#Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

In northern New Mexico/southern Colorado, the monsoon season which normally commences in July instead started at the end of May... with the result that a normally fairly arid region has been turned very green. The gorge of the Río Grande del Norte between Taos and the Colorado-New Mexico border. Photo: Elijah Rael (June 5, 2023)

[Robert Scott Horton]

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“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[ihearttseliot]

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

[julesofnature]

“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.”

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[southernmermaidsgrotto]

Herbalism book reccomendations 📚🌿

General herbalism:

The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook by Green J. (2011)

20,000 Secrets of Tea: The Most Effective Ways to Benefit from Nature's Healing Herbs by Zak V. (1999)

The Modern Herbal Dispensatory: A Medicine-Making Guid by Easly T. (2016)

A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb-Vitamin Interactions by Gaby A.R.

American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook (2013) 

Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine by Hoffman D. (2003)

Herbal Medicine for Beginners: Your Guide to Healing Common Ailments with 35 Medicinal Herbs by Swift K & Midura R (2018)

Today's Herbal Health: The Essential Reference Guide by Tenney L. (1983)

Today's Herbal Health for Women: The Modern Woman's Natural Health Guide by Tenney L (1996)

Today's Herbal Health for Children: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Nutrition and Herbal Medicine for Children by Tenney L. (1996)

For my black folks!!!

African Medicine: A Complete Guide to Yoruba Healing Science and African Herbal Remedies by Sawandi T.M. (2017)

Handbook of African Medicinal Plants by Iwu M.M. (1993)

Working The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing by Lee M.E. (2017)

Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Mitchell F. (2011)

African American Slave Medicine: Herbal and non-Herbal Treatments by Covey H.C. (2008)

The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism: Transform, Heal, and Remember with the Power of Plants and Ancestral Medicine by Rose K.M. (2022)

Indigenous authors & perspectives!!

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Kimmerer R.W. (2015)

Gathering moss by Kimmerer R.W. (2003)

The Plants Have So Much To Give All We Have To Do Is Ask by Siisip Geniusz M. (2005)

Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings by Djinn Geniusz W. (2009)

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: ethnobotany and ecological wisdom of indigenous peoples of northwestern North America by Turner N. (2014)

A Taste of Heritage: Crow Indian Recipes and Herbal Medicines by Hogan Snell A. (2006)

Medicines to Help Us by Belcourt C. (2007)

After the First Full Moon in April: A Sourcebook of Herbal Medicine from a California Indian Elder by Grant Peters J. (2010)

Latin american herbalism works!!

Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera by Cocotzin Ruiz F. (2021)

Hierbas y plantas curativas by Chiti J.F. (2015)

Del cuerpo a las raíces by San Martín P.P., Cheuquelaf I. & Cerpa C. (2011)

Manual introductorio a la Ginecología Natural by San Martín P.P.

🌿This is what I have for now but I’ll update the post as I find and read new works, so keep coming if you wanna check for updates. Thank you for reading 🌿

[haveyoureadthispoll]

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.

[lizziethereader]

I last read...

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

what I wanted: a profound nonfiction read

what I got: really vivid writing

what I thought: I didn't pick the ideal time for reading this because my busy days meant it took me a while to get into the calm reflective mood of this book. However, I really appreciated the author's insights and how her writing style forced me to slow down and take it all in. Robin Wall Kimmerer certainly paints a vivid picture! Since it is a collection of essays, the book felt a bit disjointed at times, though, and I would have enjoyed a more cohesive "frame". Still, it was a good read and I rate it 3 out of 5 grass stalks (not sweetgrass though).

[thelindenpapers]

Video Weekend

The Anarchist Audio Library --

Braiding Sweetgrass (Playlist):

[theinquisitxor]

Mid-Year Book Freak-out Tag 2024

Another year, another Mid-Year Book Freak-out Tag! I believe this set of questions originated on booktube, but I see it circulate around all social media. I usually do this set of questions every year. Feel free to copy/paste the questions if you're interested!

I try to only answer 1 book per question (but sometimes I can't decide) and I try to only talk about a book once throughout the set of questions too, so I'm not too repetitive, but it doesn't always happen!

1.Best Book so far in 2024: I'm going to have to say Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I read this on audio back in January, and it's stuck with me since. I bought a physical copy and have been reading & marking up the book over the past few weeks. I'm not a religious person, but this book could be my bible lol.

A close runner up is North Woods by Daniel Mason, and the Beartown series by Fredrik Backman.

2.Best Sequel you've read so far in 2024: Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett. This series is just so fun and exactly the type of book I like to read.

3.New Release you haven't read yet, but want to: Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel. I really enjoyed her debut, Kaikeyi and she's an author on my radar now. I'm also interested in Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland.

4.Anticipated Release for the second half of the year: The new T.Kingfisher book, A Sorceress Come to Call in August, as well as A Dark and Drowning Tide by Alison Saft later in the fall.

5.Biggest Disappointment: The Atlas Complex, the third and final book to the Altas series by Olivie Blake. This was a big disappointment and let-down :(

I also found Song of the Huntress and A Winter's Promise to be disappointments this year. Both were books I was anticipating liking a lot, but was let down.

6.Biggest Surprise: The Throne of the Five Winds / Hostage of Empire trilogy by SC Emmett. This became a new favorite fantasy series, and I went into the first book without much of an expectation, but was surprised by how much I liked it.

7.Favorite New Author: I did not read many new (new to me, or debut) authors this year so far, but I did enjoy reading the Greenhollow Duology by Emily Tesh. So I would say Emily Tesh is a new favorite.

8.Newest Fictional Crush: usually I struggle with this question, but this year was easy 😂. It's easily Zakkar Kai from The Throne of the Five Winds without no doubt. Takshin from the same series is also a contender!

9.Newest Favorite Character: Komor Yala from The Throne of the Five Winds, she was such a great main character, and had such a quiet strength and intelligence that made her an instant favorite.

10.Book that made you cry: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer had me crying by the last page. I might not make everyone cry, but it certainly made me emotional.

11.Book that made you happy: A Fragile Enchantment by Alison Saft was one of the first books I read this year, but it was so delightful and had me smiling throughout. I read it in a day and couldn't put it down.

12.Most Beautiful Book you've bought/acquired this year: The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie Holton is such an artistic and unique book.

13.Book you need to read by the end of the year: I've been meaning to do a re-read of the Pellinor series by Alison Croggon for a few years now, maybe I'll get to it this year

[dk-thrive]

What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours?

What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect? Once you start, it’s hard to stop, and you begin to feel yourself awash in gifts.

—  Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and The Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, September 16, 2013)

[litandlifequotes]

The land knows you, even when you are lost.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“The Magic of the Mountains” is a new painting being featured at the Broadmoor Galleries at the historic Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs CO. For more info about my work check out my website www.williamhaskell.com

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Another gorgeous painting by William Haskell. It captures so much of the world here: the flat bottomed clouds hanging in the sky as the days grow warmer, the greening of the world, the movement of the wind singing through the trees, the golden grasses, but most of all the light sparkling off the blessed water running through the acequias that not long ago was a carpet of white snow under a million acres of tall, dense panderosa pine - the Jemez.

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“In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top—the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation—and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as “the younger brothers of Creation.” We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn—we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out. They live both above and below ground, joining Skyworld to the earth. Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[ghostoffuturespast]

3 May 2024 - Friday Field Notes

Of course, much of what fills our mouths is taken forcibly from the earth. That form of taking does no honor to the farmer, to the plants, or to the disappearing soil. It’s hard to recognize food that is mummified in plastic, bought and sold, as a gift anymore. Everybody knows you can’t buy love. In a garden, food arises from partnership. If I don’t pick rocks and pull weeds, I’m not fulfilling my end of the bargain. I can do these things with my handy opposable thumb and capacity to use tools, to shovel manure. But I can no more create a tomato or embroider a trellis in beans than I can turn lead into gold. That is the plants’ responsibility and their gift: animating the inanimate. Now there is a gift. People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, “Plant a garden.” It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people. A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate–once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself. Something essential happens in a vegetable garden. It’s a place where if you can’t say “I love you” out loud, you can say it in seeds. And the land will reciprocate, in beans.

Epiphany In The Beans - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Gardening adventures begin! We'll see how they do. Completely operating on trial and error here.

In the late afternoon of July the prairie reaches a crescendo. Under a hot sun, dry wind eases through the tallgrass while monarch and painted lady butterflies quench their thirst at a blazingstar. Bumble bee workers circle the heads of coneflowers gathering pollen. Dickcissel birds rise from the shade of bluestem and indiangrass with their eponymous dick-CISSEL-CISSEL calls. As the sun works its way farther west into the evening, a coolness settles in the valleys as plants transpire, their exhalations creating a dampness that thickens the air. The quiet of this space creates a distance that can be unnerving. It is just you and the horizon, just you and the sky fading into the grass, all made part of something much larger and older than yourself. The colors change in these golden hours as afternoon fades into evening. Bright greens are washed in faint blues, the yellow tops of coreopsis and sunflower mute to burnt orange and copper, and the purple prairie clover blooms shift to a magenta as moths take their turn to feast. Walk into a prairie at any time of day and it’s like entering a Jacuzzi bath; you are delightfully vulnerable, soothed of everything you’ve dragged around all day, trusting in the place to hold you close, to give you back your one wild and precious life. Sit down among the plants and watch a banded orb weaver create a web larger than a cookie sheet, strung between a few blades of arching switchgrass. Prairie becomes a word synonymous with empathy and gratitude; it is not a simple place but one full of meaning that stretches out through time.

Ch. 1 - Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design - Benjamin Vogt

Perhaps there are more efficient ways of weeding out the old stands of tumbleweeds, but there's something incredibly intimate about crawling around the prairie on all fours. You get to greet new friends and say goodbye to old ones.

Pronghorn crossing, excuse me.

[julesofnature]

“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[johnrandbearartist]

brief, beautiful moment

“Maybe there is no such thing as time; there are only moments, each with its own story.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

[richincolor]

Book Review: Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt

Publisher summary: Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

My thoughts: I don’t know who had the idea to make this adaptation, but this book is a gift and we’re fortunate that people worked together to make this happen. Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt have shared Robin’s words in an extraordinary way. They managed to maintain the message of the book while also making it accessible and visually appealing to a younger audience or even adult readers who appreciate fewer words with a larger font, more blank space, and beautiful images that support the text. This book carries so much meaning and love and I’m thankful that it is in the world for young readers.

Braiding Sweetgrass is about connection and being in relationship with the earth, plants, animals, and humans. It’s an inspirational book that is part memoir, part science text, and part love letter. If you’re thinking that the text is doing a lot, you are not wrong, but it’s never chaotic. The text, colors, and images are peaceful and encourage pauses and contemplation.

Readers begin with an introduction to sweetgrass and an invitation to remember our connection to the world and the beings within it. Throughout the book, there are quotes pulled from the text that are featured within a circle of sweetgrass. The first one really sets the tone: “Imagine how less lonely the world would be if we knew and believed that we didn’t have to figure everything out by ourselves.” Another explains about that honorable harvest is “to take only what is given, to use it well, to be grateful for the gift, and to reciprocate the gift.”  There are also small boxes that include definitions of key words like reciprocity or kin. Questions are also scattered around like, “What’s your first memory of being connected to all living beings? or “In what ways can stories be medicine?”

The reader is meant to think about the concepts in the book, but action is also strongly encouraged. When Kimmerer shares about trees that collectively fruit across the state, she explains that “all flourishing is mutual.” This is followed by questions about how to apply this to social justice and the current issues in our own neighborhoods. We have a responsibility to the earth and each other and are reminded many times through these pages.

One aspect of the text is about the contrasts between Indigenous ways of knowing and scientific (what is taught in typical US academic institutions) ways of knowing. Readers see how Kimmerer struggled with this in her college years and ultimately remembered how to learn from nature in a rich way. Native scholar Greg Cajete is referenced at one point. He wrote about Indigenous ways of knowing explaining that we understand something only when we have understood it with all four aspects of our being: mind, body, emotion, and spirit. The writings and stories in Braiding Sweetgrass show how to attend to all of the aspects and find the beauty in this world.

Speaking of beauty, the illustrations definitely help to express the wonders of our world and whether it be plants, animals, humans or anything else. They don’t just teach–many communicate healing and connection. Some are simple diagrams like when there is an eye and the parts are detailed, but others are art that illustrates a story or images that speak to the heart.

Recommendation: Get it now. I recommend this for any young person especially if you are interested in science and living beings. It’s also an excellent book for anyone who is feeling isolated or who is seeking connection. I think the words in this book can bring healing to readers and lead to healing in our world.

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Pages: 304

Availability: On shelves now

Review copy: Purchased

Extras:

Visit the Lerner site where there is a download of the Thanksgiving Address illustration for download.

TeenLive Author Talk: Braiding Sweetgrass from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

Watch a Kitchen Table Discussion with the authors and illustrator about the process of creating this book.

[lezzian]

Robin Wall Kimmerer on “collateral damage” and helping amphibians pass the asphalt roads in spring. From Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants.