Section 2: Tending Sweetgrass

Summary

“Maple Sugar Moon,” the first chapter in this section, begins with a brief tale of Nanabozho, the Original Man of Anishinaabe creation lore. Kimmerer relates how Nanabozho diluted the sap of maple trees so that people would not neglect their ceremonies and relationships to lie beneath the trees all day. From here, Kimmerer turns to her own foray into maple sugaring on her New England homestead. She reflects on the planting and stewardship that left the stand of maple trees available for her and her family to use. 

The next chapter, “Witch Hazel,” is told from the point of view of one of Kimmerer’s daughters. The story concerns the family’s neighbor in rural Kentucky, an older local woman named Hazel. The narrator tells of Kimmerer and Hazel, “unlikely sisters,” bonding over gardening and herbal lore. 

In “A Mother’s Work,” Kimmerer tells of her quest to rehabilitate an overgrown pond on her New England property. She explains how her scientific training helped her to identify and deal with the different species of algae that were living in the pond. In the process, Kimmerer remarks, she was making decisions about which species of plants and animals could flourish or even survive in the pond and which would die out. These moral decisions, she says, are unavoidable, and in a world where all species depend on one another, there are few simple answers. 

“The Consolation of Water Lilies” fast-forwards to the departure of Kimmerer’s younger daughter for college. Kimmerer copes with the help of her “grief-containment system,” a kayak. Paddling out into a forested pond near her home, she stops to take stock of the rich wildlife while allowing the water to rock her back and forth. Water lilies receive Kimmerer’s special attention, and their capillary flow of oxygen from root to stem makes her think of the interconnectedness of the generations. Coming home to find a care package from her cousin, she reflects on the joy and value of gift giving. 

“Allegiance to Gratitude” is, essentially, a heavily annotated presentation of the Thanksgiving Address, a Haudenosaunee prayer or greeting in which the various elements of the natural world are named and thanked. Kimmerer notes that the Address, in lieu of the Pledge of Allegiance, begins the school day on the territory of the Onondaga Nation. She argues that it represents a different, deeper kind of allegiance than patriotism, since a country depends for its existence on the underlying land and ecosystems. 

Analysis

This section showcases the more lyrical side of Kimmerer’s style of writing. When discussing the beauty of the natural world—and above all, that of plants—Kimmerer writes with vivid intensity, frank emotion, and a frequent use of metaphor. The shadows of trees in “Maple Sugar Moon” are “bold black embroidery”; in “The Consolation of Water Lilies,” Kimmerer paddles on a pond of “luminous green hearts” that mirror her own upwelling of emotion at the prospect of an empty nest. 

Often, Kimmerer rapidly alternates between what might be called scientific <Prod: link scientific to Science in main ideas> and poetic terminology. Thus, in “A Mother’s Work,” Spirogyra algae are part of the dense eutrophic matting that is making Kimmerer’s pond unswimmable, but they are also “translucent strands . . . in which the chloroplasts spiral like a green staircase.” Other species of algae, named and characterized with the aid of a microscope, present as “ribbons,” “nets,” and “curtains.” Apart from potentially broadening the book’s appeal beyond a work of popular science or a collection of poems, this varied language underscores Kimmerer’s point about the value of multiple perspectives. Scientific language can inspire wonder and curiosity, but it does not tell the whole story about a plant, place, or ecosystem. 

In “Allegiance to Gratitude,” Kimmerer also introduces a broader discussion of where people should place their ultimate loyalty. Her own family history, as seen back in “The Council of Pecans,” was violently disrupted by the actions of the United States government and its representatives. Yet Kimmerer also offers positive reasons to give one’s allegiance to something beyond political borders. She suggests that it is humanity’s relationship to the earth, not to states or republics, that will ultimately decide the fate of both people and polities.