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Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
The Center for Native Peoples and the Environment (CNPE) at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry is the home of the work of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a mother, scientist, decorated professor and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Robin serves as the founding Director of the CNPE whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both Indigenous and scientific knowledge for shared goals of sustainability. In collaboration with Tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. As a writer and a scientist, Robin’s interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land.
Featured Media
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer Honored with 2023 National Humanities Medal
The National Humanities Medal honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants
In this non-fiction book—drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman—Robin Wall Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System
Following a nine-thousand-year journey, Robin Wall Kimmerer reflects on the ancient technology embedded in our relationship with corn.
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance
As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy.
Greed Does Not Have to Define Our Relationship to Land
Robin Wall Kimmerer on choosing to belong to a place.