Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Kimmerer and her botany students embark on a five-week research trip at Cranberry Lake Biological Station. Kimmerer leads her students in the construction of a traditional wigwam, requiring them to work together and take advantage of individual strengths such as height and flexibility. The students gather supplies in the swampy lake, which they affectionately refer to as Walmarsh. Kimmerer shows the students how to collect cattails and explains the uses of its various parts. The underground rhizomes can be roasted like potatoes or used to make flour, while the leaves are used to make twine and thread. The clear gel inside the cattail stems has cooling and antimicrobial properties, soothing the cuts and burns the students obtain during their day in the swamp. The students discuss their responsibilities to the marsh in return for providing these gifts. On the last night of the trip, the group sleeps together in the wigwam. The next morning, a student joins Kimmerer for her morning ritual of greeting the sun.

In the Pacific Northwest, Indigenous communities traditionally marked the return of wild salmon to their rivers through elaborate ceremonies. The grassy meadows above the ocean were burned as a beacon to guide the salmon home. When the first salmon arrived in the estuaries linking the salty ocean and the freshwater rivers, the people would let them pass safely and thank them for guiding the rest of the salmon. After four days, the First Salmon was taken and eaten by the community with great care. His bones were released back into the river. These rituals benefit the entire ecosystem: the bones add nutrients to the river water, while the burnt soil of the meadows leads to new growth in spring. When colonists brought disease to the people of the Pacific Northwest, these rituals died with them. As a result of colonist farming practices, the estuaries disappeared, dramatically changing salmon migration patterns. Kimmerer imagines the tracking of salmon populations as a new kind of welcoming ritual.

For centuries, Mohawk people inhabited the Mohawk River valley, which was rich and fertile. In the 1700s, colonization forced the Mohawks to flee from their ancestral lands. Later, the federal government took Mohawk children from their families to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The school’s mission was “Kill the Indian to Save the Man” (221), and the goal was to separate Indigenous children from their land, languages, and families. Hundreds of families were destroyed in the process, including Kimmerer’s: her grandfather and his brother were both taken from home and raised at Carlisle.

Tom Porter, also known as Sakokwenionkwas, is working to undo the harm done at Carlisle by building a haven for Indigenous life and culture. Kanatsiohareke is a 400-acre retreat dedicated to teaching Indigenous languages, foodways, traditions, and history. As a part of Porter’s mission to restore Kanatsiohareke to its pre-industrial state, Kimmerer plants sweetgrass. As she plants, she finds a beautiful crystal, which she interprets as a gift of thanks from the Earth.

The old-growth cedar forests of the Pacific Northwest provided a rich home for the Indigenous people who lived there for millennia. Cedar’s rot-resistant properties made it an essential resource for building homes and boats. The roots provided fibers for weaving and thread for tying. The tree also provided several medicines and was used in sacred ceremonies. A wide variety of plant and animal species flourished in the company of giant cedar trees. Kimmerer offers these old-growth forests as an example of the abundance possible when all elements of an ecosystem live in harmony.

As settlers moved into the West, many of the old-growth forests disappeared due to logging. While Indigenous communities took only what they needed, modern logging practices clear entire fields. Pioneer species are the first to grow in these cleared fields, fighting for light and resources and then leaving once they have taken what they need. Kimmerer suggests that settlers behave similarly. She describes the work of Franz Dolp, who worked to regrow old-growth forests before he died in a collision with a logging truck.