When ancient wisdom beats modern industry - Rebecca Webster

Get to know the story of the Three Sisters, and what we can learn about sustainably growing food from Indigenous practices.

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Suffering illness and despair, Chief Handsome Lake prepared for death. Then, he had a vision. He was walking through a planted field and heard a woman call out. She told him that the recent devastation had left her and her sisters with little hope for the future and asked if they could join him on his journey toward death. Who were these women? Rebecca Webster shares the tale of the Three Sisters.

Lesson by Rebecca Webster, directed by Luisa Holanda.

This video made possible in collaboration with Speed & Scale

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Jezabel, Abdullah Abdulaziz, Xiao Yu, Melissa Suarez, Brian A. Dunn, Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Peng, Tzu-Hsiang, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Mark Byers, Avinash Amarnath, Xuebicoco, Rayo, Po Foon Kwong, Boffin, Jesse Jurman, Scott Markley, Elija Peterson, Ovidiu Mrd, paul g mohney, Steven Razey, Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, Annastasshia Ames, Amy Lopez, Vinh-Thuy Nguyen, Liz Candee, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Karmi Nguyen, John C. Vesey, Yelena Baykova, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Akinola Emmanuel, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Karl Laius, JY Kang, Abhishek Goel, Heidi Stolt, Nicole Sund, Karlee Finch, Mario Mejia and Denise A Pitts.

[anarane]

I'm Malaysian. My family orchard also plant corn and beans together we also plant papaya and pumpkin together.

[jennifervan]

I love the Native American history, cultures, stories and folklore coming from different channels lately.
We are finally being seen

[mdempsey]

Companion planting is my favourite way to garden. Carrots and tomatoes planted together also protect each other. The tomato plant releases chemicals that guard against the carrot fly which lays their eggs in the tops of carrots. Peas and radish also do nicely together. Anything in the garlic/onion family will do nicely planted near roses. There’s a pair of books: Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic. They’re written by Louise Riotte. She’s from Oklahoma and spent many years observing her home garden and which plants do well together. I highly recommend both books. 😊

[Sunflowersarepretty]

I love how the animation style feels so delicate. The narrator's voice is soothing and other educational video. ❤❤

[potato_]

Being part of the Haudenosaunee, this video brought me to tears. The thought that our culture and practices dying with our people always weighed heavy on our hearts. But seeing that our practices are being shown to so many people melts my heart and gives me hope that my people and my culture is not going to be forgotten

[albertcabuang]

gotta love it when ted-ed weaves folklore, history, and modern science together

[avivyoukerharel]

Can we apriciate the artstyle? Amazing job!

[atakoranodonbrachiosaurus]

I did not expect a story with tones of botany and agriculture. I received ever the more than what expected out of something I clicked for entertainment. Wonderful!

[malinanen]

Handsome Lake is in my family tree! His brother Chief Cornplanter is my 5x Great Grandfather! To tell you I was SHOCKED when I heard his name here is an understatement. What a pleasant surprise to make a personal connection to history! 😊

[Coratlan]

My parents small village in mexico still grows like this. I remember helping my grandfather in the fields planting all three seeds lol

[curiousworld]

I first heard of the 'three sisters' manner of growing a 'perfect meal', years ago. I didn't know the legend behind it, and am delighted to have learned. The practice makes all kinds of sense, and when supplemented by fish or chicken, I think makes for that 'perfect meal'.

[gabrielanava]

indigenous wisdom will show us the way in our journey to heal our relationship with our mother earth.

[Horatio-Monroe]

If I was a teacher. I would play this at school for my students. Very nice video.

[MohdSaif-nodx]

Everything about this video is so perfect-the animation, the narration, the story, the science behind, the message. ❤❤

[cez]

I once saw on buzzfeed a video on Native American foods. One of them was a stew called the Three Sisters, made from those exact ingredients. Now i wanna try that.

[kid]

Unfortunately I don't see large scale farmers and corporations implementing this style due to the need to be able to efficiently harvest the crops. I think a major reason why they only grow one type of crop at a time is not only for profit, but also due to the equipment being used to harvest the crop is specially suited to harvest that crop. Having three at the same time to harvest would probably present a barrier that would be hard to cross without having to hire farm hands around harvest time to harvest the crops effectively. As the bulk of machine harvesting methods simply rip the plants out of the ground and separate the produce from the stalks or what have you. Which would be hard to do without manually harvesting the crops, which in it of itself isn't a bad thing as it would aid local communities in terms of income and job opportunities for a few months out of the year. Yet due to the cost it simply isn't in the companies best interest to do that, unless their forced to do so, so well probably keep having the same issue of the land being depleted unfortunately.

[kovid]

0:58 loved this frame it's my wallpaper now

[sagasvensson]

In Sweden the growing of crops had the ground used in intervalls, growing different kinds of grains for three consecutive years and the left the lot untouched for a year to keep balance. This was common practice up until 1900

[gloveshat]

This shows the importance of indigenous knowledge around the world that finds a common ground between sustainable agriculture and responsible approaches in taking care of our one and only Earth. It is no surprise that environments with high biodiversities are located at where indigenous people are living, highlighting their importance in taking a role in the conservation of ecosystems across the world. This is why it is crucial for us to preserve cultures like these as it tells a story on how people throughout history coped and thrived amidst times of despair, as well as providing contexts on how indigenous people value their environment by utilizing resources responsibly without compromising the needs of the future generations.

[TaLeng]

I read sunflower is sometimes planted as fhe 4th sister, drawing away birds from the corn