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Indians of the Midwest

Gathering Wild Rice

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Wild Rice
Above: Gathering Wild Rice. Painting by Seth Eastman in Mary H. Eastman, The American Aboriginal Portfolio (Newberry Library, Ayer 250.45 .E2 1853). View catalog record
Wild rice is a cereal native to North America. It has a greater nutritional value than wheat or oats and was harvested extensively in Wisconsin, Minnesota, parts of Michigan and northern Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. Today, the range is more restricted. The plant is a grass that grows in fresh or brachial water from a bed of alluvial mud. In mid-summer a stalk grows out of the water up to ten feet. Then, four-feet high spikes emerge from the stalks and by late summer a fruit head containing the grain has formed on the end of the spike. The fruit head has yellow-green blossoms that turn purplish as the seeds mature. Beneath the fruit head are three antlers that hang and move in the breeze. The grain is shed into the water when it ripens in early fall, and it lies in the alluvial mud until spring, when it germinates and grows to the surface. Harvesting the rice requires great care and skill so as to allow the plant to produce the following year.
How is wild rice harvested?
Woman on Her Way to Rice Beds
Before the grain matured, women went to the rice fields to tie the standing stalks into bundles. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 70).
Sticks to Draw the Stalks within Reach
The women carefully drew the stalks toward their canoe or boat and tied the stalks with strips of basswood bark. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, fig. 47).
Wild Rice Tied in Bundles
Tying the stalks made it easier to harvest the grain and protect it from birds. The bundles were about three feet long, tied 12 inches from the end. The fruit head, containing the grain, is about one foot in length. Families could identify their stalks by the manner in which they were tied. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 71).
Gathering Wild Rice
When the grain was mature, two people harvested the seed. One poled the canoe while the other pulled the tied stalks down over the side of the canoe and gently beat the fruit head with a stick, knocking the grain into the canoe. The representation of ricing in this painting is unusual in showing three persons in the canoe. Painting by Seth Eastman in Mary H. Eastman, The American Aboriginal Portfolio (Newberry Library, Ayer 250.45 .E2 1853).
Drying Racks for Wild Rice
The next step was to cure the grain. It was removed from the canoe and dried in the sun on a drying rack, or it was smoked or parched over a slow fire. The grain was covered with a hull, which had to be removed. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 74B).
Threshing Wild Rice
The grain was put into a skin or slat-lined hole and men tread on it, or it was pounded with a stick. This was a very laborious job, but the threshing cracked open the hulls. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 77A).
Winnowing
The pile of mixed kernels and chaff was put into a birch-bark or other kind of tray and women tossed it upward and outward so that the wind could separate the chaff from the grain. If there was no wind, they used fans. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 77B).
Wild Rice Kernels after Threshing
Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 78).
Birch-bark Mococks
Containers, such as the birch-bark one shown here, held the grain as it was transported from the rice camp. The grain was stored in holes in the ground at a winter camp. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 79A).
Ojibwa Birch-bark and Matting Wigwam at Rice Field
Families had temporary or permanent camps at rice fields. Wigwams were refurbished just prior to the arrival of the entire family. Families were associated with particular fields and particular sections of fields. All the members of the family participated in ricing. Photo by Albert Ernest Jenks in Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 69).
Today rice is harvested in a similar manner in Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, though in an aluminum or fiberglass canoe or boat. Native people still rely on poles to move boats through the rice fields and use sticks to pull in rice stalks. After the rice is hulled, they clean it by hand, then it is transported in cloth sacks and stored in homes rather than underground. Today, harvesting wild rice plays a central role in Native society and religious life. Native origin stories tell how humans received the gift of wild rice from a spirit being. This gift has to be repaid by treating harvesting with respect and giving thanks to the spirit provider. Offerings of thanks can be made by sprinkling tobacco into rivers and lakes or elsewhere. Today, some communities oppose sowing, as opposed to collecting wild rice, because it seems disrespectful to the powerful being who created the plant and gave instructions regarding its use. Wild rice can be used in curing, for example, a poultice for skin inflammation, made by mixing wild rice with herbs. And, wild rice is a ceremonial food. In fact, in some ceremonies, such as funerals, it was the only, or only required, food offering. Today families likely set up camps with tents, rather than wigwams, but communities still work together, promoting a spirit of unity, and the memories of the rice camp and the interactions between young and old become part of collective identity. It is understandable, then, why wild rice has great cultural significance.
When the United States demanded land cessions in the early 19th century, Native people insisted on protections for their subsistence activity, including the harvesting of wild rice. Today, federal courts have reaffirmed treaty rights, but harvesting is threatened by environmental degradation and commercially produced wild rice.
Do you want to know more about ricing today?
Tobacco offering
Here, Larry Baker offers tobacco before the harvest. Ojibwa continue the traditional offering of tobacco by sprinkling it into rivers and lakes. Photo by Shanna Clark, courtesy of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.
Ricing Equipment
Today rice harvesters still rely on poles to move boats through the rice fields and sticks to pull in rice stalks. Photo by Shanna Clark, courtesy of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.
Ricing at Lac Courte Oreilles
The man paddles and the woman prepares to knock the stalks. Photo by Shanna Clark, courtesy of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.
Ricing on Totogatic Lake, Wisconsin
John Heim, Bad River member, harvests rice in Sawyer County. He uses lightweight, cedar rice knockers to knock kernels into the bottom of his canoe. Photo by Al Bonanno, courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC).
Men Harvesting Rice at Lac Vieux Desert
Men take a more active role now in rice harvest than in earlier times. Shown are Waaban and Ken La Rock. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band, Michigan.
Ricing at Lac Vieux Desert
One man poles and the other prepares to harvest. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band, Michigan.
Katherine and Mark Sherman winnowing
Both men and women help to winnow the grain. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band, Michigan.
Roger LaBine winnowing
A man winnows rice at Lac Vieux Desert Reservation. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band, Michigan.
Father and son, Lawrence and Ross Parent, harvest rice
Children still help to harvest rice, unload canoes, and help around the camp generally. In this way, they learn tribal traditions. Photo by Shanna Clark, courtesy of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Wisconsin.
Do you want to read about subsistence guarantees in a treaty?
Note that in Article 5 the United States guarantees that Ojibwas can continue to hunt, fish, and harvest wild rice on the lands they ceded.
Treaty with the Chippewa at St. Peters, 1837
Article 1. The said Chippewa nation cede to the United States all that tract of country included within the following boundaries: Beginning at the junction of the Crow Wing and Mississippi Rivers, between twenty and thirty miles above where the Mississippi is crossed by the forty-sixth parallel of northern latitude, and running thence to the north part of Lake St. Croix, one of the sources of the St. Croix river; thence to and along the dividing ridge between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Mississippi, to the sources of the Ocha-sua-sepe, a tributary of the Chippewa River; thence to a point on the Chippewa river, twenty miles below the outlet of Lake De Flambeau; thence to the junction of the Wisconsin and Pelican rivers; thence on an eastern course twenty-five miles; thence southerly, on a course parallel with that of the Wisconsin River, to the line dividing the territories of the Chippewa and Menomonies; thence to the Plover Portage; thence along the southern boundary of the Chippewa country, to the commencement of the boundary line dividing it from that of the Sioux, half a day’s march below the falls on the Chippewa river; thence with said boundary line to the mouth of Wah-tap river, at its junction with the Mississippi; and thence up the Mississippi to the place of beginning.
Article 2. In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to make to the Chippewa nation, annually, for the term of twenty years, from the date of the ratification of this treaty, the following payments. (1) $9,500, to be paid in money. (2) $19,000, to be delivered in goods. (3) $3,000 for establishing three blacksmith shops, supporting the blacksmiths, and furnishing them with iron and steel. (4) $1,000 for farms, and for supplying them and the Indians with implements of labor, with grain or seed, and whatever else may be necessary to enable them to carry on their agricultural pursuits. (5) $2,000 in provisions. (6) $500 in tobacco. The provisions and tobacco to be delivered at the same time with the goods and the money to be paid, which time or times as well as the place or places where they are to be delivered, shall be fixed upon under the direction of the President of the United States. The blacksmith shops to be placed at such points in the Chippewa country as shall be designated by the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, or under his direction. If at the expiration of one or more years the Indians should prefer to receive goods, instead of the $9,500 agreed to be paid to them in money, they shall be at liberty to do so. Or, should they conclude to appropriate a portion of that annuity to the establishment and support of a school or schools among them, this shall be granted them.
Article 3. The sum of $100,000 shall be paid by the United States, to the half-breeds of the Chippewa nation, under the direction of the President. It is the wish of the Indians that their two sub-agents Daniel P. Bushnell and Miles M. Vineyard, superintend the distribution of this money among their half-breed relations.
Article 4. The sum of $70,000 shall be applied to the payment, by the United States, of certain claims against the Indians, of which amount $28,000 shall, at their request, be paid to William A. Aitkin; $25,000 to Lyman M. Warren; and the balance applied to the liquidation of other just demands against them—which they acknowledge to be the case with regard to that presented by Hercules L. Dousman, for the sum of $5,000; and they request that it be paid.
Article 5. The privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice, upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded is guaranteed to the Indians during the pleasure of the President of the United States. Concluded July 29, 1837 at St Peters, Wisconsin, between the United States and Chippewa nation of Indians. For the Chippewa the treaty was signed by chiefs and warriors from the following bands: Leech Lake, Gull Lake and Swan River, Lake Courteoville, Lac de Flambeau, La Point, Mille Lac, and Sandy Lake. (Charles J. Kappler, ed. Indian Treaties, 1778-1883. Amereon House, 1972, pp. 491-93)
Wild Rice Habitat by State
Wild Rice Habitat by State. Albert Ernest Jenks, The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes, 1897 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301 .A2 1897-98, pl. 66).
Rice Harvest, 2009
Northern Wisconsin has extensive rice beds on which Native people rely. Some are on Ojibwa reservations: in Burnett County, the St. Croix Reservation; in Bayfield County, the Red Cliff Reservation; in Sawyer County, the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation; in Vilas and Oneida Counties, the Lac du Flambeau Reservation. Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is in Price and Taylor Counties, and Native people harvest rice there, as well as in Douglas County. Courtesy of United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).