Roots of our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance by Clint Carroll (review)

In Roots of Our Renewal, Clint Carroll does a masterful job of interconnecting many different and complex threads across culture, history, politics, social relationships, plants, and land. A Cherokee citizen himself, Carroll tells the story of his own experiences and insights in relation to an ethnobotany project he initiated under the guidance of elders and tribal leaders. The project was developed over a period of years, and was intended to renew and highlight the community’s and young people’s knowledge of medicinal and other kinds of plants with cultural significance. Far beyond the project itself, however, the book is about the sacredness of land-based knowledge and its centrality to the lives of Cherokee and other Indigenous peoples. It is a story about tensions, injustices, and clashes between different groups of people—Indigenous people, government officials, ranchers, industrial developers—and, most particularly, about Cherokee approaches to displacement, stewardship, and management of lands and resources in the American Great Plains. And it is a story about tenacity, visionary leadership, tribal sovereignty, and resilience.

In the late 1830s, as described in the book, many Cherokee people were forcibly evicted from their homelands in the mountains and valleys of the southern Appalachians, to be relocated west of the Mississippi following a traumatic and devastating forced march of over 800 miles—the “Trail of Tears”—in which thousands perished from hunger, exposure, and disease. The new lands in Oklahoma were completely different in vegetation and topography, yet using the same wisdom and ingenuity that Indigenous peoples across North America have shown since time immemorial, they adapted to their new land and its resources. Their ability to recognize both poor and effective leadership in the face of each crisis, and to take advantage of their own energy and rich cultural heritage, gave them the capacity to seize opportunities, to continue to develop their own culture, and to maintain their identity as Cherokee people.

The book is divided into seven easily read segments, starting with an informative introduction on Indigenous environmental governance and associated knowledge. Five numbered chapters follow, the first describing the early Cherokee people before most of their communities were forced to move to Oklahoma. The second tells how the western Cherokee, once displaced, were able to settle in their new lands and adapt themselves to different species and environments. The third chapter describes the environmental devastation of the Oklahoma dust bowl and its impacts on the Cherokee. Fourth is a chapter on Cherokee ethnobotany and relationships to plant medicines and the plant world, followed by a chapter on the sacred relationship the Cherokee have with their lands, and how this plays out in the governance of their territory. Finally, the conclusion provides insights and reflections on the role of ethnobotany in cultural continuity and renewal.

Although the book is about an ethnobotanical project that was initiated and eventually supported by Cherokee elders, leaders, and knowledge holders, it is really about much more. It fits firmly in the area of political ecology, because it provides the context and background for the ethnobotany project, which is really a project to support Cherokee environmental governance, their right to their lands and to manage their own resources. In a sense, this is a universal account—of cultural displacement, prejudice, racism, inequity, and environmental loss, on the one hand, and about community, caring, cooperation, respect, and determination on the other.

As an ethnobotanist who has worked with Indigenous knowledge holders and plants in the Pacific Northwest, but with little direct knowledge of the American Great Plains or of Cherokee history and culture, I found Carroll’s account informative and fascinating. My experiences are mirrored in his: “As a tool, ethnobotany can help American Indian people arrive at desired outcomes. In the case of the Cherokee Nation ethnobotany project, these outcomes amount to no less than the maintenance of our relationships with, and responsibilities towards, each other and the...