“MAY THE LOVE WE PUT INTO THIS BOOK CONTINUE SETTING IN MOTION THE WORLDS WE WISH TO INHABIT.” -NICOLE NEIDHARDT

The dedication to the left is from the Navajo illustrator of this engaging, informative and insightful look at our lifeline back to the wisdom of Indigenous teachings. Braiding Sweetgrass explores how we can resurrect and preserve the integrity of our human relationship with the earth and all living beings. Increasingly, as civilization evolves, we are drifting from our intuitive connections and simple, natural rhythms as guidelines to living well. Instead, we are embracing scientific discovery, technology and artificial materialism to shape complex actions and values.

Author Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist herself — a botanist, a professor, a Potawatomi Nation Citizen and founder and director of The Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She believes in using the tools of science to ask
questions of nature. She advocates innovation, progress and inevitable change. Yet, she believes that plants, animals and the earth are our oldest teachers. Her vision for our future is “a world guided by stories rooted in the revelations of science and framed with an Indigenous worldview in which matter and spirit are both given voice.”

Wild meadow sweetgrass is a unique, precious plant. Once common and abundant, it is now threatened with extinction as development consumes its natural habitat. Known as “the hair of Mother Earth,” it is best nurtured, not from seed, but by transferring roots directly into the ground. In Indigenous cultures, it is passed from hand to earth to hand across generations. When harvested, individual blades are dried to preserve color then braided into three strands to represent kindness, compassion and gratitude. The sweetgrass braid, often shaped in a circle, is burned in a ceremony to administer kindness and compassion and to heal the body and the spirit.

The story of sweetgrass, and others throughout the book, guides us to follow philosophies and practices toward a path of shared responsibility and harmonious living.

Kimmerer writes: “We’re told that the reason our ancestors held so tightly to these teachings was that the worldview the settlers (‘Windigo’) tried to obliterate would one day be needed by all beings. Here at the time of the Seventh Fire, of climate chaos, disconnection and dishonor, I think that time is now. It is said that if the people choose the green path, then all races will go forward together to light the Eighth (and final) Fire of peace and brotherhood.”

And so, science weaves with spirit in Braiding Sweetgrass. This is a book to savor over many sittings, with plentiful
illustrations and photographs. This edition, adapted from the New York Timesbestseller, is appropriate for all ages, packed with ideas and information but not overwhelming.

To help us navigate a path forward, we need to unearth the old stories and begin to create new ones. For we are story makers, not just story tellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from the threads of the old.

Originally published in Winter + Spring 2023-24 issue of Well.