Curiosity, Knowledge, and Language in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass
Subtitled “Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants,” Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) weaves together those strands of intellectual inquiry through a series of personal essays. These essays reveal Kimmerer’s journey toward understanding her Native American heritage as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in relation to her scientific training as a botanist, her work as university professor, and her lived experience as a mother. Reading her reflections and insights helps us to see anew our own lives and relationships to the natural world.
We loved this book for its thoughtfulness. Of particular interest during our discussion were the chapters “Asters and Goldenrod” and “Learning the Grammar of Animacy.”
In “Asters and Goldenrod,” Kimmerer recounts her curiosity about why the purple-flowering aster and the yellow-flowering solidago (goldenrod) frequently grow together in meadows. The question of why these two plants were so beautiful together and why they grew together in the wild inspired Kimmerer to be a botany major as an undergraduate. But her professors thought those questions were irrelevant to the scientific study of botany. They insisted on what Kimmerer later came to realize was a false dichotomy between science and beauty. Bridging this divide through her research led her to scientific answers to both of her questions, including why that plant pairing is ecologically beneficial and why the color pairing of purple and yellow is attractive to both bees and humans.
The lessons Kimmerer drew from her field experience led her to recognize the importance of observing subjects in the wild rather than solely in a lab. She asks readers what it would mean to treat the more-than-human residents of Earth (e.g. plants, rocks, insects, animals) not as objects but as subjects (i.e. beings). Just as Kimmerer realized that science and beauty are complementary, so too did she realize that Western science and indigenous knowledge could be complementary. She concludes this chapter with a call to break the barriers between Western science and indigenous knowledge.
The lessons Kimmerer drew from her field experience led her to recognize the importance of observing subjects in the wild rather than solely in a lab. She asks readers what it would mean to treat the more-than-human residents of Earth (e.g. plants, rocks, insects, animals) not as objects but as subjects (i.e. beings). Just as Kimmerer realized that science and beauty are complementary, so too did she realize that Western science and indigenous knowledge could be complementary. She concludes this chapter with a call to break the barriers between Western science and indigenous knowledge.
In “Learning the Grammar of Animacy,” Kimmerer explores the role of language in shaping culture and perception, and hence the role of language in shaping human relationships with the rest of the natural world. She thinks through the implications of languages that are primarily verbs (such as Potawatomi) versus those that are primarily nouns (such as English). She observes that there is a significant difference between a bay (n.) and to be a bay (v.) because “A bay is a noun only if water is dead,” meaning that “all are possible verbs in a world where everything is alive” (55). She posits that English-speakers’ relationship to the natural world would be radically different if our language inherently shaped our perception, enabling us to “see the animacy of the world, the life that pulses through all things” (55). It might cause us “to address the living world as we [do] our family. Because they are our family” (55). She suggests that this is something we knew as very young children but that adults taught us to think otherwise, to think of the world around us as inanimate or as objects rather than as subjects. When, as a professor, Kimmerer brought these new understandings into her college classroom, her students raised the question: “wouldn’t things be different if nothing was an it?” (57). The book as a whole makes a strong case for why we should struggle to reframe our own frames of perception despite the limitations of our language.
Additional Resources
Gamil, Ronen. “Asters and Goldenrods: Ecological Superstars.” Plants & Gardens Blog, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 1 September 2023.
Kane, Marilyn. “Beauty & Science: What Scientists Mean When They Say Nature Is Beautiful.” Philosophy Now, Issue 17, 1997.
Roach, Margaret. “The Late-Summer Lure of Asters and Goldenrods.” The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2020.
Wahl, Daniel Christian. “Valuing Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Wisdom.” Medium, 23 April 2017.
Kimmerer’s Reference to Indian Boarding Schools
Within “Learning the Grammar of Animacy,” Kimmerer mentions white “Indian agents” taking Native American children away from their families and bringing them to what were known as Indian boarding schools for re-education. Her grandfather was one of those who was taken in this manner (p. 50). However, Kimmerer doesn’t explain the history of these events. Because they might be unfamiliar to some readers, I would like to offer a little background here. The basic history is that from 1800 to 1950, in response to federal policies on assimilation, more than 500 boarding schools were created, operated, and funded (some by the federal government, some by religious organizations) in order to assimilate indigenous children into mainstream American society by forcing them to abandon their own cultures and languages; as one might expect, the adults in the tribes resisted this forced assimilation (some parents who were caught hiding their children were prosecuted and imprisoned). The re-education of indigenous children was part of Captain Richard H. Pratt’s plan to “kill the Indian, and save the man.” These Indian boarding schools were located in nearly every state, including Alaska and Hawai’i. One of the most famous is the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, located in Pennsylvania (see also this exhibit on Carlisle). The history of these Indian boarding schools is part of the legacy of settler colonialism.
Further Reading
Levitt, Zach et al. “The Native American Boarding School System,” The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2023.
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “US Indian Boarding School History.” N.d.
PBS. “Northwest Now | Indian Boarding Schools.” Season 13 Episode 13, Public Broadcasting Service, 2 Dec. 2021.
The Smithsonian Institute. “Chapter 3: Boarding Schools.” Native Words, Native Warriors. National Museum of the American Indian, The Smithsonian Institute. N.d.
