48 pages • 1 hour read
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
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Part 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 6: “Burning Sweetgrass”
Part 6, Chapter 22 Summary: “Windigo Footprints”
Kimmerer is snowshoeing alone when heavy snow forces her to turn back. As she retraces her steps, she notices a second set of prints in her tracks. She looks nervously for the Windigo, a legendary Anishinaabe monster with a heart made of ice. The Windigo are humans whose cannibalism transformed them into monsters; stories say that their bite will turn others into monsters too.
In a time when winter storms buried food sources, Windigo stories were a reminder of the cultural taboos against cannibalism. Kimmerer argues that they also reflect the values of Anishinaabe society. For a people who prioritized cooperation and mutual care, the Windigo was a monstrous example of selfishness and greed. Windigo stories taught people to avoid greed even in times of great hunger.
Modern Indigenous thinkers point to addiction, overconsumption, and corporate greed as evidence that the Windigo is active in American culture. Kimmerer suggests that the Windigo myth may have originated as a way of remembering those who were banished from the group for their greed. She argues that American culture on the other hand celebrates consumption and greed, calling these patterns Windigo thinking. She challenges readers to reduce the impact of Windigo thinking in their communities.
Part 6, Chapter 23 Summary: “People of Corn, People of Light”
The Mayan creation story says that after creating animals and plants, the divine thinkers who shaped the world wanted a being that could praise creation and the creators themselves. They first tried to make people out of mud, but the people quickly melted away. Then the creators made people out of wood: these people were beautiful but were not grateful. Next, they made people out of light, but these people were even more arrogant. Finally, the creators made people out of yellow and white corn, which they mixed with water. The people of the corn were grateful for their creation and in awe of the world around them. As a result of their respect and love, the other beings on Earth helped to sustain the people of the corn.
Kimmerer suggests that the corn plant is an example of symbiosis and harmony, as it requires earth, water, light, and air to grow. Like all green plants, it takes in carbon dioxide, which is deadly to humans, and releases life-giving oxygen. It is the source of life in many cultures and requires human cultivation to flourish. She challenges readers to follow the people of the corn in practicing gratitude for the gifts of the Earth.
Part 6, Chapter 24 Summary: “Shkitagen: the People of the Seventh Fire”
Potawatomi means People of the Fire, and the Potawatomi people think of fire as a gift to be shared with the world. Traditionally, Potawatomi people used small fires to clear landscapes to encourage new growth. Shkitagen is a fungus that grows on some varieties of birch trees. Embers dropped onto the Shkitagen will not go out, so the Potawatomi consider them sacred firekeepers.
The Anishinaabe Seventh Fire Prophecy tells the past and future of the people. During the First Fire, the people moved from their ancestral homes to land near the St. Lawrence River. The Second Fire took them to Lake Huron, and the Third Fire saw them move again. During the time of the Fourth Fire, prophets warned of the coming of a new people. They came in the Fifth Fire, which saw the destruction of nations and the separation of families. The Sixth Fire began with a prophecy that the Seventh Fire would bring about a restoration. Knowledge keepers saw the current age as the time of the Seventh Fire when leaders will look back to find fragments of what was lost. Kimmerer encourages readers to choose respect and reciprocity over materialism and greed to light the final Eighth Fire that will unite the world.
Part 6, Chapter 25 Summary: “Defeating Windigo”
Kimmerer walks to the woods where she cares for sacred plants, remembering the Windigo prints from the previous winter. She realizes that her neighbor has brought in loggers and cut down the trees on his property. Without the shade of these trees, the medicine plants now sprouting will burn in the summer sun. She is shaken by the thought of Windigo’s destructive touch.
In Anishinaabe legend, the first man Nanabozho fought long and hard against the Windigo during the summer months. The Anishinaabe word for summer means a time of plenty; Kimmerer suggests that plenty is an antidote for the overconsumption represented by the Windigo. She argues that capitalism depends on a sense of scarcity and competition. She evokes the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe concept of One Bowl, One Spoon as an alternative. The metaphor frames the Earth as a great bowl for all beings to feed from, with a single spoon to serve them all.
Kimmerer imagines luring the Windigo to her home and offering it medicine to purge all the badness inside it. Before it dies, she offers it healing medicine from the Earth. As the man inside the Windigo comes to life, she tells him the story of Skywoman Falling.
Part 6 Analysis
The final section of Braiding Sweetgrass finishes the project proposed in the opening chapters. In the final chapter of the book, Kimmerer imagines defeating Windigo by purging all the badness inside him and healing him with a tonic made of restorative plants. As the man inside Windigo comes back to life, she recites the beginning of the Anishinaabe origin story, Skywoman Falling: “she fell like a maple seed, pirouetting from the autumn sky” (291). These words are taken directly from the second chapter of the book (18), which is dedicated to the story of Skywoman, and which follows Kimmerer’s introductory invitation to remember in the first chapter. The repetition of this story at the beginning and end of Braiding Sweetgrass makes the book a closed loop. The structural loop of the book reflects the traditional circle of braided sweetgrass which is “given as a sign of kindness, compassion, and gratitude” (28). The structure supports Kimmerer’s stated goal to offer the book as “a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world” by replicating the circular form of a braid of sweetgrass (28). The interconnectedness of the various parts of the book itself reflects The Interconnectedness of Life on Earth that the book describes.
The final section of the book contains Kimmerer’s most explicit discussion of The Importance of Storytelling in Indigenous Communities, an important thematic concern. Throughout the book, Kimmerer shares Indigenous myths and creation stories with her primarily non-Indigenous audience, and this concluding section explains why. Kimmerer argues that “stories are among our most potent tools for restoring the land as well as our relationship to the land” (258). Studying and telling stories about the way things used to be helps people to imagine other ways of living. Stories also help people from other cultures to understand Indigenous worldviews and practices more clearly. Kimmerer writes that “creation stories offer a glimpse into the worldview of a people, of how they understand themselves, their place in the world, and the ideals to which they aspire” (252). Kimmerer offers creation stories in this section and throughout the book as a way of introducing key Indigenous concepts and beliefs to her non-Indigenous audience. Furthermore, by sharing the stories that have been passed down to her by her ancestors and other Indigenous groups, Kimmerer helps undo the damage of The Injustice of the American Government’s Treatment of Indigenous Americans. Her book contributes to the work of reviving the cultural practices and lifeways that the US government had tried to destroy.
The myth of the Windigo—a cannibalistic human-monster hybrid featured in the first and last chapters of this section—also provides key insight into Anishinaabe culture for non-Indigenous readers. Kimmerer suggests that “the collective fears and deepest values of a people are also seen in the monsters they create” (252). She interprets the Windigo as a manifestation of “that within us that cares more for its own survival than for anything else” (252). She argues that the Windigo myth “was created in stories so that we might learn why we should recoil from the greedy part of ourselves” (253). The story of the Windigo reveals two important lessons essential to Kimmerer’s arguments in Braiding Sweetgrass. First, that greed is harmful, and second, that the health of the community is more important than the needs of the individual. Kimmerer’s repeated use of the story of the Windigo serves to both introduce audiences to Anishinaabe culture and to reiterate the central arguments of her book. It also acts as a call to consciousness and action: While the Windigo culture of capitalist society threatens to destroy all life on Earth, embracing Indigenous practices can help to save us.
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