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

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

• Genre: Nonfiction; botany and environmentalism
• Originally Published: 2013
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 5 parts; 32 chapters; approx. 408 pages; approx. 16 hours, 44 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: The author, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, discusses environmental sustainability and connection between living things in essays devoted to nature and different cultures’ views of the world.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: The author mentions by name and discusses at length a figure that Native students with traditional spiritual beliefs may be uncomfortable reading about and discussing (the W*ndigo).

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Author

• Bio: Born in 1953 in New York; scientist, professor, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation; founder/director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment; teaches at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; winner of the John Burroughs Medal Award (Natural History Writing; 2005) for her book Gathering Moss; recipient of a MacArthur Fellows Program “Genius Grant” (2022)
• Other Works: Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2003); Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022)
• Awards: Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (2014); John Burroughs Nature Essay Award (2014); New York Times Bestseller list; LitHub’s Best Essay Collection of the Decade; Thoreau Prize for Excellence in Nature Writing (2021)