Research through The American Indian Studies Program at Michigan State University shows the effect plants have on the homes of native Americans. In both the article and the book Braiding Sweetgrass it mentioned how sweetgrass is used in their cultures. In the research, the native Americans used it for weaving baskets. This chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass talks about how it has been passed down by ancestors on how to pick the plant. A quote from the book explains how the plant was important for the land and the native Americans; "Humans participate in a symbiosis in which sweetgrass provides its fragrant blades to the people and people, by harvesting, create the conditions for sweetgrass to flourish"(164). Lena explains that you should always leave a gift for the plants and ask if they can pick the sweetgrass. The way of the land is to take what you need. Nature is a big part of Lena's ancestor's homes and lives. This chapter was explained as an experiment to see if they could grow more sweetgrass. At the end of the experiment, it is said that they can not replicate due to not being able to speak to the plants which is a big part of the place. The home of Native Americans involves plants and animals. Nature was vital to them.

The chapter "An Offering," discusses the tradition of offering back to the land which has given to them. The offering that is seen in the author's perspective is the pouring out of coffee on the ground to run into the lake. Another offering in which they take part is leaving the campsite well left and full of wood for the next people to use. These offerings are not necessarily religious, necessary, or very impactful, yet there is a more connotative reason for doing so. At the same time, it might just be seen as a way elders show their children or younger generations how to act and treat the Earth and each other. In the text A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, we see an example of a tribe wanting to preserve the land of a river that is looking to be turned into a dam. As this dam would provide renewable energy for the area surrounding it, it damages the cultural relationship with those that lived and thrived on the grounds before them. This ground was the place of many burials of many generations, bearing much knowledge for the people who were associated with them to use for lifetimes to come. To the tribe who didn't want the dam to become, they talked about how drowning the burial sites would also drown the knowledge and history which has been left there from generations before. A quote from the chapter that I think relates to this idea of leaving the land how it was supposed to be left is this: "Before we paddled away from any camping place, she made us kids scour the place to be sure it was spotless... 'Leave this place better than you found it'"(35). Knowing that the tribe mentioned earlier isn't the only one that thought of the land this way, it shows that the Earth really offers itself to us, and in turn, we should treat it with just as much if not more respect and care.

Is there anything that you can think of that either your culture, geographical area, religion, or anything else does to show it's thanks to something else that might not be so evident? For example, a very well known Mexican tradition is to celebrate La Dia de Los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead. They celebrate those that have gone before them by rejoicing the time and memories they had together by creating sweets, memorials, costumes, and decorations to commemorate the Dead.