Anishinabek AgricultureManoomin: “The Good Seed”
Wild rice is a semi-aquatic annual grass with an edible grain that grows with abundance in North America’s Great Lakes region. It is one of the only two native grains commonly eaten and is known by the Ojibway as manoomin. Wild rice has been cultivated and eaten for centuries by the Ojibway and was foretold by the Ojibway Seven Fires prophecy as being a place that signified the Ojibway’s final resting place, a place “where food grows on water”. Wild rice is harvested in late August and September.
The Ojibwe followed a prophecy from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes, and have harvested manoomin (wild rice) in the late summer ever since. The Kawartha Lakes area in Southern Ontario was once the rice bowl of North America. Wild rice was gathered historically by First Nations on Rice Lake and other lakes in the vicinity.
Historically, the natural rice bowl extended over an area west of Lake Superior to Southern Manitoba and into adjacent states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Many lakes and rivers received their names from the presence of Wild Rice. The best known is Rice Lake, part of the Trent-Severn Waterway (http://aldervillesavanna.ca/index.php/wild-rice/).
Wild rice plays an important ecological function. It provides protection from high winds and waves along shorelines, thereby preventing erosion of loose soils and provides habitat for a wide diversity of wildlife. It also provides habitat for aquatic water birds, muskrat, fish, ducks, geese and migratory birds, including some species at risk.
There are both northern and southern native varieties of wild rice. Northern wild rice is Zizania palustria. Southern wild rice is Zizania aquactica and grows to a height of 3 to 4 meters with a small seed measuring about 1 cm. This type of rice is rare and is only present in a few locations in Southern Ontario (http://aldervillesavanna.ca/index.php/wild-rice/).
The development of the Trent Severn Canal, built in 1833, and the introduction of dams, changed the flow of waters in the Kawartha Lakes and the Trent River resulting in the decimation of wild rice beds due to flooding. Wild rice beds have also been impacted by shoreline development, dredging, and the introduction of the common carp.
Today, there’s a tense, decades-old standoff between James Whetung of Curve Lake First Nation, who is a rice activist, and recreational users of the rice lakes. Mr. Whetung has been reseeding wild rice in this area for the past 30 years. Boating, fishing, and swimming are difficult where the thick rice beds are flourishing once again. Cottage owners claim their property values are dropping as a result. Whetung has become a well known activist for wild rice restoration.
His opponents created a group called “Save Pigeon Lake” to thwart Whetung’s efforts. Well-known Canadian author Drew Hayden Taylor, himself from Curve Lake First Nations, wrote a play about it, called Cottagers and Indians.
Wild rice is also native to many lakes within Northwestern Ontario and has been a traditional food source for centuries in this region. Restoration of the wild rice beds are very important for the future of wild rice, especially in Southern Ontario.