American Indian Students Harvested Vegetables Used for White House State Dinner

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WASHINGTON - Last Friday when a group of American Indian students were invited to 1600 Pennsylvania to plant some seeds, traditionally known as three sisters-corn, beans and squash-in the White House's kitchen garden, they had a task to harvest some vegetables first.

First Lady Michelle Obama in a Garden Harvest Event with members of the American Indian community

The White House was anticipating an important guest and needed the vegetables for a State Dinner.

The vegetables that included lettuces, rhubarb, chard, kohlrabi, sugar snap peas, turnips, broccoli and herbs.

The vegetables were used for a garden salad for Tuesday's State Dinner in honor of Chancellor Angela Merkel. These crops were originally planted in March by Mrs. Obama and children from two Washington, DC area schools.

The American Indian children who joined Mrs. Obama last Friday came from a variety of tribes, including Jemez Pueblo, Skokomish, Cherokee, Sault Ste. Marie, Navajo, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, St. Regis Mohawk, Tlingit, Oglala Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.

With all of their chores finished, the American Indian children were treated with a rare opportunity. The First Lady told them to stay in a certain area of the White House grounds because she would be greeting the presidential helicopter, as President Obama was arriving from his trip to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio.

The First Lady greeted the husband on the South Lawn of the White House at the helicopter and brought him over to so the students and their parents could shake President Obama's hand.

Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton

posted June 8, 2011 6:25 am et