April is the time of the year to start the garden. Time to start seedings indoors and if the temperature cooperates, work up the soil with the coffee grounds, eggshells, and other kitchen scraps. Clean up the garden area and burn any trash, if permitted. The ash will help the soil.

Who are the Three Sisters?

The answer is Corn, Beans and Squash. This is a Hidatsa or Red Willow People history: The Hidatsa were coming from Midihopa (Devils Lake). These people say they were “Born” from under the Lake’s water. They lived below the lake, and a vine was discovered growing upward. A adventurous young man decided to climb the vine to see where it was reaching. Upon his return he reported there was a wonderful land above them. They decided to all go see this new land. One by one they climbed the vine – men, women and children. Unfortunately, a pregnant woman was climbing the vine when it broke. The Hidatsa say that some of their people still live under the waters of Devils Lake. Sometimes when the Hidatsa visit Midihopa they hear drumming coming from under the water, from their relatives that were left behind.

The Hidatsa lived in the Lake Region area for many winters, when their leader had a dream to move from the west end of Graham’s Island, west to the Missouri River. According to Anthropologists circa 1500, they arrived at the Missouri River, and discovered another group of people called The Mandan. They met the Mandan’s at the mouth of the Heart River. The Mandan made signs in the Plains Sign Language – Who are You? The Hidatsa signed back that they were called Big Belly. The Mandan misinterpreted the sign and thought they said they were hungry. So, the Mandan broke up some corn cobs into small pieces, fixed them to their arrow heads and shot them across the Heart River. The Hidatsa made rafts and floated across the Heart River and established three earth lodge villages next to the Mandan at what is now Stanton, North Dakota. This is how the Hidatsa say they received corn from the Mandan.

The Three Tribes, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, were gardening tribes, they became known all through the plains as a place to get vegetables. Other tribes traded using buffalo meat and hides. These Three Tribes had banded together for mutual protection. As the buffalo population declined, the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota began to raid their villages. They were easy prey as they lived in one place. The Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota tribes were nomadic and moved about. The Three Tribes could not retaliate; they were sitting ducks. To make a long story short, by the 1880 period all the tribes in the United States were placed on reservations. The Three Tribes moved to the area near Elbow Woods, North Dakota.

In 1911 a Presbyterian Minister began to visit the Hidatsa and decided to learn about their gardening techniques. This brought forth a relationship in which Rev. Gilbert Wilson learned about gardening, but also an innumerable amount of information about the Hidatsa. Wilson’s notes now located in the Minnesota Historical Society archives in St. Paul, contain more information than you would be able to find elsewhere. He has saved for everyone how to build an earth lodge, how to butcher a buffalo, how tan a hide, the list goes on and on, including Hidatsa language material.

Gilbert Wilson learned from Buffalo Bird Woman how the Hidatsa hilled up two-to-three-foot mounds six to eight inches high with a flat top. She put the corn seed in her mouth to moisten them and planted six to eight seeds in the center of the mound. When the corn seed sprouted and grew about 6 to eight inches high, she planted the beans. When the beans sprouted, she planted the squash seed near the outside of the mound. The bean vines twined themselves around the corn stalk. This aided the corn from being uprooted by the wind and finally the squash fines would spread out covering the earth. The squash leaves and vines would aide in keeping the ground between the mounds free of weeds. In this way the sisters helped each other teaching a valuable lesson how a goal can be achieved by cooperation.

The Mandan learned they could not grow corn in the same place every year. Their gardens were on the bottom land next to the Missouri River. Each spring, melt water rushed south along the river carrying silt which replenished the soil in their gardens. The use of beans also helped to fertilize as well as burning garden trash. This knowledge was passed on to the Hidatsa. The Arikara / Pawnee people lived south of the Mandan and received their knowledge of corn from the Corn Mother.

It is interesting to learn that the United States government wanted to teach the insidious people how to farm. In white society men did the farming. The original people had a system that said only women could farm. The men had only two tasks, protection and providing. They provided by hunting; the women did all the other tasks necessary for a society to function. Naturally the men baulked at doing farm work, they were warriors, not women who work in their gardens. With meager rations provided by the Indian Agent, eventually forced the men to farm. Today a Dakota farmer at Spirit Lake is hard to find. Most stopped farming due to poor weather conditions, and grasshopper infiltrations. The drought of the 1930’s finished them off. The Dakota survived by leasing their land, a decision which resulted in poverty.

Bibliography

Bowers, Alfred W. Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization. University of Nebraska Press. 1992

Schneider, Fred Prehistoric Agriculture in the Northeastern Plains. Plains – Anthropologist 47. 2002 Pages 33-50.

Weltfish, Gene The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1977.

Wilson Gilbert Livingston Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians. 1987 Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.

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