Braiding Sweetgrass is a unique look at plants and fauna from an indigenous perspective. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, scientist and member of the Potawatomi Nation. The chapters touch on different Native Indians' folklore and indigenous stories, beginning with their creation story - Skywoman.
There are also little tidbits of how our language incorporated names such as the pecan which came from the Indian name for nut - Pigan.
She talks about the destruction of our planet and the waste. People I have come across who have immigrated to the U.S. are shocked at the amount of waste in our country compared to those who have grown up here as I was when I first moved here from England. On page 189, a young college student from Turkey says her grandmother taught her everything was a gift, "The cafeteria made me sick, because the way people treat their food. What people throw away here after one lunch would supply my village for days."
But not just the waste of food, the waste chemicals from products have polluted our earth. Onondaga Lake was once a thriving area of fish and wildlife and a great family destination for swimming and boating, but because a lake of toxic stew was left behind by a process company it is no longer a tourist destination. Children actually collected mercury from the shores to sell for pocket money!
We should all take the advice from the Turkish grandmother and think of everything as a precious gift.
