Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Paperback – August 11, 2015

Braiding Sweetgrass is one of the most profoundly moving and illuminating books I’ve read in a long time. Kimmerer is a distinguished professor of Environmental Biology and an enrolled member of the of the Potawatomi Nation, a northern tribe whose ancestral lands are around the Great Lakes. Broken treaties with the US Government finally forced them to move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.Sweetgrass is translated as the “sweet smelling hair of Mother Earth” and represent the union of mind, body and spirit. In the preface, Kimmerer describes the book as “a braid of stories to heal our relationship with the world.” She weaves together science, spirt and story “that can be medicine for our broken relationship with earth.”Each chapter is to be savored and read slowly. Her prose is achingly beautiful, moving me to tears of wonder as she describes the interrelationship of various plants, such as the brilliant symbiosis of 'The Three Sisters,' beans, squash and corn. Or – the amazing life cycle of the pecan tree or the many uses of cattails; who knew?I was also moved to tears of grief when she describes the horrible legacy of the Indian Boarding Schools in the late 1800’s. The schools were a form of cultural genocide, but the stories, wisdom and knowledge of native lifeways went underground and endured, a testament to the resiliency of native peoples.The basic premise of the book is reciprocity and an ‘I – Thou’ relationship with all of creation, to borrow a phrase from Martin Buber. The land gives back to us when we care for the land. Plants, animals, insects, etc. – are all ‘family,’ and one is much less likely (or at least, think twice) about inflicting harm when the relationship is personal, heartfelt and genuine.Gratitude is the other overarching theme, which is strongly rooted in Native cultures. She describes the Thanksgiving Address of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which begins a school day or before an important meeting. It is gratitude directed to all of the earth’s species on land and water (including water itself.) The entire address can take up to an hour, as thanks is bestowed upon each element. Each segment ends with “Now our minds are one.” If you don’t read the book, I recommend looking up the Thanksgiving Address. It can be shortened to incorporate into a daily gratitude practice.In my view, this book is a masterpiece of ecological, historical non-fiction. It is inspiring and hopeful; a call to action. As Kimmerer says…”we are the ones who will bend to the task of putting things back together to rekindle the flames of the sacred fire to begin the rebirth of a nation.”

What a wonderful experience reading this book. Like Toni Morrison her prose alone is gift. Each sentence crafted carefully and poetically. I almost wish I hadn’t read it so I could enjoy it again for the first time.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer gives a wildly new perspective on plant life and their relationship to humans. Wall Kimmerer takes us through experiences and knowledge she has gained in her life through her connection to both science and Indigenous Wisdom. Wall Kimmerer discusses the near annihilation of Indigenous people’s traditions, ideas, and languages. Not to mention their removal from their lands and their cultural assimilation into the new European-American culture. This was forced upon Indigenous people and there are still lasting effects to this day that they strive to counteract. Language is only carried on through elders that wish to pass on the language and culture to the youth. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and had felt disconnected from her Native American roots because of the strong American identity that had been forced upon Native Americans when Europeans arrived. By dedicating much of her time to the study of plants and the connections she can find to Indigenous Wisdom she has been able to combine both perspectives as objectively as she can.She stresses the importance of the relationship between humans and the natural world. She claims that Mother Earth is showing love to us with the gift of her plants and animals and that we must show our love back and treat her with respect. For example, you must ask plants permission before you utilize them, must give an offering (in many cases some tobacco sprinkled on the ground), and must show gratitude to the Earth and the plants that replenish us. On the other hand, Wall Kimmerer discusses the negative and surprisingly positive externalities that are observed due to humans and inflicted on the Earth. As you might have guessed pollution is a big negative effect along with overhunting and the disturbance of ecosystems. However, Wall Kimmerer discovers that harvesting sweetgrass in the way that she was taught through Indigenous people is actually beneficial for the sweetgrass. Without being harvested the sweetgrass starts to die because of overcrowding and other factors. However, the harvested sweetgrass plots were flourishing. This of course relates to the title of the book which draws on the idea that Sweetgrass was one of the four sacred plants to the Potawatomi people.Wall Kimmerer does an excellent job portraying the importance of having a mutual relationship between nature and humans. Prior to reading this book I had no idea that there was this vital relationship between us. Wall Kimmerer utilizes the relationship between her and her daughters to help readers understand that Earth shows love to us just as a mother does to her children. I thought that this was a brilliant comparison between two seemingly unrelated topics. It was a great way to explain that the plants that are provided for us on Earth aid us in living our daily lives to the fullest and it seems that we ignore her gift and repay her with pollution and overusing her gifts. Just as children sometimes forget the importance of their mothers and how grateful they should be for the numerous things they do for them everyday.Another concept that Wall Kimmerer presents beautifully that adds to the book as a whole is the relationship between corn, beans, and squash as described from stories she’d heard from other Native people. They were regarded as the Three Sisters. Kimmerer compares this to the structure of human families when she says “The firstborn girl knows that she is clearly in charge; tall and direct, upright and efficient, she creates the template for everyone else to follow. That’s the corn sister...This bean girl [middle sister] learns to be flexible, adaptable, to find a way around the dominant structure to get the light that she needs. The sweet baby sister is free to choose a different path, as expectations have already been fulfilled. Well grounded, she has nothing to prove and finds her own way, a way that contributes to the good of the whole” (p.132). The plants grow in the same way as the sisters progress in life. In their own ways to come together as a collective whole. This connection truly struck me because it reminded me of my own family and my two younger siblings. Surprisingly, her description matched my family pretty well. This is a terrific way to get the reader to truly humanize the plants in a sense. As a species we tend to place things that are not as advanced as us (by our own standards if I might add) in a category below us. Yet this comparison truly allows us to look at these plants as equals with social structures just as ours. They simply communicate through methods other than speech.Overall, this was a lovely book that picks up on the relationship between the human world and the natural world and really made me rethink a lot about picking random flowers on the street without asking them if I can first. She utilizes her life experience perfectly in order to recount her journey to a more respectful way of treating the environment around her. This book will make you rethink your actions towards the environment and get you thinking deeper about what we can do to keep plant knowledge alive.

Beautiful, eloquent, captivating stories imbued with wisdom. Kimmers ability to eloquently weave science, indigenous wisdom and personal heart-centered storytelling makes for a moving and enlightening read.I do warn the reader, however, this book will make it harder to weed the garden, buy things you don’t truly need, be a consumer or excess, and walk in the woods without crying for what we have done to our brothers and sisters of the Earth.This book should be required reading of every high schooler in the US.

Eye-opening, provides a different view on how we can relate to nature. Chapters are written succinctly and easy to digest and awe-inspiring / moving as you learn something new about how nature works.