Braiding Sweetgrass

How the Earth Teaches Us to Give Back

The relationship between humans and the earth begins with the understanding that we are part of a system built on gratitude and mutual aid. This perspective is rooted in ancient stories, such as the history of Skywoman, who fell from a hole in the sky to a world covered only in water. In this story, the animals did not see a stranger to be feared, but a being in need of help. Geese caught her in flight, and a great turtle offered his back as a place for her to rest. Other animals dove deep into the dark water to find mud, and it was the small, humble muskrat who eventually sacrificed his life to bring up a handful of earth. By spreading this mud on the turtle’s back and dancing with gratitude, Skywoman created the land known as Turtle Island. This story teaches that the world was not made by one person alone, but through the combined gifts of many species. This view of the world as a gift stands in stark contrast to cultural narratives that portray the earth as a place of exile or a set of resources to be conquered. Robin Wall Kimmerer notes that many modern students struggle to imagine a positive relationship between humans and nature because they have been taught to see people only as a source of environmental destruction. When the earth is viewed as a garden created for the well-being of all, humans act as gardeners who have a responsibility to give back.

Nature itself provides a model for how to live in balance through the behavior of trees. The pecan tree practices a strategy called mast fruiting, where all the trees in a region produce a massive crop of nuts at the same time and then go quiet for several years. By producing more food than local animals can possibly eat, the trees ensure that some seeds will survive. Kimmerer recalls her grandfather as a young boy in Oklahoma, gathering these abundant pecans to help his family survive. The trees act as a community, sharing nutrients through underground fungal networks so that even the trees in poor soil have enough energy to fruit alongside their neighbors. This biological reality mirrors the indigenous lesson that no individual can truly thrive if the community is failing. The history of the Potawatomi people reflects the struggle to maintain this sense of community in the face of external pressure. During the era of forced removal and the subsequent division of communal lands into private allotments, the government attempted to replace the idea of land as a shared gift with the concept of land as private property. While the pecan trees taught the importance of standing together, legal systems pushed for individual ownership, which often led to the loss of the land altogether. Despite these hardships, the core belief remains that land is a sacred connection to ancestors and a source of life that requires active care.

Understanding the world as a gift changes the way we engage in everyday exchange. In a commodity economy, a transaction ends when money is traded for an object, leaving no lasting bond. In a gift economy, receiving something creates a relationship and an obligation to give back. Using the example of wild strawberries, Kimmerer explains that these berries belong to themselves and are given freely by the earth. Because they are a gift, they inspire a sense of gratitude that a store-bought berry cannot provide. Ceremony serves as a vital tool for maintaining this connection and remembering our responsibilities. Kimmerer describes her father’s ritual of pouring the first cup of morning coffee onto the ground during family camping trips. While this act may have started as a practical way to clear the grounds from a coffeepot, it evolved into a sacred moment of respect for the land. Such ceremonies, whether large communal gatherings or small personal acts, marry the mundane to the sacred. They provide a way for people to announce their presence to the land and to acknowledge that everything we have is a gift.

The integration of different ways of knowing can lead to a more complete understanding of this living world. Science often focuses on the mechanics of how things work, reducing plants to objects of study. Traditional knowledge views plants as teachers and relatives with their own stories and purposes. Kimmerer illustrates this through the pairing of purple asters and goldenrod. While a strictly objective scientist might dismiss the beauty of these flowers as irrelevant, a broader perspective reveals that their complementary colors make them more visible to bees, benefiting both species. Language also plays a crucial role in how we perceive the environment. English is a noun-based language that often treats the natural world as a collection of objects, using the word it to refer to living beings like trees or birds. In contrast, the Potawatomi language is centered on verbs and the concept of animacy. In this worldview, a bay is a living process rather than just a place. By using a grammar of animacy, we acknowledge that plants, animals, and even rocks and water are beings rather than things. This linguistic shift fosters a democracy of species where humans are tasked with learning from the older, wiser species that have inhabited the earth much longer.

Ultimately, becoming native to a place means living as if the future of our children depends on the health of the land. It requires a transformation from seeing the world as a warehouse of resources to seeing it as a communion of subjects. By listening to the stories of the land, practicing reciprocity, and adopting a language of respect, we can begin to heal our relationship with the earth. This journey is about using ancient wisdom to navigate the future, ensuring that the gifts of the earth continue to move from hand to hand across generations.