Selected for the Notable Social Studies 2022 List Named to ALA Notable Children's Books 2022 In this Own Voices Native American picture book story, a modern Wabanaki girl is excited to accompany her grandmother for the first time to harvest sweetgrass for basket making. Musquon must overcome her impatience while learning to distinguish sweetgrass from other salt marsh grasses, but slowly the spirit and peace of her surroundings speak to her, and she gathers sweetgrass as her ancestors have done for centuries, leaving the first blade she sees to grow for future generations. This sweet, authentic story from a Maliseet mother and her Passamaquoddy husband includes backmatter about traditional basket making and a Wabanaki glossary.

'Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants' Guardian 'Bewitching ... a masterwork ... a glittering read in its entirety' Maria Popova, Brainpickings Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

Looks at the history of the African art of sweetgrass basket making in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Sweetgrass is a historic tract of land in South Carolina that has been home to the Blakely family for eight generations. But Sweetgrass—named for the indigenous grass that grows in the area—is in trouble. Taxes are skyrocketing. Bulldozers are leveling the surrounding properties. And the Blakelys could be forced to sell the one thing that continues to hold their disintegrating family together. In this poignant novel of hope, acceptance and the powerful gift of forgiveness, Mary Alice Monroe paints an intimate portrait of a family that must learn to unravel old patterns and weave together a new future.

Stalking the Wild Sweetgrass: Domestication and Horticulture of the Grass Used in African-American Coiled Basketry is concerned with the historical domestication of sweetgrass, the main construction/structural grass used in the three century old African-American tradition of coiled basketry in South Carolina. During the plantation era in southern agriculture, sweetgrass baskets were made for post-harvest processing and storage of rice by enslaved Africans from Lower Cape Fear, North Carolina to northern Florida. Enslaved Africans from the Rice Kingdom in Africa were prized for the basketry and rice agronomic skills and were specially sought by slavery traders. Today, this ancient craft still thrives in the community of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Authored by one of the most renowned experts in the field and filled with illuminating color photographs, this volume provides knowledge of the horticulture of an extremely important wild plant and an example of the perils of plant- and people-based research and experimentation. As one of the few authoritative texts on the subject, Stalking the Wild Sweetgrass: Domestication and Horticulture of the Grass Used in African-American Coiled Basketry is a resourceful volume on wild sweetgrass, suitable for researchers and students alike.

When Johnathan Traver joined the Union Army in October of 1861, he imagined a glorious and noble death awash in crimson. Eight months later, a survivor of Shiloh, Johnathan is still alive, serving as a master sergeant. To the dismay of his superiors, he makes it his mission to update battle training techniques, even if it means becoming an outlaw. He believes modern weapons should dictate modern battle strategies, but the army still trains men as if they had muskets. Johnathan-the disowned son of a wealthy Vermont Squire who endured an abusive childhood-meets Esher, an illiterate orphan from the prairie, and they become warrior companions. Adventure is Johnathan's word for their union; love is Esher's. What's more, the vast difference in their backgrounds forms an obstacle for them. Esher belabors this difference; Johnathan doesn't. Sharing a tale of the Union soldiers in the midst of the Civil War, Sweetgrass: Book II remembers them for their bravery and communicates a triumph of the spirit.

Soon Comes the Sweetgrass By: Carol Woster “It’s the grass that never dies,” pronounced the aging farm woman of the plains. Sweetgrass means a lot to these cultures. In the late 1960s, medicine woman Cecile Last Star dug in her worn trunk and gave me a plait of it, and it’s still here intact. Great cowboy artist C.M. Russell knew well the serrated mountains of Glacier National Park, wide stretches of undulating prairies and colossal fame. A young Ace Powell helped blast for Going-to-the-Sun highway in the early 1930s. His mother had said, “Ace, you are always painting a picture.” Charley Russell died in 1926. Earlier they wove in and out of Apgar, later Ace babysat for Charley’s son. Ace also spent his sophomore year at high school in Browning. Another great Montana artistic genius, Bob Scriver, became a fast friend from those high school sophomore days. Ace would give some of his stretched window shades to young artists in the tribe. Rich genius poured out from these parts. Sweetgrass was a backdrop to daily and sacred activities. Fragrances intermingled with lives. Outsiders called this life vanishing. Not to be believed as artists’ lives dominated the scene. By 1967, Ace made possible for me to stand in the presence of Last Star and witness the beautiful event where she gave me the sweetgrass. It waves still around these areas and has different meanings for different people. Yet to say this way of life is vanishing… no way. Remember people have hearts…