We are excited to share that the Hidatsa garden is starting to take bloom!
With alternating days of sun and rain, the traditional garden three-sister plants of squash, beans, and corn, as well as sunflowers are enjoying the nourishment of heat and water that comes directly from nature.
This garden continues on the traditional techniques of the Hidatsa people, as chronicled by legendary gardener Buffalo Bird Woman. The traditional plants are not tightly packed as is the contemporary technique; instead, they are spaced outjust as Buffalo Bird Woman used to do.
In her book, she explained: “If the corn hills were so close together that the plants when they grew up, touched each other, we called them “smell-each-other”; and we knew that the ears they bore would not be plump nor large.”
Thanks to Bernadine Young Bird and her team for helping to keep the roots of the Hidatsa culture thriving!