Manomin: The Story Of Wild Rice

 This Article is taken from The Herbalist, newsletter of the

Canadian Society for Herbal Research. COPYRIGHT March 1989. 

 

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Manomin: The Story Of Wild Rice  Michelle Meyer

*Many of our members have asked for articles that focus on the

use of wild food plants. Many thanks to Michelle Meyer for this

informative and thoughtful study. Michelle works directly with

Kagiwosa Manomin Inc. the only major Native Indian controlled and

operated, wild rice processor in North America. Editor

For most of us, wild rice remains a gourmet food delicacy which

we only have the opportunity to enjoy on rare, special occasions.

We relish the unique flavour as part of a dish mixed with regular

white or brown rice or as one of many ingredients in a turkey

stuffing at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Few of us are aware of its

longevity and significance in the diverse and little discussed

history of the Native peoples of North America.

Wild rice is in fact a misnomer for a grain bearing aquatic plant

identified scientifically as belonging to the family Gramineae,

the genus Zizania and the species aquatica or palustris. It is a

very distant relative of the domesticated, Asian white or brown

rice we eat regularly. Fossilized wild rice pollen dates back to

500 B.C.E. while archaeological evidence indicates that there

were inhabitants of wild rice areas as early as 7000 B.C.E. The

importance of wild rice in the diet of North American Native

Indians certainly dates back into prehistory.

Wild rice or wild oats were the non-Native names given to a food

stuff the Native Ojibwa population called manomin. Manomin

derives from Manitou, the name of the Great Spirit, and Meenum

which means delicacy. Ojibwa elders refer to it as *Manitou gi ti

gahn* or food from God's garden. Manomin has shared a wide

variety of names given it by numerous Native tribes such as the

Dakota (Sioux), the Miami, the Omaha, the Osage, the Potawatomi,

the Seminole (Florida), and the Seneca (New York) who all have

used it as a food staple.

Wild rice is the only naturally occurring grain in North America.

Other grains such as wheat, barley and oats were imported from

the Old World (Europe). It is the single most nutritive food the

Native Indians consumed in their traditional diet although it was

not sufficient in itself to maintain good health over long

periods of time.

Wild Rice Habitat - Originally, before the onslaught of European

settlement, wild rice grew naturally over a fairly large portion

of North America, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rockies and from

the Gulf of Mexico to near the Hudson Bay (above the 50th

parallel). The expansive wild rice habitat shrunk rapidly with

the non-Native population expansion which saw the conversion of

land from wilderness to farms, industrial growth and changes in

water quality. The most concentrated regions are in Northwestern

Ontario and Manitoba west and north of Thunder Bay to Winnipeg,

in the upper two-thirds of Wisconsin and east of the Mississippi

River in Minnesota. These regions still produce wild rice today.

Wild rice has also been carried to and seeded in Saskatchewan and

Alberta. Wild rice grown in California is not naturally

occurring. (It is produced through artificial paddy seeding of a

hybrid form of the original species which is fertilized and

sprayed with pesticides.)

The Plant - Wild rice reseeds itself naturally in areas of

circulating mineral-rich water. Water levels vary from 1 to 12

feet. It will not grow in stagnant or fast moving waters. It

requires dense alluvial mud deposits for its roots to hold. The

seeds are heavy and sink. The barbed end anchors the seed firmly

in the soft muddy bottom. Aeration of the bed occurs in the

spring when the ice floats to the top of the melting river or

lake bringing up the old roots and plants which afterwards sink

again.  

The best areas for wild rice are the headwaters of major rivers.

The naturally occurring stands are found in the undulating

channels. The rice bed spreads gradually downstream. In the mid

1800's, wild rice stands were recorded as stretching for

thousands of acres near the Winnipeg River. Today, the larger

stands are 320 acres of dense crop.

Following seed germination with the snow melt, the wild rice

plant develops a straight root and grows long leaves under water

to derive energy from the sun. By the end of May, these leaves

are 1 to 5 feet long and have reached the water's surface. By

late June, new leaves have grown and float on the water surface.

Within two more weeks, aerial leaves are formed. In early July,

the stalk appears above water and begins to form fruit primordia

which develop into pale yellow green blossoms, delicately shaded

with reddish purple. The stalk resembles bamboo and can grow as

much as 8 feet above water. By mid July, a shoot emerges from

each stalk and in August, each stalk terminates in a panicle with

male pollen-filled flowers below female flowers. When wind

pollinated, the upper flowers develop into the seed or grain

which is harvested over a three week period usually beginning the

last week in August.

Manomin is a sensitive plant. It does not tolerate chemical

pollutants or great changes in water level during its growth

cycle between germination in mid April and its full ripe stage in

late August or early September. The introduction of hydro dams in

the mid-nineteenth century was devastating to the wild rice

stands as was the wide spread slaughter of beavers for their

pelts. The slow currents downstream from beaver dams were ideal

for the plant.

The profitable harvesting and sale of wild rice by non-Natives

led to widespread premature harvesting using techniques which

seriously damaged the plant stalks and reduced the reseeding

because the grain was not ripe enough to germinate. Insect, bird

and weather damage have not been nearly as significant a

destructive force upon the existence of wild rice as has

Non-Native interference in the name of growth, development and

profit.

Wild Rice As Food- Wild rice or manomin was a significant part of

the secured traditional subsistence of the Ojibwa Indians over

the past three centuries. Ethnographers observed in the first

half of this century that the Ojibwa increased their numbers

considerably during the past two hundred years while other tribes

suffered gruesome decimation. This they attributed to their close

connection to a secure subsistence basis provided by the wild

rice district. Wild rice was the principle staple of Indians in

the rice district, particularly the Ojibwa, as the number of

plant foods they used was one of the lowest for Great Lakes

tribes.

Wild rice was more nutritious than any other food consumed by the

Indians containing high levels of protein, potassium and

magnesium and significant amounts of a variety of trace minerals

and vitamins. It was eaten as a porridge or in combination with

venison, moose, blueberries or maple syrup. It was also used to

thicken soups. Processed manomin was ground into flour and mixed

with oats to make bread. Babies were weaned with manomin at about

ten months of age.

During the harvesting season, families would indulge in many

meals of manomin including eating some freshly harvested green

(unprocessed rice). The remaining rice was immediately cured and

preserved for use for the rest of the year. Sometimes, during a

naming ceremony feast, the wild rice was popped like popcorn and

served with maple sugar as a special treat. The popped rice was

sometimes carried by the men when they were out hunting or

fishing.

The Spiritual Significance of Manomin - Ojibwa life elevates

manomin above being simply food. It is a sacred food which is

harvested, processed and eaten with a deep respect and reverence.

Wild rice is deeply imbedded in the mythology and ceremony of the

Ojibwa.

Ojibwa legends make it clear that manomin was intended especially

for the Native Indian people. The story of Nanabojo's discovery

of manomin confirms this. Nanabojo is sent on a vision quest by

his grandmother and discovers a beautiful plant in the lake he is

canoeing in. He plants some of the seeds with his grandmother in

other lakes and then discovers that he can eat the seeds after

learning that the roots made him sick.

Manomin is eaten in celebration at the annual Pow-wow

thanksgiving feast and at numerous other ceremonies. The

thanksgiving ceremony ensured that the spirits would continue the

bounty in future years. Smaller family feasts around naming and

curing ceremonies also included manomin. In the Drum Dance, the

wild rice was first blown in the four cardinal directions "on the

wind to be carried to the Great Spirit".

Manomin was used as part of the food offering at the graves of

deceased relatives. The grave had a house on top with a window on

one side into which food was inserted at regular intervals for

years. Those who were in a year of bereavement were restricted

from ricing without a taboo release. This involved their being

spoon fed some of the first food (manomin) gathered.

Manomin was seen as a special gift. This is reflected not only in

its use in ceremony but as well its use as a medicine to promote

recovery from sickness. Failure of the crop was attributed to

supernatural causes.

Non-natives started to grow wild rice scientifically about the

time the traditional legends celebrating the importance of

manomin to the native peoples were on their way to becoming

extinct.

The Traditional Harvest - The traditional Native Indian lifestyle

was one oriented to seasonal activities, not necessarily the

legal statutes of the dominant society. The gathering and

processing of wild foods, particularly manomin, required the

participation of the entire family. At the beginning of the

harvesting season, there was a mass movement of the Band         

community to the location of the rice stands. Camps were

established to allow processing to take place immediately

following the harvesting of the green rice.  

Traditional harvesting and processing took place in six distinct

stages. These were: the binding of the rice plants, the knocking

of the ripe grain into harvesting canoes, the drying of the rice,

the smoking or parching of the grain, the hulling of the seed and

the winnowing of the rice to remove the chaff. A certain quantity

of processed manomin was stored in caches for the latter part of

winter and the next summer.

Two or three weeks before harvest, the Band women would go out

into the rice stands and bind the rice stalks in preparation for

harvesting. A special curved stick was used to pull down the 4 to

5 foot tall stalks which were then wrapped with "Indian" string

made from the inner bark of cedar torn into narrow strips and

rolled into balls. This elaborate system included a birch bark

ring sewn onto the woman's garment at the shoulder which allowed

the string to run through smoothly. A group of stalks was bent

into an inverted "U" and required up to 12 feet of string for

binding.

Stalk binding served several functions including: the protection

of rice kernels from the wind, birds and ducks; increasing the

harvest yield from more efficient knocking of the seed into the

boat; the provision of channels for boat travel during the

harvesting process and the delineation of family ricing

territories by the colour and type of string binding done in a

specific rice stand.

Rice binding was abandoned by the period of the First World War.

In certain areas, economic alternatives such as guiding, lumber

mill work and sale of cranberries could have decreased the number

of harvesters while store bought food increasingly replaced

traditional food sources. Clearly, the "white" influence led to a

breakdown of ricing traditions including the violation of

customary property rights within the rice stands as economic

motives led to premature harvesting and increased numbers of

harvesters in some areas. This in turn resulted in the decline of

the rice fields because of this disregard for "proper" ricing

techniques. Today, only "free" (unbound) rice is harvested.

Until 1940, 10 to 12 foot birch bark canoes or dug outs were

specially made for rice harvesting. The boats were cleaned and

lined with blankets or canvass to gather the ripe manomin. Since

then, wooden boats, aluminum or fibreglass canoes and more

recently motorized canoes and mechanical air boats have been

used. Motorized boats have damaged the crops by uprooting the

plants. The manually propelled boats needed one of the two

occupants to pole the boat through the dense rice stand and

possibly shallow water. Eight foot long poles were specifically

carved with a hard wood fork on the lower end to do this task.

Until this century, women did the rice harvesting. The woman

poling the canoe usually stood at the rear of the boat while the

woman in the front of the boat knocked the ripe rice kernels into

the boat using a specially carved set of knocking sticks. The

sticks were 2 to 3.5 feet long, tapered and made of light weight

white cedar. One stick would pull or hold down the rice stalks

while the other stick was used to brush the ripe rice into the

boat. These roles were alternated as the canoe would be poled

down the channel in the stand and rice was gathered on either

side. Bound rice was sometimes shaken into the boat.

Between 100 and 200 pounds of rice could be collected in a canoe

on a good day. Once the boat was full it went back to shore where

it was unloaded into winnowing trays. The same area could be

harvested again four days later. Unfortunately, as one Native

Indian put it: "Nowadays, people go out and rice, they just

murder the rice."

Back at the camp, everyone in the family was busy processing

rice. "The community was transformed into a swarming anthill."

The green or unprocessed manomin was laid out to dry for a few

hours. After this, it was either smoked over fires on wooden or

reed racks or it was parched by stirring the rice with a paddle

in a metal tub over a fire. Parching only started with the fur

trade when traders introduced metal tubs. At Rat Portage near

Kenora, Ontario the rice was both parched and then fire dried.

Once this curing process was complete, the manomin needed to be

de-hulled. The strenuous work was done by treading or dancing on

the rice in clay lined tramping pits further lined with elk skin

or wooden slats. The pit or jig hole was knee deep and cone

shaped, with a 2 to 3 foot diameter at the top and could hold

about a half bushel of rice. Men or young boys would tread the

rice for up to 45 minutes using clean wrap around moccasins or

canvas wrapped around their feet. Small boys were good at this

task because they were light in weight and this reduced rice

breakage. A pair of poles tied together in a `V' around the hole

were used for balance. In some Bands, women de-hulled the manomin

using large pestles, one in each hand. 

After the hulling was done, the rice was either spread on

blankets or mats and fanned by hand to remove the chaff or it was

tossed in the birch bark winnowing trays while standing sideways

to the wind. The trays were specifically designed to facilitate

this tossing and removal of the chaff.

Finally, after the processing was completed, at least one-third

of the family's supply, usually 5 bushels (100 kg), was packed in

cedar bark rice bags or sacks made from fawns or young buffalo

and stored in caches 6 or 7 feet underground below the frost line

(about one pound per person per day). Until recently, laying a

winter's supply was a habitual concern in fall. The manomin could

keep indefinitely as long as it wasn't exposed to moisture. An

unwritten law prevented stealing from neighbours. Nonetheless, it

was demoralizing to the Natives that white traders stole from

Indian caches.

 

The Native North American period of wild foods was one

characterized by sharing, a respect for the natural environment

and a desire to live in balance and harmony with nature.

Tragically, the "white" settlement of North America led to the

corruption of many Native traditions by a non-Native,

profit-oriented, industrial society which has valued monetary

growth above the needs of nature and humankind. The Native

peoples and their diversified cultures have been decimated in the

same way as the formerly wide ranging wild rice stands. Perhaps a

greater knowledge and appreciation of the Native traditions will

help us to preserve these rich cultures and our fine natural

resources including manomin. 

References:

Thomas Vennum Jr., Wild Rice and the Ojibwa People, St. Paul:

Minnesota Historical Society, 1988.

Wabigoon Lake Band No. 27. Community members including May,

Esther, Paul and Joe Pitchenese, Dinorwic, Ontario, 1988-89.