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Chapter 26, “Windigo Footprints,” introduces the Anishinaabe legend of the Windigo, a monster created when a human being becomes a cannibal. The Windigo is a monster of overconsumption and greed, which becomes hungrier the more it eats in a positive feedback loop. Positive feedback loops create perpetual change, leading to either growth or destruction, and can never be sated. Negative feedback loops, on the other hand, create stability and balance via reciprocity. Kimmerer argues that the marks of the Windigo are everywhere in modern culture, obsessed as it is with overconsumption and infinite growth, which is simply not possible.

Read about the background Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Chapter 27, “The Sacred and the Superfund,” is a discussion about restoration told through the story of Onondaga Lake. Now one of the most polluted lakes in America, it was once sacred land to the Onondaga Nation and was where the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, formed of five tribes, came together to create peace. In modern day, the Onondaga Nation has attempted to regain the rights to the land, not to displace communities already there or build casinos, but to have the right to heal the land fully and completely. According to Kimmerer, restoration cannot be accomplished simply by returning native plants. The form and function of nature must be restored, helped along, and preserved. The land must be home, not property or capital. It should not be treated as waste or a dumping ground.

In Chapter 28, “People of Corn, People of Light,” Kimmerer uses the Mayan story of Creation to discuss the arrogance of the scientific worldview. In the Creation story, the people made of light were too arrogant, thinking they knew everything, and as a result did not care for Creation as they should. It was only the humble people made of corn who cared for the earth properly. As Kimmerer explains, science itself is not the problem, but the idea that we are above all and can explain all solely through our own knowledge is the problem. Humans have the gift of language, and like any gift, it also comes with a responsibility. This responsibility is to use language to bring science and spirit back together, and not just to view the materialistic world.

Chapter 29, “Collateral Damage,” highlights the price of human development. Kimmerer compares two situations: salamanders killed when crossing a road, and people killed in Baghdad for oil. In both cases, Kimmerer argues, humanity has decided that these lives are acceptable losses, and the destruction caused by mankind is often presented as if it is a force of nature and not a choice. 

Chapter 30, “Shkitagen: People of the Seventh Fire,” discusses fire as both a destructive force and a healing force. In the Anishinaabe tradition, fires can also refer to specific eras of time. Currently, the world is believed to be in the time of the Seventh Fire, in which people will return to the teachings of their ancestors after a time of grief and destruction. This may be followed by the Eighth Fire, a time in which peace will reign over the world, but it all depends on where humanity goes from here. In order to light this Eighth Fire, Kimmerer encourages people to keep the fire of their spirits alive and carry them within, just as shkitagen, a fungus, was once used by Indigenous peoples to carry embers.

Chapter 31, “Defeating Windigo,” states that the enemy of overconsumption is plenty. Kimmerer notes that, since the current economy maintains scarcity, its antidote is abundance. She finishes the chapter with a fantastical story in which she forces a Windigo to vomit up the waste and evil of mankind, and then feeds it the abundant gifts of the earth, finally defeating it.

“Epilogue: Returning the Gift” serves as a final encouragement for reciprocity through the story of a gift-giving ceremony at a tribal gathering. Unlike the usual tradition of gift giving, in which an honored person is given the gifts, it is the most honored who gives gifts, instead of hoarding their wealth. Kimmerer closes by reminding the reader that the earth has given many gifts, and it is now humanity’s time to give back.

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