Ieasa Custer- Braiding SweetGrass (outside reading). 8

 For one of my outside reading responses I chose to draw from the narrative of the opening chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass. This is a beautifully written book that discusses nature, culture, folklore and personal stories. I loved reading this book and understanding new stories of how the environment forms and what is unique to each culture. The is entitled Sky Woman Falling and beautifully narrates how sky, earth, water, and animals all combined. It addressed a beautiful woman falling from the sky into the water. As she fell into the water a herd of animals surrounded her and tried to keep her afloat. They knew they needed to create more land for the women to survive so they all tried to help. One animal swam to the body of the ocean as sky women stayed afloat with a turtle. The animal then returned with a handful of mud which the women spread on the turtle's back to create land. The land grew and grew until the land and water grew to what we know now. This story is a beautiful illustration of how everything works together to create harmony. 


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