6 cups of liquid (water, homemade chicken broth, or vegetable broth)
2 cups of fresh corn off the cob
1 cup of fresh green/yellow beans
1 cup of pinto beans
1 ½ cups of butternut/buttercup squash (or pumpkin)
2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Use whatever spices are your favorite. Sometimes I will add onion, garlic, basil, rosemary and sage. A couple of peppers thrown in while it is cooking will add zing to the soup. Use any combination of spices you are used to using. Especially spices right out of your garden. This is one of those dishes where you can be creative with the spices.

Add the spices in the last ½ hour of cooking. This is great even with only Salt and Pepper and no additional spices.

Simmer everything together for 1 ½ hours (The simmering combines the flavors so they compliment each other like sisters should do).

Serve hot with Bannock, Banaha or Fry Bread

The Story of the Three Sisters

THE THREE SISTERS (Many nations call them by this name)

Over 40 years ago I was told the story of the three sisters by someone who taught me a lot. He told me the story of the Three Sisters…the corn stalk, the bean vine and the squash. He told me that our people (Choctaw) and most other Native Nations planted all three plants in one mound.
He built mounds of earth in his garden, and planted four kinds of seeds in each mound….corn, two varieties of beans, and a squash. The corn stalk gives something for the beans to climb on. The beans take nitrogen from the air and put it in the ground for the corn and squash. The squash growing around the mound prevent weeds and preserves moisture for all three of them. Also the corn and squash need the nitrogen that the beans put in the ground to grow and make better and bigger squash and corn because of the nitrogen.

By all three working together they can be more and do more then could by themselves. He told me we can always do more by helping each other. That is why we are part of a bigger group and never by ourselves.
Ask your favorite nutrition and they will tell how complete a food this is when it is combined together, something that our grandfathers and grandmothers knew thousands of years ago. Three Sister Soup is a perfect food. It not only tastes good it is good for you.