Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

"Robin Wall Kimmerer is writer of rare grace. She writes about the natural world from a place of such abundant passion that one can never quite see the world the same way after having seen it through Kimmerer's eyes. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she takes us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise. She is a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world." --Elizabeth Gilbert

 

"Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most--the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain and a meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page." --Jane Goodall

 

I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual. --Richard Powers, New York Times

 

"Robin Wall Kimmerer opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate." --Krista Tippett, host of On Being

 

In a world where only six percent of mammalian biomass on the planet now comprises of wild animals, I longed for books that pressed me up against the inhuman, that connected me to an inhuman world. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer moved me to actual tears. --Alexandra Kleeman, The Millions

 

In Braiding Sweetgrass, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer tackles everything from sustainable agriculture to pond scum as a reflection of her Potawatomi heritage, which carries a stewardship 'which could not be taken by history: the knowing that we belonged to the land.' . . . It's a book absorbed with the unfolding of the world to observant eyes--that sense of discovery that draws us in. --NPR

 

Professor and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer knows that the answer to all forms of ecological unbalance have long been hidden in plain sight, told in the language of plants and animals, minerals and elements. She draws on her own heritage . . . pairing science with Indigenous principles and storytelling to advocate for a renewed connection between human beings and nature. --Outside

 

Kimmerer eloquently makes the case that by observing and celebrating our reciprocal relationship with the natural world, one can gain greater ecological consciousness. --Sierra Magazine

 

"With deep compassion and graceful prose, Robin Wall Kimmerer encourages readers to consider the ways that our lives and language weave through the natural world. A mesmerizing storyteller, she shares legends from her Potawatomi ancestors to illustrate the culture of gratitude in which we all should live." --Publishers Weekly

 

"The gift of Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is that she provides readers the ability to see a very common world in uncommon ways, or, rather, in ways that have been commonly held but have recently been largely discarded. She puts forth the notion that we ought to be interacting in such a way that the land should be thankful for the people." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

"Braiding Sweetgrass is instructive poetry. Robin Wall Kimmerer has put the spiritual relationship that Chief Seattle called the 'web of life' into writing. Industrial societies lack the understanding of the interrelationships that bind all living things--this book fills that void. I encourage one and all to read these instructions." --Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation and Indigenous Environmental Leader

Preface -- Planting Sweetgrass -- Skywoman Falling -- The Council of Pecans -- The Gift of Strawberries -- An Offering -- Asters and Goldenrod -- Learning the Grammar of Animacy -- Tending Sweetgrass -- Maple Sugar Moon -- Witch Hazel -- A Mother s Work -- The Consolation of Water Lilies -- Allegiance to Gratitude -- Picking Sweetgrass -- Epiphany in the Beans -- The Three Sisters -- Wisgaak, Gokpenagen: A Black Ash Basket -- Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass -- Maple Nation: A Citizenship Guide -- The Honorable Harvest -- Braiding Sweetgrass -- In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place -- The Sound of Silverbells -- Sitting in a Circle -- Burning Cascade Head -- Putting Down Roots -- Umbilicaria: The Belly Button of the World -- Old-Growth Children -- Witness to the Rain -- Burning Sweetgrass -- Windigo Footprints -- The Sacred and the Super fund -- People of Corn, People of Light -- Collateral Damage -- Shkitagen: People of the Seventh Fire -- Defeating Windigo -- Epilogue: Returning the Gift -- Notes -- Sources -- Acknowledgments.