Braiding Sweetgrass

indirect currency of reciprocity. Perhaps we can think of the Honorable Harvest as a mirror by which we judge our purchases. Wha ...

although Cheetos and Ding Dongs remain an ecological mystery. For the most part, I can use dollars as the currency of good ecolo ...

perched on the stanchions. As I cross the wall, the floor is hard beneath my feet and heels click on the faux-marble tile. I pau ...

the yellow dyed may be worse than the white bleached. I have my suspicions, but I choose the yellow as I always do. It looks so ...

Sullen teenagers wanting to buy their self hood and sad-looking old men sitting alone at the food court. Even the plants are pla ...

hint of leaf mold and rainwater. Potato leek soup, wild leek risotto, or just a bowl of leeks are nourishment for body and soul. ...

my hillside has yielded small patches of vibrant green in April and nurtures the hope that the leeks can return to their homelan ...

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS Sweetgrass, as the hair of Mother Earth, is traditionally braided to show loving care for her well-being. Br ...

In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place Fog shrouds the land. There is just this rock in the half-darkness a ...

called out the name to the four directions so that the others would know who was coming. Nanabozho, part man, part manido—a powe ...

Man, his Original Instructions.* This traditional teaching has been published in Eddie Benton-Banais’s The Mishomis Book. Anis ...

many have been forgotten. After all these generations since Columbus, some of the wisest of Native elders still puzzle over the ...

gratitude to the East for the chance to learn every day, to start anew. In the East, Nanabozho received the lesson that Mother E ...

from the loss of relationship. As our human dominance of the world has grown, we have become more isolated, more lonely when we ...

with him to remind him that to be indigenous is to protect life on earth. Following the Original Instructions, Benton-Banai reco ...

To each of the four directions Nanabozho wandered on long, strong legs. Singing loudly as he went, he didn’t hear the bird’s chi ...

down on a different world. The salmon would be crowding up the rivers, and passenger pigeons would darken the sky. Wolves, crane ...

fires consume the land. Sage, mshkodewashk, the sacred plant of the west, was there to help him, to wash away fear. Benton-Banai ...

Is this something that can be learned? Where are the teachers? I’m remembering the words of elder Henry Lickers. “You know, they ...

turns the leaves tough. The people became glad for its constant presence when they learned that the leaves, when they are rolled ...