Three Sisters Garden at Grand Portage National Monument

In warm summers the garden produces well.

NPS Photo / GM Spoto

Quick Facts

Location:

Ojibwe Village

Significance:

Indigenous Lifeways

Amenities

9 listed

Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Restroom - Accessible, Restroom - Seasonal, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Toilet - Flush, Water - Bottle-Filling Station, Wheelchair Accessible, Wheelchairs Available

Three Sisters Garden

Because Grand Portage was a major hub of the fur trade, seeds and other items passed through en route to other posts. This planting style is thought to originate with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) and traveled west with the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe). The Anishinaabe Oodena at Grand Portage hosts one as a teaching tool.

The Three Sisters: corn, squash, and beans, are grown together and mutually beneficial. Corn is a heavy nitrogen user. Planted around the corn mounds, beans convert atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, which feeds the corn. The beans grow up the corn stalks like a trellis. Squash grows between the corn mounds, shading the soil, reducing moisture loss and weed growth. The Three Sisters Garden at Grand Portage also hosts sunflowers to distract birds and provide another food source. In 2024, the garden also successfully grew asemaa (tobacco).

Asemaa (Tobacco)

6 Images

Some Three Sisters Gardens included tobacco, traditionally used among the Indigenous peoples of this continent for a variety of purposes.