The Thanksgiving Address is at once ceremony, scientific inventory, and Native science lesson

Evidence

The Address is sometimes mistakenly viewed as a prayer, but the children’s heads are not bowed. The elders at Onondaga teach otherwise, that the Address is far more than a pledge, a prayer, or a poem alone. … I’m told that the Thanksgiving Address is at heart an invocation of gratitude, but it is also a material, scientific inventory of the natural world. Another name for the oration is Greetings and Thanks to the Natural World. As it goes forward, each element of the ecosystem is named in its turn, along with its function. It is a lesson in Native science. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 375

Categorization

• XREF: Directly ties to the polyad as a hinge across Eco-Justice (reciprocity pedagogy), Reading the Landscape (ecosystem inventory), and Soundscape (listening method) — the Address braids Indigenous ceremony with the observational inventory Western science privileges. — connects to: The Thanksgiving Address obligates humans to live in balance with all living things — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 369; The Thanksgiving Address is simultaneously a political constitution and environmental philosophy — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 408; The Thanksgiving Address was carried in words through forced removal — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 937
• SEED: Angle: the Thanksgiving Address as a template for eco-justice pedagogy — an instruction to name the natural world element by element that any classroom could adapt without co-opting ceremony.

Broader Connections

• The Thanksgiving Address is simultaneously a political constitution and environmental philosophy #corroborates (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 408
• The Thanksgiving Address was carried in words through forced removal #qualifies (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 937