Book Review: Seven Connections Between Braiding Sweetgrass & Sustainable Living

Robin Wall Kimmerer brilliantly connects indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants in her book Braiding Sweetgrass.

Kimmerer presents a vision for healing settlers’ relationship with indigenous peoples. We start by healing our relationship with the earth. By putting our hands in the earth we begin to know it as a living organism. As our teacher, provider and friend.

The first chapter was painful to read. I had to put the book down sometimes and process some intense emotions. Kimmerer details how the colonialist government manipulated and displaced indigenous people. If this makes you feel uncomfortable then just know it will be okay. Take a break but don’t give up. After the initial emotional turmoil of Braiding Sweetgrass, it is hard to put down.

I’ve compiled seven connections between Braiding Sweetgrass and sustainable living. Robin Wall Kimmerer uses story and the written word to convey an epic message. I hope you’re convinced to read it.

ONE: Becoming Naturalized

The concept of becoming naturalized had a big impact on me. I am humbled by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s practical and generous plan of how indigenous peoples and settler peoples can co-exist.

Kimmerer exemplifies her idea of settlers becoming naturalized as opposed to invasive via plant analogy. Many people are familiar with the term invasive species. A plant, insect or other lifeform that is introduced to a new ecosystem and causes havoc. An invasive species propagates out of control, killing native species by taking resources. In contrast, some new species become naturalized.

White man’s footprint is a plant that grows low to the ground and followed the footsteps of the white man as he moved around North America. (Kimmerer, 213) Indigenous people decided to learn about this plant. In spring it can be eaten. It provides first aid for cuts, burns and insect bites. It’s tiny seeds are good for digestion. And its leaves can stop bleeding and heal wounds without infection. Kimmerer suggests that settlers treat the land “as if we’re staying.” That we become naturalized and care for the land so it can continue to care for us.

TWO: The Free Service of Trees

How much oxygen are Maples providing? How much carbon are they capturing? Kimmerer’s questions (169) cause me to think about the free services of trees in terms of the value they bring to our economy. Ecologists call these ecosystem services… the structures and functions of the natural world that make life possible.

Trees provide air and water purification services 24-7. (Kimmerer, 169) They create habitat for songbirds, wildlife cover, golden leaves to play in, and branches for swings and forts. Their fallen leaves produce rich soil now farmed on for strawberries, apples, sweet corn, and hay.

The timber and syrup of Maples have monetary value but ecosystem services are far more valuable. We get these services for free, donated by Maples. Kimmerer (173) references trusted models that predict New England’s climate will become hostile to sugar maples within fifty years. It’s not hard to imagine that trees will continue to dwindle in number.

This leaves me wondering… how much will it cost to replace the free service of trees if they parish?

THREE: Plants Helping Plants

It is a gift to enter Kimmerer’s worldview and begin to see plants as living, breathing co-habitants in our community. Her indigenous worldview paired with her education in ecology make Braiding Sweetgrass fascinating AND informative.

Have you heard of the three sisters garden? The way that these plants work together illustrates how ecosystems are supposed to work, in coordination, versus how settlers like to farm individual, lonely plants.

Kimmerer (128) tells the story of the three sisters this way… Corn is the firstborn and must grow tall quickly. It needs a strong stem for its younger sister, the bean. The bean focuses on leaf growth, close to the ground. When the corn is high enough, the bean shoot changes its mind, as middle children do, and extends a long vine looking for vertical support. The squash, the late bloomer of the family, is steadily extending herself over the ground, moving away from the corn and beans, setting up broad leaves that shelter the soil at the base of the corn and beans. Each plant has a role, and each plant is necessary to help the others. What benefit does the bean provide? It makes nitrogen deep in the soil, sharing this nutrient with its sisters.

When we take time to listen to plants and learn how they work together, we are better equipped to grow gardens that sustain themselves.

FOUR: Return of the Native Plants

“To restore sweetgrass here we’ll need to loosen the hold of the colonists, opening a way for the return of the natives.” (Kimmerer, 261)

What can we do to restore what has been stolen and destroyed? To start with, create a plan for decolonization. Colonizers brought the “plows and cows” and the plants they were familiar with. Indigenous land turned to fields, choked out by foreign plants. (Kimmerer, 261) To decolonize the soil we’ll need to weed out invasive species, embrace naturalize species, and plant native species.

Kimmerer sees a way to restore the land. To restore native plants the colonists’ hold on this soil must be loosened.

FIVE: Pecans and Syrup

I was struck by Kimmerer’s many stories about how the earth provides what humans need: medicines, food, shelter to name a few. The earth does not just provide food, it provides specific foods at specific times. Take for example both the pecan tree and the sugar maple.

Nuts provide protein and fat that help sustain people during the winter months. Unlike fruit, nuts are easy to store. (Kimmerer, 167)  They are protected by a hard shell that is not easily broken. Kimmerer describes nuts as the panfish of the forest. For people living on the land’s seasonal food provision, nuts are key to survival. When Kimmerer’s ancestors were displaced by colonialists, her people encountered a new nut. As they didn’t have a name for it, they called it “pigan,” a word that simply means “nut” in their native language. This nut, a beacon of nourishment in an unfamiliar place, became known as the pecan. 

Maples provide food just when we need it most, the end of winter. For people living a subsistence lifestyle, this provision is life sustaining. Elders say that their people learned to make sugar from the squirrels. (Kimmerer, 67) In late winter, the hungry time, when nuts are depleted, squirrels gnaw on the top branches of sugar maples. Cracks in the bark reveal sap and the next day sugar is found. After freezing temperatures cause the water to sublimate, sap turns to sugar crystals.

The earth provides what humans need. If we look to the ways earth naturally provides for us, we can move away from harmful industry and toxic consumerism. We can learn to be sustainable.

SIX: What We’ve Lost … Ask The Salmon

There’s no way to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet if settlers had come with a reverence for this new land and it’s indigenous caretakers, then we’d have a lot more salmon and a lot less cause for concern about climate change.

It was disastrous for young salmon. Disease had swept through the Oregon coast in 1830 and devastated indigenous villages. Then when settlers came in 1850 they found abandoned land ready for livestock. (Kimmerer, 245)

This land, this ecosystem, was perfect for a multitude of native life, but not for cows. (Kimmerer, 245) So the settlers built dikes to keep the water out. Diking changed the river from a capillary system to a single straight flow. The single flow system meant fresh water salmon were hurried into the salty sea. There was not enough time to transition gradually from fresh water to salt water. (Kimmerer, 245-246) The salmon population that was once plentiful year after year began to dwindle.

The indigenous people of Oregon had a different approach to tending the land and the salmon. Only after four days of fish had moved safely upstream, did the most honoured fisher take the First Salmon. (Kimmerer, 243)

“Take only what you need and let the rest go by and the fish will last forever.”

SEVEN: Manmade Old Growth Forests

Can we combat man made environmental destruction with man made solutions? The chapter Old Growth Children (Kimmerer, 277) depicts a man named Franz Dolp who took on this challenge. He bought a property called Shotpouch Creek in the heart of Oregon Coast Range. It had been effectively destroyed by settlers who clear-cut the forest for timber. 

The author describes land after it has been clear-cut in this way… the clock of ecological succession has been reset. Sunshine is abundant. Soil has been broken open and humus exposed. Opportunistic species, mainly berry bushes, grow quickly and cover the ground. 

Dolp’s vision was to restore the land to pre-contact times. To plant an old growth forest. (Kimmerer 285) He worked for years cutting through bramble and planting native trees. His efforts will be enjoyed by future generations if the forest is allowed to grow old. We can restore what has been lost BUT we need to stop destruction and focus on reconstruction.

Go Read It!

I hope this book review has you excited to read more because it’s only scratched the surface of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s life changing book Braiding Sweetgrass. 

If this topic has you feeling like a chat contact me here. If you want to learn more about the author Robin Wall Kimmerer checkout her website.

Reference

Kimmerer, R.W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.