Indigenous peoples have lived on the earth since time immemorial, participating in a cycle of birth, life and death that has sustained them and the plants and animals that share their environment. This heartfelt new book from ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner explores the wealth of ecological knowledge and the deep personal connection to the land and its history that is encoded in indigenous stories and lifeways, and what they may be able to teach all of us about living in harmony with our surroundings.

Scholarly in its thinking but accessible in its writing, The Earth’s Blanket combines first-person research with insightful critiques of western concepts of environmental management and scientific ecology to propose how systems of traditional ecological knowledge can be recognized and enhanced. It is an important book, a magnum opus, with the power to transform our way of thinking about Earth and our place on it.