Recent Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters graduate Mikayla Thompson, who is a descendant of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is educating others about Indigenous farming practices and culture through the gardens she helped create and now leads at MSU’s W.J. Beal Botanical Garden and the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center in Okemos, Michigan.
This past spring, Thompson, who graduated from Michigan State University in December 2023 with a B.A. in Linguistics and a minor in Indigenous Studies, helped establish a 4 Sisters Garden at Beal Botanical Garden and a 3 Sisters Garden at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center.
The 4 Sisters and 3 Sisters method is a form of companion planting where crops of corn, beans, and squash, known as the 3 Sisters, are planted together and support each other, creating optimal growing conditions. This method is attributed to the Haudenosaunee peoples, also known as the Iroquois, of the Eastern Great Lakes and is now used across the continent.
“The corn provides support to the beans that grow upwards. The beans provide nitrogen to the soil, and the squash provides protection from small predators such as rabbits. In some communities, they also grow sunflowers, amaranth, or another crop and so it is sometimes referred to as the 4 Sisters,” Thompson said. “These crops have sustained these communities for thousands of years.”
Thompson became involved with the 3 Sisters Plot at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center shortly after graduating from MSU. Laurie Thorpe, Director of the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE), and Jorhie Beadle, Assistant Program Director of RISE, reached out to Thompson and asked if she would be interested in leading a 3 Sisters Garden.
“I was delighted, obviously, and I accepted,” Thompson said.
The 3 Sisters Garden initially was planned as an addition to the Student Organic Farm at MSU until Thompson suggested changing the location to the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center to provide easier access for Indigenous community members. Alan Prather, Associate Professor in the College of Natural Science, then collaborated with Thompson to plant a 4 Sisters plot in Beal Botanical Garden.
In addition to the planting of these gardens, Thompson also created a series of workshops honoring Indigenous culture and the 3 Sisters/4 Sisters method. The first workshop took place April 11 at both garden locations and featured an overview of the 3 Sisters/4 Sisters growing method and its history as well as traditional site preparation for planting.
The preparation of the garden plot is an important part of the 3 Sisters/4 Sisters method and can vary from tradition to tradition, but the general idea remains the same. The garden is arranged in circular formations with mounds throughout. Each mound houses an outer ring of corn, an inner ring of beans, and a squash plant at the center. All preparation is done in a clockwise orientation, mimicking the Anishinaabe teachings surrounding the Medicine Wheel. When entering the garden, one enters from the eastern direction where the sun rises, symbolizing beginnings and new things.
In addition, traditional songs are usually sung as the garden plot is prepared to honor the site. At the Beal location, for example, Nichole Keway Biber, a tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (Waganakising Odawa) and the Mid-Michigan Campaign Organizer for Clean Water Action, who also has a Ph.D. in English from MSU, sang the Anishinaabe Water Song as the 4 Medicines were laid down: tobacco, cedar, sweetgrass, and sage.
“Traditional songs hold deep significance in many cultures, including Indigenous American communities,” Thompson said. “Many songs for us are about honoring something by showing gratitude. Gratitude is a small but necessary act in being in reciprocal relationship with the world.”
The April 11 workshop also featured hands-on sweetgrass braiding, which is a culturally significant activity to many Great Lake communities. It involves braiding strands of sweetgrass together, either with a partner or alone.
“To the Anishinaabe, sweetgrass is Mother Earth’s hair, so to braid it is to maintain a reciprocal relationship with her,” Thompson said. “To braid a loved one’s hair can be a sign of respect and unconditional love.”
Nishinaabemowin and Tsalagi plant names, which are an important part of honoring Indigenous traditions and communities, also were discussed during the workshop.
“The significance of utilizing the language in your everyday life is that it is an act of resistance and a testament to Indigenous resiliency,” Thompson said. “Because we very nearly lost our languages, to speak them is a means of honoring that history as well as the struggle of our ancestors.”
The names discussed at the workshop include:
Nishinaabemowin:
Tsalagi:
More 3 Sisters/4 Sisters workshops are being planned, including a Green Corn Celebration later in July, a Harvest Celebration in September, and a canning and preserving workshop in the fall. All the workshops are free and open to the public.
The Green Corn Ceremony will honor the Cherokee tradition of tasseling corn and will feature a feast and storytelling. The Harvest Celebration will include a feast and crop harvesting. A portion of the harvest will be distributed to some elders and community members; the rest will be saved for processing in the final workshop. Lastly, the canning and processing workshop will explore the native tradition of processing a crop yield so that it lasts through winter.
The workshops, the gardens, and the community building all serve as steppingstones to Thompson’s wider mission – to provide pathways for people to connect to what was nearly lost.
“Our cultures, our languages, and our ways of life were almost eradicated, and so to be able to practice these teachings is very meaningful to me,” Thompson said. “At the core of what it means to be Indigenous is to foster relationships with those around you, whether that be in your community or with our more-than-human relatives, such as at the garden.”
Thompson is grateful to all those who have helped bring this project to fruition.
“I would like to thank Jorhie Beadle, Laurie Thorpe, and Darby Anderson from the MSU Student Organic Farm for supporting our communities and uplifting Indigenous voices. I would like to thank everybody at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center for being steady support throughout the entire process and helping us whenever they could. I would also like to thank Nichole Keway Biber for being my incredible gardening partner – she has taught me valuable ancestral teachings and life lessons,” Thompson said. “My colleagues at Beal have been amazing at re-centering the narrative around our understanding of botanical knowledge and acknowledging the very long history of traditional Indigenous botanical knowledge as well. The process of this garden has been utterly life changing!”
Thompson first connected with the group at Beal Botanical Garden through the 2023 Nurture Your Roots poetry contest, which she won with her poem, sacred roots. She also volunteers at the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center and is a Camp Coordinator for a youth and family focused Nishinaabemowin Language Camp that teaches the Nishinaabemowin language through culturally significant methods.
“We all have a responsibility to maintain good relationships with every being on this Earth, and to me, honoring that responsibility means protecting the cultural diversity of this planet for future generations to experience and participate in,” Thompson said. “There is beauty in our heritages, cultures, and languages!”
