Learning the Ways of Manoomin

September means wild rice, or manoomin, season in Minnesota, and this year our organization had several opportunities to learn about manoomin from the people who know it best.

On September 8, Friends staff and board members joined the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on the St. Louis River estuary. Fond du Lac natural resources staff took time out of a busy season to show us how to rice and to share the years of work the Band has put into restoring the estuary’s wild rice beds. The Band lives downstream of the proposed NewRange (formerly PolyMet) mine and has stood firmly against it and the dangers it poses to their waters and wild rice beds..

Closer to Ely, Friends teamed up with Ely Community Resources and the artist and Indigenous rights activist Giiwedin Giiwedin to bring local youth to the Stony River. We spent the day paddling and gathering rice (and plenty of rice worms) into our canoes. Back at camp, Giiwedin walked us through parching, jigging, and winnowing, and we cooked some of our harvest for lunch. It was a chance to share Indigenous culture with Ely’s young residents.

Manoomin is more than food. It’s a living connection between the Anishinaabe people and the waters that sustain them. Learning to harvest it alongside Native Nations is part of our ongoing work to build authentic allyship. Miigwech to the Fond du Lac Band, Giiwedin, Ely Community Resources, and Spirit of the Wilderness for welcoming us onto the water.