Braiding Sweetgrass Gifting and Caring

Dan Powers

Blog Post 1

Professor Santos

1/26/18

Eng 102

            In Robin Wall Kimmerers book, Braiding Sweetgrass, she talks the people how important the earth is to everything living on it. Kimmerer talks about how the Skywoman gave the gift of land and plants to the first animals who lived and helped her find dirt at the bottom of the sea. Kimmerer believes that everything that was given to the people from the Skywoman should not be sold but gifted to others as it was gifted to them from the earth. “It’s the relationship between the producer and consumer that changes everything” (26). Such as strawberries. Berries where a big part of her childhood as she lived around and worked on berry farms. The berries were from the daughter of skywomans heart for when she died, the berries started to grow.

Kimmerer also has traditions for when her family used the earth they would give back. Nearly every morning her father makes cups of coffee or tea. However, before pouring a cup for themselves he pours some onto the earth saying “Here’s to the god of Tahawus” (34), giving back as the coffee and tea was gifted to them. Kimmerers mother has her own traditions. By camping out in mother nature, they must clean up after themselves making it better than when they arrived.

My family has the same sense of respect of gifting others and protecting mother nature. Nearly every year my grandfather makes his special hams to give out to the rest of the family we have not seen for a while. Not looking for anything in return he gifts them out mostly once a year but occasionally he would randomly make his hams and gift them to some family or neighbors. My grandmother also had a sense of gift, not hams however but strawberries. She would have her own strawberry garden with a white picket fence around it. I would come and visit and we both would spend a hour or two picking and eating strawberries. She had so many strawberries that she would send me out to give them to some neighbors. My family would also go camping once a year in Maine. A few days a year we would go to the same campground along side the beautiful Moosehead Lake. When we prepare to leave we would pick up after ourselves and leave left over fire wood next to a tree so that others could use it.