Kate’s 2-cents:
“Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants”
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reviewed by Kate Chamberlin
“Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants”
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reviewed by Kate Chamberlin
Have you ever read a book you can’t get out of your mind?
As a book maven, I read many books, yet, I can’t stop thinking about “Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer (BARD: DB92274).
Kimmerer invites you to…“Hold out your hands and let me lay upon them a sheaf of freshly picked Sweetgrass, loose and lowing like newly washed hair, golden green and glossy above. The stems are banded with purple and white where they meet the ground. Hold the bundle up to your nose. Find the fragrance of honeyed vanilla or the scent of river water and black earth…to understand its name of ‘fragrant Holy grass’, also known as the sweet smelling hair of Mother Earth.”
Kimmerer weaves her academic Ph.D. knowledge as a Botanist with her insights of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal legends of creation and reciprocity for sustainable living.
Beginning with Sky Woman falling from the sky whirling like a Maple seed pirouetting on an Autumn breeze, the theme of the nurturing, Good Mother is prevalent throughout the narrative.
When Kimmerer and her two daughters moved to Upstate New York and found maple trees on their property, they tapped them. As she watched her young daughters lick the Maple sap dripping from the spile funnel, Kimmerer retold the legend of why it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Her sense of being a Good Mother by reciprocating what her ancestors did for her to use today feels good and honorable.
Indigenous people knew how to listen to Mother Nature and learn to acknowledge everything as ‘being’. They would quietly walk among the fields and forests, thanking trees, plants, rocks, and soil for sharing their essence and asking their permission to be with them.
Kimmerer recounts a vignette of her Grandpa as a young boy in 1895, where the boys were just young willow whips in faded dungarees running barefoot through the prairie grass. They’d caught no fish in the drought ridden stream, but on the way home they stumbled on the Counsel of the Pecan Tree. “…Mama hollers for them. The boys come running, their skinny legs pumping, and their underpants flashing white in the fading light…two pairs of worn-out pants, tied shut with twine at the ankles and bulging with nuts…” Having raised four boys of my own, this image made me chuckle.
One morning, Kimmerer laid on her belly to observe “…Wild strawberries beneath dewy leaves in an almost summer morning…white petals with a yellow center like a little wild rose …during the Flower Moon…you could smell the ripe strawberries before you saw them. Their fragrance mingling with the sun on damp ground.
Taking a nano view of her wild strawberry patch reminded me of what Biologist David Haskell did in “The forest unseen: a year’s watch in nature” (BARD: DB74368). He sat and watched the same hula hoop sized patch for a year to witness the nano changes throughout the seasons.
As a scientist and teacher, Kimmerer takes her college students out of the brick and mortar classroom and into Mother Nature’s classroom to demonstrate how her bounty will supply everything they need. In a marsh, the students find sapling trees to form the ribs of a wigwam, long roots to bind the framework, reeds to make the walls, birch bark for the roof, and cattail fluff for soft rush mats. They forage for edible roots beneath the muck, in the cattail’s flower, and other delicacies. When they peeled the layers off the reeds, the slime that gave the stem strength and provided the pathway for transferring nutrients, also provided a balm for their itchy bug bites.
There were moments of humor, too. One student said he wanted to find i-pods in the marsh. Later, a fellow student called that he’d found them. He put empty milk weed pods over his eyes.
Reciting the Citizen Potawatomi Nation litany of thankfulness, instead of the American Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, makes sense to Kimmerer. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation allegiance is to the tribe and, historically, the US Government hasn’t meant ‘freedom and justice for all’; noting that pushing the Citizen Potawatomi Nation West, off their ancestral lands, wasn’t ‘justice and freedom for all.
The reciting of the many beings they are thankful for is more meaningful and useful to remind people of the bounty received from the sun, moon, soil, rocks, plants and animals. They are all one with the people.
I listened to Kimmerer narrate her book during the winter, when icy winds blew and snow drifts were thigh-high, so I’m looking forward to the Spring, when I can invite the three sisters into my family. The corn sister will grow fast, sturdy, and tall, so the bean sister can climb to greet the sun. Their leaves will alternate so each can soak in the nourishing rays. Little sister Pumpkin Squash will roam freely at her sisters’ feet to conserve moisture as all of their roots nourish each other in symbiotic harmony.
If you appreciate the keen scientific mind of a Botanist, the rich legends of Indigenous people, and a subtle sense of humor, I recommend “Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. (Milkweed Editions, 2013) ISBN 9781571313355. (NLS/BARD/LOC: DB92274).
### words 764
“Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants”
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reviewed by Kate Chamberlin
Have you ever read a book you can’t get out of your mind?
As a book maven, I read many books, yet, I can’t stop thinking about “Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer (BARD: DB92274).
Kimmerer weaves her academic Ph.D. knowledge as a Botanist with her insights of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal legends of creation and reciprocity for sustainable living.
Beginning with Sky Woman falling from the sky whirling like a Maple seed pirouetting on an Autumn breeze, the theme of the nurturing, Good Mother is prevalent throughout the narrative.
When Kimmerer and her two daughters moved to Upstate New York and found maple trees on their property, they tapped them. As she watched her young daughters lick the sweet Maple sap dripping from the spile funnel, Kimmerer retold the legend of why it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Her sense of being a Good Mother by reciprocating what her ancestors did for her to use today felt good and honorable.
Indigenous people knew how to listen to Mother Nature and learn to acknowledge everything as ‘being’. They would quietly walk among the fields and forests, thanking trees, plants, rocks, and soil for sharing their essence and asking their permission to be with them.
Kimmerer recounted a vignette of her Grandpa as a young boy in 1895, where the boys were just young willow whips in faded dungarees running barefoot through the prairie grass. They’d caught no fish in the drought ridden stream, but on the way home they stumbled on the Counsel of the Pecan Tree. The image of the boys running home, their skinny legs pumping, and their underpants flashing white in the fading light, with worn-out pants, tied shut with twine at the ankles and bulging with nuts, made me chuckle, remembering the escapades of my own four boys.
The scene of Kimmerer flat on her belly in the wild strawberry patch during the Flower Moon evoked the sight of small, red, ripe berries, warmed by the summer sun, that could be smelled before seen.
Taking a nano view of her wild strawberry patch is what Biologist David Haskell did in “The forest unseen: a year’s watch in nature” (BARD: DB74368). He sat and watched the same hula hoop sized patch for a year to witness the nano changes throughout the seasons.
As a scientist and teacher, Kimmerer takes her college students out of the brick and mortar classroom and into Mother Nature’s classroom to demonstrate how her bounty will supply everything they need. In a marsh, the students find sapling trees to form the ribs of a wigwam, long roots to bind the framework, reeds to make the walls, birch bark for the roof, and cattail fluff for soft rush mats. They forage for edible roots beneath the muck, nibble on the cattail flowers and other delicacies. When they peeled the layers off the reeds, the slime that gave the stem strength and provided the pathway for transferring nutrients, also provided a balm for their itchy bug bites.
There were moments of humor, too. One student said he wanted to find i-pods in the marsh. Later, a fellow student called that he’d found them. He put empty milk weed pods over his eyes.
Reciting the Citizen Potawatomi Nation litany of thankfulness, instead of the American Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, makes sense to Kimmerer. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation allegiance is to the tribe and, historically, the US Government hasn’t meant ‘freedom and justice for all’; noting that pushing the Citizen Potawatomi Nation West, off their ancestral lands, wasn’t ‘freedom and justice for all.
The reciting of the many beings they are thankful for is more meaningful and useful to remind people of the bounty received from the sun, moon, soil, rocks, plants and animals. They are all one with the people.
I Listened to Kimmerer narrate her book during the winter, when icy winds blew and snow drifts were thigh-high, so I’m looking forward to the Spring, when I can invite the three sisters into my family. The corn sister will grow fast, sturdy, and tall, so the bean sister can climb to greet the sun. Their leaves will alternate so each can soak in the nourishing rays. Little sister Pumpkin Squash will roam freely at her sisters’ feet to conserve moisture as all of their roots nourish each other in symbiotic harmony.
If Senior High and Adults appreciate the keen scientific mind of a Botanist, the rich legends of Indigenous people, and a subtle sense of humor, I recommend “Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. (Milkweed Editions, 2013) ISBN 9781571313355. (NLS/BARD/LOC: DB92274).
From https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/robin-wall-kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, nature writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the State University of New York’s College of Environment and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse, New York. She is also founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953) is an American Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology; and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).
She is the author of numerous scientific articles, and the books Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2003), and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013). An audiobook version was released in 2016, narrated by the author. Braiding Sweetgrass was republished in 2020 with a new introduction.
She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation,[1] and combines her heritage with her scientific and environmental passions.
Robin Wall Kimmerer was born in 1953 in the open country of upstate New York to Robert and Patricia Wall. She grew up playing in the countryside, and her time outdoors rooted a deep appreciation for the natural environment. Her enthusiasm for the environment was encouraged by her parents, who while living in upstate New York began to reconnect with their Potawatomi heritage, where now Kimmerer is a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation.[2]
Kimmerer remained near home for college, attending ESF and receiving a bachelor’s degree in botany in 1975. She spent two years working for Bausch & Lomb as a microbiologist. Kimmerer then moved to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning her master’s degree in botany there in 1979, followed by her PhD in plant ecology in 1983. It was while studying forest ecology as part of her degree program, that she first learnt about mosses, which became the scientific focus of her career.[3]
From Wisconsin, Kimmerer moved to Kentucky, where she taught briefly at Transylvania University in Lexington before moving to Danville, Kentucky when she taught biology, botany, and ecology at Centre College. Kimmerer received tenure at Centre College. In 1993, Kimmerer returned home to upstate New York and her alma mater, ESF, where she currently teaches.
upstate New York and her alma mater, ESF, where she currently teaches.
Kimmerer teaches in the Environmental and Forest Biology Department at ESF. She teaches courses on Land and Culture, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Ethnobotany, Ecology of Mosses, Disturbance Ecology, and General Botany. Director of the newly established Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at ESF, which is part of her work to provide programs that allow for greater access for Native students to study environmental science, and for science to benefit from the wisdom of Native philosophy to reach the common goal of sustainability.[4]
Kimmerer is a proponent of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) approach, which Kimmerer describes as a “way of knowing.” TEK is a deeply empirical scientific approach and is based on long-term observation. However, it also involves cultural and spiritual considerations, which have often been marginalized by the greater scientific community. Wider use of TEK by scholars has begun to lend credence to it.
Kimmerer’s efforts are motivated in part by her family history. Her grandfather was a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and received colonist schooling at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The school, similar to Canadian residential schools, set out to “civilize” Native children, forbidding residents from speaking their language, and effectively erasing their Native culture. Knowing how important it is to maintain the traditional language of the Potawatomi, Kimmerer attends a class to learn how to speak the traditional language because “when a language dies, so much more than words are lost.”[5][6]
Her current work spans traditional ecological knowledge, moss ecology, outreach to tribal communities, and creative writing.
In April 2015, Kimmerer was invited to participate as a panelist at a United Nations plenary meeting to discuss how harmony with nature can help to conserve and sustainably use natural resources, titled “Harmony with Nature: Towards achieving sustainable development goals including addressing climate change in the post-2015 Development Agenda.”[7][8]
Her second book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, received the 2014 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award.[10] By 2021 over 500,000 copies had been sold worldwide.[3] Braiding Sweetgrass is about the interdependence of people and the natural world, primarily the plant world.
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, 2013) ISBN 9781571313355.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants DB92274
Kimmerer, Robin Wall Reading time: 16 hours, 46 minutes.
Robin Wall Kimmerer A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Social Sciences
Botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation argues that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of a reciprocal relationship with the world. Shares stories learned from her elders about the world around them and ways of approaching scientific inquiry. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2013.
Download Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants DB92274
DB82327 Voices…dolphins