Lesson 3: Teaching The Next Generation About Respect Is Key

The environment is in trouble. There’s global warming, species are dying , coasts are rising, and our demand for natural resources never stops increasing. 

What can we do about it? People fight to ma...

The relationship should be like one between two people who care about each other . They take care of each other not because they have to, but because they want to . But Kimme...

She says it’s great that people are fighting for big businesses to take responsibility, but the main goal should be sustainability. We can learn from the Potawatomi that this is done through reciprocation. 

There is so much hope in the next generation and what they can do if they feel more connected to nature . The Potawatomi teach us a valuable lesson: only by giving back in the present can we continue to take in the future.

1. The Native American people can teach us a lot about how to interact with our environment.
2. If we want to have a sustainable environment, we need to start changing our ways to be more reciprocal.
3. To protect our future, we have to start teachi...

Kimmerer ‘s experience growing up as a Native American in modern America was one of clashing cultures. It seemed the country and her tribe were at constant odds. 

Many tribes practice the Honorable Harvest, where they take only what they need and leave nature to regenerate and it will give back to us. She says instead of just throwing paper away and not thinking about the trees that gave it to you, try considering the gifts this tree has given you an...

Native Americans understand and respect the cyclical nature of life around them. A woman will start out in the Way of The Daughter, where she will learn about the world around her from her parents. Then she enters the Way of the Mother,

Braiding Sweetgrass is an excellent book. My grandpa has a lot of good relationships with Native American people and although I don’t know many personally, I have a lot of respect for them b...

She gives an example of wild strawberries that grew in a field by her school. She considers these kinds of offerings as part of the world’s gift economy, or things the world offers without expectation of something in return. 

But in Pot...

Native American schools have already done this in what they call a Thanksgiving Address where they thank Mother Earth for providing us with water, food , and shelter.

This could help t...

Braiding Sweetgrass offers some great ways for all of us to take better care of and be more grateful for our planet by explaining the way that Native Americans view and take care of it.

The 22-year-old college student who is in a botany class, the 49-year-old environmentalist who wants more ways to help the planet, and anyone that enjoys a more holistic look at science.

Kimmerer said she put this way of thinking to use when she came across a polluted local pond where birds would get stuck in the algae. She took care of the pon...

"In some Native languages the term for plants translates to 'those who take care of us.'"

-Robin Wall Kimmerer