Braiding Sweetgrass explores reciprocal relationships between humans and the land, with a focus on the role of plants and botany in both Native American and Western European traditions.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants is about botany and the relationship to land in Native American traditions.

[1] Kimmerer, who is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes about her personal experiences working with plants and reuniting with her people's cultural traditions.

[6] Kimmerer has said about the book that, "I wanted readers to understand that Indigenous knowledge and Western science are both powerful ways of knowing, and that by using them together we can imagine a more just and joyful relationship with the Earth.

"[10] Kimmerer received the 2014 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

"[16] Heather Sullivan writes in the Journal of Germanic Studies that "one occasionally encounters a text like an earthquake: it shakes one's fundamental assumptions with a massive shift that, in comparison, renders mere epiphanies bloodless: Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass is one of these kinds of books.

"[17] Sue O'Brien in Library Journal wrote "Kimmerer writes of investigating the natural world with her students and her efforts to protect and restore plants, animals, and land.

A trained scientist who never loses sight of her Native heritage, she speaks of approaching nature with gratitude and giving back in return for what we receive."