Michigan State University celebrates Women’s History Month in March, a time to honor the impact of women throughout history, including in the arts. Across generations, women artists have challenged norms, shared untold stories and reshaped the way we see the world around us. The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum’s Farmland Exhibition: Food, Justice and Sovereignty is centered around questions of food knowledge, production, scarcity and consumption against the background of MSU’s 170-year history of agricultural tradition. Here, learn more about the Three Sisters in the Farmland exhibit.

Three sisters method

Visitors view the artwork "Three Sisters,” by Tammy Tarbell-Boehning, a descendent of Mohawk and Haudenosaunee, featured in the Farmland exhibition. This clay sculpture was made in Okemos and depicts the three sisters gardening method, which has been important to many North American Indigenous communities for generations. PHOTO BY DANE ROBISON

The three sisters is a method of gardening said to have been developed by Haudenosaunee communities in the southern Great Lakes region. Planting corn, beans and squash together helped with natural fertilization, weed suppression, improved soil health and increased crop yield. The Haudenosaunee called corn, bean and squash the three sisters because they nurtured each other like family when planted together. Corn is the first sister, beans is the second sister and squash is the third sister.

Three sisters garden 

Mikayla Thompson, a 2024 MSU graduate, was the Tribal fellowship project assistant at the Center for Community and Economic Development. PHOTO BY RYAN FREDERICK

Indigenous community members in the Greater Lansing area had discussed installing a three sisters garden at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center over the years. With support from MSU's Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment and Native American Institute and the Organic Valley Foundation led by Mikayla Thompson, a descendant of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the garden came to life in the spring of 2024. In tandem with this traditional garden at Nokomis, Thompson planned a Four Sisters plot at MSU's Beal Botanical Garden, showcasing the beauty and resiliency of Indigenous gardening methods on MSU's campus. The fourth sister in some Tribal communities varies from amaranth to sunflowers. 

The seeds that were sowed in both gardens were of various Indigenous varieties. Both types of flint corn came from Michigan Anishinaabe communities. The Nokomis variety were heirloom seeds from Nichole Keway Biber's family of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa), and the Beal variety were heirloom seeds from Kevin Leonard's family of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa. Leonard is the director of MSU’s Native American Institute. Both varieties have been cultivated in the Great Lakes region for generations. 

Throughout the growing season, Thompson organized numerous events, including a planting event and a corn-themed feast with Nokomis. As the gardens began to produce vegetables, Thompson gifted them to Indigenous community members associated with the Nokomis Center.

In the images above, you may see some red dresses hanging. This is a part of the REDress Project, which spotlights violence against Indigenous women. The project began on March 1, 2024, and had 60 red dresses installed along West Circle Drive in areas around the MSU Museum and Beal Botanical Gardens. 

To view these pieces and learn more about Michigan State University’s agriculture tradition, visit the MSU Broad Art Museum Farmland: Food, Justice and Sovereignty exhibition, open through July 27.