described as a “round”, these rounds will usually integrate with both the previous and subsequent cycles as the landscape is tended indefinitely over time. With these things in mind, learners can engage the “round” at any point on the continuum, explore and learn, then move on to another teaching. What is most important here is to stress that tribal people have had a reciprocal relationship with the landscape that began long before the unit’s lesson begins, and will continue long after.
If you have access to garden space, a Three Sacred Sisters plot is an ideal outdoor place-based learning environment. The dimensions of an individual co-planting might allow you to use a raised bed, or even a large pot. Regardless of the space, it will need to be outside, and the soil will need to be properly fortified and amended for the varieties of corn, beans, and squash you choose to cultivate.
With whom will you collaborate to make your project successful?
Where safe and appropriate, all of the following lessons and projects should be considered collaborative opportunities, including family and community, and extending into further realms of individual and community health. Many tribes and bands native to areas along the route of the Corps of Discovery and beyond employ or can otherwise provide contact information for individuals who will assist in using and understanding traditional ecological knowledge, and may have lots of experience with the cultivation of First Foods in general. As the plants are regarded as sacred, frequently there are ceremonies, stories, songs, and dances associated with their planting, cultivation, harvest, and preparation. This is a very important factor in guiding young learners through the study and growth of the Three Sacred Sisters. Consider yourself and the learners in your guard to be fortunate if such ceremonies are shared with you and yours. Making requests of tribal people to share sacred things often puts them in an uncomfortable position, and should be avoided.
- This lesson provides a variety of opportunities for learners to contact and work with science clubs and with students and educators in both high schools and colleges/universities.
- Community non-profits and other organizations (watershed councils, parks departments, and youth clubs) provide environmental education programs, as well as STE(A)M learning opportunities.
- Local tribes have culture departments that may offer access to elders, experts in traditional ecological knowledge, and tribal research. (At the very least, all educators and learners should be able to quickly and easily identify the tribe or band that has traditionally occupied the land on which they now live, work, and study.)
Entry Question: After completing the project(s), what will students and instructors be able to do?
- Identify, plant, grow, and harvest “the Three Sisters”—corn, beans, and squash.
- Understand that the plant varieties, seasonal timing when planting, cultivation, harvest, preparation, preservation, and trade of the Three Sacred Sisters can be highly variable according to the practicing tribe.
- Identify some of the Native American Tribes that shared their knowledge of these foods and their cultivation with the Corps of Discovery, and thus contributed to the progress of the expedition.
- Prepare these foods in a variety of ways.
- Hear a traditional story explaining one version of the origin of the Three Sacred Sisters and explain how the details of the story match the way these tribal people preserve corn, beans, and squash.
- Demonstrate an emerging and/or continued understanding of key vocabulary and concepts: “First Foods”, “Sacred”, “Companion Planting”, “Crops”, and “TEK”.
- Review seasons and seasonal changes and describe how these things affect the way human beings interact with plants, specifically The Three Sacred Sisters.
- Develop an understanding of ways in which a healthy environment includes human beings.
- Recognize that many Native American Tribal people were not “hunter-gatherers” and did not hunt game and gather wild plants exclusively; that most used the agricultural practices of planting crops and used other terraforming techniques.
- Develop recognition of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and understand that outsiders and newcomers to tribal lands have often come to rely on indigenous ways of knowing in order to survive.
Lesson Procedure:
- Identify and describe the Iroquois, Missouri, Ankara, Mandan, Yankton, and Teton Sioux, Ankara, and Assiniboine Tribes: Locate their homelands on a map and draw from various resources to learn important events and other details about the culture. (This exercise could be reduced to a focus on one or more tribe’s foodways specific to the ones being studied in the following steps.)
- Share “Three Sacred Sisters” origin story. (Use Assessment 3: First Foods Essential Questions and Assessment 3 Continued: First Foods Story Response Rubric to evaluate learners’ understanding.)
- Introduce the key vocabulary and concepts. Learners should be able to identify a number of first foods, explain why these foods are often regarded as sacred, and describe how many are now – and have been – cultivated as crops. Learners should be able to explain what companion planting is, including the use of natural fertilizers. The concept of seeds as precious and sacred, and often belonging to an individual tribe, family, or clan should be explained.
- Explain how TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) is a “Way of Knowing”, and describe how other ways of knowing (science, religion, superstition, etc.) shape human beings’ understanding of the world.
- Follow “Lesson Resources” instructions on cultivating corn, beans, and squash as a group.
- Review the four elements, seasons, and directions. Experiment with how variations in and/or the absence of each might affect the growth of the Three Sisters. (Examples might include sprouting beans simultaneously in a north-facing and south-facing window, temporarily depriving plants of sunlight, and experimenting with appropriate seasons for planting.)
- Explore information about traditional methods of preparing corn, then prepare and eat popcorn. Ideally, this can be done outside using fire and hot rocks; however, preparing popcorn according to indoor instructions is perfectly acceptable. This activity could be paired with the viewing of an appropriate movie about and/or featuring Native Americans and Native American performers. (“Gather”, found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ZTFe4y3c4&t=2s, is a very appropriate documentary about First Foods)
- Bake squash seeds and eat them. (Preparation is simple: clean the seeds, soak them in salty water overnight, then spread them on a cookie sheet and bake them in a hot oven until they are toasted and crunchy.)
- Beans can also be prepared in a variety of ways according to educator/learner preference.
- Work as a group to create a mural map. The map can focus on anyone, or more than one thing, such as demonstrating understanding of the Corps of Discovery’s travel route or the major tribal areas where the Three Sacred Sisters are grown, and the role these First Foods played in the Corps’ travels.
Extensions:
- Create a small recipe book using imagery that is drawn, photographed, sculpted, or expressed according to student preference. Instructions might include appropriate tribal languages.
- Create smaller murals as coloring pages.
- Compare and contrast various tribal nations’ stories about the origin of the Three Sacred Sisters.
- Host a Three Sacred Sisters community/family tasting or feast.
Materials & Supplies:
- Seeds: Corn, beans, and squash. Specific varieties are tied to individual tribes’ homelands. Exploring this fact is an excellent lesson in and of itself.
*Use caution. Seeds sourced from a tribe or individual tribal member may not be appropriate for learning purposes. The seeds themselves are held in high regard, and certain strains are owned by families and/or clans. While commercial seeds are often the product of industrial farming, genetic manipulation, pesticides, and other unsustainable practices, they are probably the safest resource, culturally speaking. (A discussion of the role of industrial farming and associated challenges to tribal ways of knowing could be interesting.) - Community garden plots, raised bed in the yard, a large pot—the “three sisters” growing project requires sufficient space—for one “hill”, you will probably need a space at least 4 feet square. Here’s some information on the required space: https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash#:~:text=Each%20hill%20will%20be%20about,or%20wood%20ash%20if%20needed.
Three Sacred Sisters Hill Image
- Many tribes have programs that facilitate collaboration among members to provide space for members to grow healthy and fresh food to eat, and to explore traditional First Foods and medicines. For example, the Siletz Tribe offers the “Healthy Traditions” program. https://www.facebook.com/CTSIHealthyTraditions/
- Here’s an example of Portland, Oregon’s Community Garden project: shttps://www.portland.gov/parks/community-gardens
- Any materials and supplies are necessary to complete any of the “extension” projects.
*While access to many resources is available by way of the Internet, one cannot assume that reliable and consistent access to electronic media is a given. All of the tribes and bands addressed by these lessons offer resources beyond those found electronically. Printed and recorded language teaching and learning materials are available directly from tribes, as are similar tools related to culture and history. Most tribes have in their possession, or have access to primary documents describing their encounters (and/or the effects of these encounters) with the Lewis and Clark expedition.