2011 Manoomin season wrap-up
By Lisa David, GLIFWC Manoomin Biologist
Oodenaang (Odanah), Wis.—Well, it's officially over. The push-pole is back under the porch, and the last of the rice awns have worked their way out of our socks. Thus ends the manoomin harvest season for 2011.
It is every ricer's dream to again experience a wild rice year like 2009—where idyllic weather teamed up with abundant rice beds giving Wisconsin the highest off-reservation reported harvest in the past two 
decades. Although not mimicking those conditions, we can be happy that this year was better than 2010 when the rice crop was extremely poor, brown spot disease rampant, and harvest was subsequently low.
Overall, the 2011 wild rice season was generally below average, but this year's harvest might turn out to be a little higher than one would expect given crop abundance. After the crop failure of 2010, many people found themselves with a low or even a depleted manoomin supply. But with some effort this year, pickers were able to locate beds and begin restocking their pantries. The more serious pickers who made concerted scouting efforts, and who were also willing to move to beds which offered additional harvest opportunities, faired the best at the end of the season.
There were a few waters of special note this year on both ends of the abundance spectrum. Clam Lake in Burnett County did not produce a rice crop for the fifth year in a row. Research is ongoing, led by the St. Croix Band, into the complexities of a carp age-class population explosion tipping the ecological scale in favor of carp over manoomin. This fall, carp will again be marked and tracked, and a second removal attempt will be made this coming winter.
On the other hand, Hiles Millpond, just north of Hwy 32 in Forest County, was a real success story this year. Initially seeded in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service in 1998, Hiles Millpond supported an abundant rice bed in 2011. The reseeding in combination with new water level management helped make this site a harvester's destination in 2011.
Interestingly, Pacwawong Lake, in Sawyer County, a consistent rice producer for years, showed a near failure this season; while nearby Totagatic Lake, in Bayfield County, showed some improvement over recent years, reflecting the sometimes confusing variability of wild rice abundance from water to water.
Also a reflection of the manoomin improvement in 2011 was the increase in the sale of wild rice harvesting licenses in Wisconsin. The number of state licenses went up in 2011 to 740 from 611 in 2010. The number of active tribal harvesters probably also increased but is difficult to compare permit levels between years since a new tribal, off-reservation permit issuing format was recently enacted.
If you obtained an off-reservation ricing permit, you may soon be receiving a "Manoomin Harvest Survey" which will ask about your ricing efforts in 2011. We appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey. Participating in the survey is an important way to document tribal, off-reservation harvest efforts and will help ensure the preservation of these rights as well as the preservation of manoomin resources for the seventh generation of harvesters.
So with our rice supplies partially replenished, we await the quiet of winter and the resting of the manoomin waters until next year.
Seeking a 'good way' for manoomin
Teachings & feast at struggling Upper Clam Lake
By Charlie Otto Rasmussen, Staff Writer
Siren, Wis.—Along a summer green stretch of shoreline that accommodated traditional manoomin camps into the 1970s, regional Ojibwe representatives assembled, responding to a call from the St. Croix Tribe. Ecologically, perhaps spiritually, Upper Clam Lake is suffering.
"Everybody here, we're all here for the same reason. To put rice back in the lake," said St. Croix's Carmen Butler.
Inside a bent-sapling longhouse jacketed in blue tarp, participants shared manoomin stories, performed songs on hand drums, and many rose to dance in the traditional two-step fashion.
"Carmen, I have to apologize to you, why I didn't get up," called out Louis Taylor, St. Croix elder and past chairman. "But I'd kick up too much dust!"
A few canoe lengths away, Upper Clam Lake's blue, empty water contrasted the classic levity of an Ojibwe gathering. The top wild rice 
lake in all of Wisconsin had crashed. In only a few years the lush beds, that for generations yielded nutritional and spiritual sustenance, were gone.
And while cordial humor filtered through the discussion on August 11, each of the 30 people seated within the ceremonial lodge acknowledged the striking turn that spanned just three years.
As helpers known as oshkaabewisag carried food into the lodge in preparation for a feast, Taylor produced a tobacco-filled pipe and commenced a ceremony. The spirits that oversee the lake, that provide the manoomin, needed to be recognized and nourished. Under the direction of Taylor and Butler, oshkaabewisag assembled a ceremonial bundle of feast food for the lake and the spirits that live there.
Ben Rogers, a highly respected St. Croix elder, then prayed over the spirit bundle before it was delivered to the waters of the western shore.
"When you're eating, feasting, you're taking care of your grandmas, your grandpas. We're going to feed them, the spirits, and make them happy," said Butler.
Much of Upper Clam is shallow, but the lake stretches broadly, covering 1,207 surface acres. Around one quarter of those acres historically grew manoomin until the crash of 2007. Since then, tribal and state biologists discovered that the common carp population exploded (see Mazina'igan Summer 2011.6), contributing to the rapid retreat of the wild rice beds.
St. Croix Land & Water Resources Manager Anthony Havranek addressed the gathering, reporting that nearly one thousand feet of submerged netting protects 84 acres of productive manoomin habitat on the lake's south end. St. Croix environmental staff and local property owners installed the net to block carp from accessing that portion of the lake.
"We specifically chose the design of the nets to allow recreational usage of the bay. Users can simply idle their boats over the nets with props up," Havranek said. "This large exclosure will help determine if manoomin can rebound when carp are removed from the equation."
Based on reports from project associate Freshwater Scientific Services, widespread patches of wild rice and other aquatic plants sprouted inside the protected bay in late summer—further evidence that carp have a significant impact on the success of Upper Clam's vegetation.
For the St. Croix Tribe and its state and local partners, the current challenges at Upper Clam may ultimately yield a better understanding of how long-standing cultural practices and good science can work together to keep natural wonders like manoomin healthy.
Resolution of U of M and tribal clashes sought
with protection of manoomin's integrity
By Peter David, GLIFWC Wildlife Biologist
Oodenaang (Odanah), Wis.—Sometimes, it's all about perspective.
It is no secret that many Minnesota Anishinaabeg have long viewed wild rice research being conducted by the University of Minnesota in strong contempt. Differing cultural perspectives towards this plant, and limited and ineffective intercultural communication, have spawned a distrust of the University among many tribal members, and defensiveness among some in the academic community.
Clashing are perspectives on academic freedom and interests in advancing the paddy wild rice industry with long-held tribal traditions that hold that tribal members must protect and defend natural wild rice—understood to be perfect in the form it was provided by the Creator. And like two nations preparing for a foreseen battle, each has expended considerable energy entrenching their positions over what has been viewed as the ultimate fight: the possibility of genetic engineering in Zizania palustris.
For many on both sides, this anticipated clash had come to dominate the relationship between the University and tribes, tainting and limiting the opportunities for positive interaction. More recently, however, as individuals on both sides of the relationship saw the dysfunction spawned by this distrust, some new perspectives began to emerge that may lay the ground work for a different, broader and more cooperative relationship.
The first concrete step in the process of changing this relationship unfolded in August of 2009 on the White Earth Reservation, when the University and tribes hosted "People Protecting Manoomin: Manoomin Protecting People: A Symposium Bridging Opposing Worldviews." At the end of that symposium, Dr. Erma Vizenor, White Earth Tribal Chairwoman, requested that a paper be drafted to explore ways the relationship between the University and the tribes could be improved while ensuring the protection of the manoomin resource.
Over the next two years, that task was taken on by a core group of University graduate students, with input, direction and contributions coming from a wide range of academic and tribal representatives, including 20 authors in all. Their product, titled Wild Rice White Paper—Preserving the Integrity of Manoomin in Minnesota, was unveiled at the August 2011 "Nibi and Manoomin: Bridging Worldviews Symposium," a follow-up to the 2009 event.
This paper holds strongly to the position that the Minnesota Anishinaabe "demand that natural populations of manoomin (wild rice) be protected from potential contamination by genetically engineered wild rice." At the same time, it looks to rebuild a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the University of Minnesota and the tribes by developing an environment of respect and reciprocity between the parties.
The paper pushes for the development of a communication and educational exchange infrastructure at a University-wide level that allows meaningful tribal involvement in manoomin research decision making, noting this can foster a positive relationship promoting innovative research and enhanced funding support in areas of mutual interest.
The paper also encourages the University to formally recognize the tribes' "control over the wild rice resource on Anishinaabe lands and ceded territories."
It takes time and commitment to rebuild damaged relationships, and one document can only do so much. Nevertheless, "Preserving the Integrity of Manoomin in Minnesota" holds much significance, not only in the blueprint it provides for healing, but for the commitment towards a new cooperative perspective it reflects. Perhaps someday future generations will look back and see it as another expression of this generation's commitment to manoomin, and so to them.
A full copy of the "Preserving the Integrity of Manoomin in Minnesota" report can be found online at: www.cfans.umn.edu/diversity/web text/WildRice/WhitePaper--Final Version2011.pdf.
13 Moons first manoomin camp promotes traditional skills/language
By Sue Erickson, Staff Writer
Nagaajiwanaang (Fond du Lac reservation), Minn.—Using about 50 pounds of manoomin (wild rice) harvested by Charlie Nahgahnub and Fond du Lac (FdL) Resource Management, the first Manoomin Camp at Perch Lake, focused on learning how to process freshly harvested manoomin.
The fall camp drew about 40 high school and college-age participants on Saturday, September 10, according to Nikki Crowe, 13 Moons program coordinator. Under the tutelage of experienced Fond du Lac ricer Charlie Nahgahnub, students learned the steps required to turn-out traditionally processed manoomin. The camp continued after-school during the week to complete the parching, winnowing and finishing of the manoomin.
In addition, the program incorporated the Ojibwe language into the camp's environment,
using signage to indicate Ojibwe terms for the various aspects of the manoominike (ricing) experience. "We really try to bring the language into programs and encourage its use throughout," says Crowe.
Sponsored by the 13 Moons Tribal College Extension Program and FdL Resource Management, the Manoomin Camp is one that will likely occur again next fall, Crowe says, pleased with the interest demonstrated this fall. The camp, free and open to all, drew both native and non-native participants.
The 2012 Manoomin Camp will offer some on-water experience, actually harvesting the manoomin in canoes as well as add cultural activities such as making birch bark winnowing trays, poles, knockers, and having a feast for the rice.
Crowe says chi-miigwech to a number of FdL folks who helped with Manoomin Camp, including Nahgahnub, Josh Whitebird, Pete Durfee and Jimmie Northrup.
"Community involvement really made this camp a rich experience for all of us," Crowe states. "We listened, learned and laughed a lot and ended up with some manoomin to share!"
13 Moons: Fond du Lac Tribal College Extension program goals are to connect the community to natural resources and the Ojibwe culture through social networking. You can learn more about 13 Moons by reading the latest online newspaper, "Nahgahchiwanong Dibahjimowinnan," at www.fdlrez.com and learn about new events and workshops on the 13 Moons Ashiniswi giizisoog Facebook page.
