The Creator gave the Three Sisters to the Iroquois. Corn, beans, and squash nourished Oneidas for centuries and helped shape the traditional way of life. Dried corn, cooked in a variety of ways, fed the Oneida throughout the winter. Today corn has another symbolic significance. Corn soup and fry bread remind modern Oneidas of the food that sustained past generations.
Women tended the Three Sisters. Men cleared the fields, then women planted and harvested the crop. Agriculture was largely women's work because men were gone much of the year on hunting or war trips.
The Three Sisters have never lost their importance to the Oneida. Keller George remembers planting with his great-grandmother:
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