Settlers share the grief of lost ecological reciprocity with Indigenous peoples

Evidence

But I need to remember that the grief is the settlers’ as well. They too will never walk in a tallgrass prairie where sunflowers dance with goldfinches. Their children have also lost the chance to sing at the Maple Dance. They can’t drink the water either. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 765

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the polyad’s land relationship thread — relevant to Eco-Justice’s environmental racism critique by refusing a purely binary victim/oppressor framing, emphasizing shared loss as groundwork for reciprocity.
• XREF: Connects to settler-colonial critique in Eco-Justice and to the ecofeminist argument that environmental degradation harms all humans, if unequally. — connects to: Settler violence and dispossession are ecological harms when measured by relational resilience — Kyle Whyte, Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and…, 97; Non-Indigenous settlers can still learn deep reciprocity with land — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 770; Settler visitors to sacred sites hunger for lost land-love — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 903 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Settler visitors to sacred sites hunger for lost land-love #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 903
• Settler ceremony withered because it lost its ties to the land it emigrated from. #expands (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 912