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The full title of this work is Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. This informs the reader not only of the book’s topic, but of the structure Kimmerer uses to convey information. Almost every chapter touches on indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants at one point or another, and often in that same order. For example, Chapter 2, “The Council of Pecans,” begins with the story of displaced Indigenous peoples being forced to move to new territories, and their reliance on nuts such as pecans throughout their arduous journeys. It then continues to explain, in scientific terms, what mast fruiting is, and how the trees only bear fruit together, when all of them are flourishing. Finally, the chapter closes by explaining the lesson the pecan trees taught, that there is strength in unity.

Even when describing scientific matters, Kimmerer keeps to her spiritually- and emotionally-rooted, approachable style. Throughout the book, she strongly argues that the rational, logical lens of science is not enough to understand the world, and reflects that belief in how she writes. Each chapter has a personal story of her own spiritual or emotional experiences interwoven between facts of science and explanation of Indigenous knowledge, providing a personal stake for both Kimmerer herself and readers. Despite being a text discussing environmentalism, science, and religious systems, Braiding Sweetgrass reads more like a journey of self-discovery than a dry scientific treatise. One of the more science-heavy chapters, Chapter 23, “Umblicaria: The Belly Button of the World,” opens with lush descriptions of nature and Kimmerer’s personal experiences before explaining the science behind lichen, the subject of the chapter. This serves the dual purpose of easing a non-scientific reader into the more complex scientific topics and allowing the reader to appreciate the emotional and spiritual aspect of nature first and foremost.

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