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

Part 1, Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. Light (Chapter 1)

2. From the body of Skywoman’s daughter (Chapter 3)

3. The highest Adirondack peak (Chapter 4)

4. 70 percent (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. She points out that the Skywoman story depicts the natural world as a place where humans belong and one that they have a responsibility to tend thoughtfully. By contrast, the Biblical story of Eden depicts the natural world as a hostile place that must be subdued by the humans exiled into it. (Chapter 1)

2. Kimmerer explains that all pecan trees in an area fruit at the same time, which means that when the pecans ripen, there are huge quantities of them and animals must store the extras. This allows the pecans to propagate in new places. From this example, Kimmerer draws the lesson that “all flourishing is mutual.” (Chapter 2)

3. She says that in the dominant culture, gifts are expected to be free and do not create any obligation in the recipient. In “gift economies,” however, which many Indigenous societies have, gifts create relationships with an expectation of mutual benefit.