Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants is a nonfiction book made by Robin Wall Kimmerer about indigenous/Native American knowledge. In the sections that we read, Robin Wall Kimmerer detailed pecans and their relation to indigenous history and knowledge, comparing that to the horrors that the indigenous people of the United States have faced because of the ways in which their culture, and ultimately their identity, has been silenced in order for the United States to conquer their lands.

Honestly, this is one of the most jarring readings I’ve ever read so far in this class. The first 5 paragraphs was a wholesome story about a child who was getting pecans for his family with his friend, as they failed to fish. Then suddenly, it turns into a talk about how even the word “pecan” was a word, essentially, butchered by American culture as it derives from “pigan”, which really just means “nuts”.

The most jarring of transitions was when Kimmerer detailed the way that pecan trees have developed “mass fruiting”, which is how pecan trees generate a lot of pecans infrequently, so that they can take advantage of the previous “mass fruiting” that increased prey population (which would eat the pecans), subsequently increasing predator hunting, which would reduce prey population. This reduction in prey populations would be the most viable time to spread pecans, since it is the time where it is the most likely for pecans to survive and be planted as pecan trees for a future generation.

This transitioned into how the federal government of the United States offered people from Native American territories a chance to become citizens of the United States: “The leaders were offered the American Dream”, subsequently taking away their identity over a promise of “more freedoms”. I think the best part is that I think this heavily relates to this idea of “mass fruiting” from pecan trees because, much like the pecan trees, the Native American people have become the prey to be taken advantage of; offered a lot “pecans” or the “American dream”, but the consequence is that the “prey population is reduced” or that the Native American population and identity are lost in time.