"What does it mean to be the people of the seventh fire, to walk back along the ancestral road and pick up what was left behind? How do we recognize what we should reclaim and what is dangerous refuse? What is truly medicine for the living earth and what is a drug of deception? None of us can recognize every piece, let alone carry it all. We need each other, to take a song, a word, a story, a tool, a ceremony and put it in our bundles. Not for ourselves, but for the ones yet to be born, for all our relations. Collectively, we assemble from the wisdom of the past a vision for the future, a worldview shaped by mutual flourishing."
Braiding Sweetgrass, Shkitagen: People of the Seventh Fire (p. 371).
Grandmother: Agnes Baker Pilgrim-Takelma Siletz, Oregon/USA. Posted by bridget orman on August 25, 2015.
Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe) is an economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development. She was the Green Party candidate for Vice President in the 1996 and 2000 U.S. presidential elections. She has founded numerous activist non-profit organizations, including the Indigenous Women's Network, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and Honor the Earth, of which she is the current executive director. LaDuke was actively involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016, and currently is closely involved in efforts to stop the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota.
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by
Haymarket Books proudly brings back into print Winona LaDuke's seminal work of Native resistance to oppression. This thoughtful, in-depth account of Native struggles against environmental and cultural degradation features chapters on the Seminoles, the Anishinaabeg, the Innu, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Mohawks, among others. Filled with inspiring testimonies of struggles for survival, each page of this volume speaks forcefully for self-determination and community. Winona LaDukewas named byTimein 1994 as one of America's fifty most promising leaders under forty. In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke served as Ralph Nader's vice presidential running mate in the Green Party.
Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) is author of The Sioux Chef. Their website explains their mission:
"We are a team of Anishinaabe, Mdewakanton Dakota, Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, Oglala Lakota, Wahpeton-Sisseton Dakota and are ever growing. We are chefs, ethnobotanists, food preservationists, adventurers, foragers, caterers, event planners, artists, musicians, food truckers and food lovers.
We are committed to revitalizing Native American Cuisine and in the process we are re-identifying North American Cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary culture long buried and often inaccessible."
The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by
2018 James Beard Award Winner, Best American Cookbook, Named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2017 by NPR, The Village Voice, Smithsonian Magazine, UPROXX, New York Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Mpls. St. PaulMagazine and others. Here is real food--our indigenous American fruits and vegetables, the wild and foraged ingredients, game and fish. Locally sourced, seasonal, "clean" ingredients and nose-to-tail cooking are nothing new to Sean Sherman, the Oglala Lakota chef and founder of The Sioux Chef. In his breakout book, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy. Sherman dispels outdated notions of Native American fare--no fry bread or Indian tacos here--and no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar, and domestic pork and beef. The Sioux Chef's healthful plates embrace venison and rabbit, river and lake trout, duck and quail, wild turkey, blueberries, sage, sumac, timpsula or wild turnip, plums, purslane, and abundant wildflowers. Contemporary and authentic, his dishes feature cedar braised bison, griddled wild rice cakes, amaranth crackers with smoked white bean paste, three sisters salad, deviled duck eggs, smoked turkey soup, dried meats, roasted corn sorbet, and hazelnut-maple bites. The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen is a rich education and a delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota and Minnesota territories, with a vision and approach to food that travels well beyond those borders.
Emily Johnson (Yup'ik) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, writer, activist, and director of Catalyst Dance. Her website explains her mission:
"Her dances function as portals and care processions, they engage audienceship within and through space, time, and environment-- interacting with a place's architecture, peoples, history and role in building futures. Emily is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral part of our connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present, and future." She is part of a US based advisory group who are developing a First Nations Performing Arts Network.
The Sentient Archive by 
James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) is an Indigenous language expert, teacher, author, and international speaker. He has been recognized as a leading voice in Native Language revitalization efforts and spiritual teachings for two decades. His keen insights on the interconnectedness of language and culture were developed in the field speaking with and recording elders and native speakers of the language (many of whom have since passed on) in Canada, Michigan and Minnesota as part of the Ojibwe Language Dictionary Project. He teaches online Ojibwe language classes and his "Ojibwe Word of the Day" video series is available for free through his Facebook page, YouTube channel, and as a podcast.
"We aim to improve the relationship of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, with the land around them and with the real history and sacredness of that land. This involves acknowledging and righting the wrongs of history, and also involves a personal journey through the importance of connecting with the earth, its creatures, and its teachings."
The following is a selection of Native American and Native American focused organizations and programs in the state of Oregon, or nearby. Suggestions for further organizations to list are welcomed.
For those who would like to access an electronic version of the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by For those who would like a physical copy of the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. InBraiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgmentand celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
For those who would like to listen to the book.
Braiding Sweetgrass by
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.
Eugene Public Library provides unlimited access to the eBook and eAudiobook on Hoopla and Library2Go (via the Libby or OverDrive apps) as well as the print book. Anyone who lives within City of Eugene limits can get a free library card!
Students at our PDX campus may be able to get a Multnomah Library Card.
Students at UO's OIMB campus in Charleston may be able to get a Coos Bay Public Library card.
If any of the available formats do not meet your needs, please email altformat@uoregon.edu with an accessible alternate format request that specifies your preferred format.
For any access issues or questions, please get in touch with your librarians here at UO Libraries!
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