The White House

June 3, 2011

Washington – One week after the launch of Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC), and as part of the regular seasonal harvest, Mrs. Obama and American Indian children began the process of planting the “three sisters”– corn, beans and squash – in the White House kitchen garden. This traditional Native American planting technique grows crops in a mutually beneficial manner: the corn provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles; the beans provide the soil with nitrogen that the other plants use; and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight and preventing weeds.  The Cherokee White Eagle corn, Rattlesnake pole beans, and Seminole squash seeds used today come from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

• Share