In her essay “Mishkos Kenomagwen, the Lessons of Grass: Restoring Reciprocity with the Good Green Earth,” Kimmerer, a professor of botany, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and a celebrated speaker to many audiences, shared her Indigenous wisdom with readers, Native and non-Native.
To conduct a critical review of any essay written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, many readers, including myself, must set aside their admiration of her indigenous wisdom, her scientific knowledge, and her erudite styling on the page and stage. The delivered message and the considered audience are good angles at which to land on the grass of which she wrote.
Admittedly, I come to her words with a mixture of hope and fear. She shows ways forward to restore rightful relationships with the earth, seeing plants as gifts, not commodities. However, I wonder if it is too late to heal the relationships or if far too few people are getting her message. Can there be a good marriage between scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)? Can the western worldview mesh well with the indigenous worldview to restore reciprocity with a planet in crisis?
In Kimmerer’s view, scientific ecological knowledge “helps us understand only those things for which it possesses measuring tools.” It is objective, controlled, and not tied to cultural context. Whereas traditional ecological knowledge is specific to culture and place. By applying both ways of knowing, holistic understanding can be achieved. This requires a responsibility to the earth.
Stories from the earth
One way to instill responsibility is through story. We need new stories to inspire in the twenty-first century. Tales of the riches and excesses of capitalization and globalization are old and enjoyed mostly by an ever-shrinking audience. Kimmerer shared the stories of Nanabozho, of Sky Woman and of The Three Sisters to inspire reciprocal actions with the earth. The first man in oral traditions of the Anishinaabek people, Nanabozho has a parallel in the story of Adam. However, the lessons learned in early days on the earth differ. Adam was the forebear of the worldview that “natural resources” were to be dominated for the benefit of humanity. Nanbozho learned from the plants “what gifts they had to share with the people who would be coming.” The greatest gift was reciprocity. If the plants were used with respect and appreciation, then the plants would flourish and the needs of all the people would be met at sustainable rates.
The lesson of Sky Woman is gratitude. She fell from the sky to the world below where the animals lived. Geese caught her on their wings and then set her on a turtle’s back. A muskrat brought mud from deep water. The mud was spread upon the turtle’s back, and the earth was formed. From the Tree of Life that Sky Woman carried from above, seeds were planted in the mud, and plants grew in abundance. The animals were grateful to her, she was grateful to them. Kimmerer wrote that “Our oldest teachings remind us that gratitude is the thread that binds us together.”
In the story of The Three Sisters is a combined effect of relationship, kinship, and reciprocity–a synergy. Corn, beans, and squash have traditionally been planted on the same plot of land. The vertical corn stalks provide support for the bean vines. The nitrogen-fixing beans keep the soil rich. Soil stays moist and weeds and insects are discouraged by the large leaves of the squash plant. Further, the roots of each plant differ enough that they do not compete for the same areas of soil. This is a lesson for humans to work together for the betterment of all, people and plants.
Decolonizing via Responsibility
Kimmerer advised that “the thinking and practices developed by our ancestors can be a guide for our path forward.” However, I do not believe we will receive the full depth and breadth of traditional ecological knowledge in my lifetime. Too many eyes will be figuratively blind, too many ears will be figuratively deaf. And some ways of knowing are best kept hidden within the folds of Native science as prevention against appropriation. We settler colonialists have not fully earned back the trust that we repeatedly violated through attempts to assimilate and annihilate indigenous people and their cultures. The depredations are many. Westerners nearly ensured the loss of tribal languages through forced rules against usage in boarding schools. The practice of Native religion was illegal until passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. We have been irresponsible toward our brethren which includes plant life. Kimmerer asked, “If plants are our teachers, what are they teaching us and how can we be better students? These are among the responsibilities of humans.” Yet, I hold hope that the rift between scientific ecological knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge can one day be fully closed.
Despite my pessimism born of frustration with a barrage of daily reports about ecological damage to the natural world, Kimmerer provided a counterbalance in her essay. It was prophesized that people would need Indigenous knowledge to survive in a future like our present times. People of the Seventh Fire must walk backward and retrieve what was lost in ancient teachings in order to move forward to repair the earth. I feel it is the stories in this essay that must become the philosophy of the way forward.
Kimmerer RW. Mishkos Kenomagwen, the Lessons of Grass: Restoring Reciprocity with the Good Green Earth. In: Nelson MK, Shilling D, eds. Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability. New Directions in Sustainability and Society. Cambridge University Press; 2018:27-56.
