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• 1 2021-04-19T17:19:58+00:00 Cultural Identity 1 image_header 2021-04-19T17:19:58+00:00

  Above: Clan Credentials, 1849. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information, respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 1851 (Newberry Library, Ayer250.S3h 1851, vol. 1, Plate 60)

  In the Great Lakes area, the local groups have shared a regional culture and also developed variations on this culture. The principal theme of regional culture is reciprocity, the belief that it is necessary and morally right to give something to get something in return. This idea has been expressed in the value placed on sharing with one’s relatives and gift-giving with in-laws and allies. Reciprocity extends to relations between humans and spirit beings. Over time, Native peoples of the region experienced the fur trade, treaty era, federal assimilation policy, and a modern resurgence of the acknowledgment of tribal sovereignty. All these experiences shaped contemporary life, as basic indigenous beliefs and values became the basis of cultural identity today.

  Cultural identity is anchored in a deep emotional bond with the homeland (or locally-used territories). The Great Lakes region is woodlands with many lakes and rivers that enabled the indigenous people to survive. They have always obtained subsistence by hunting, fishing, and harvesting rice, maple sugar, and the other native plants. In the late 19th century, the concept of “trust land” (Indian land to which the federal government held title) became culturally associated with economic security and tribal sovereignty, and these ideas persist in the present. In the homeland are many sacred sites that have meaning and evoke powerful emotions for Native people.

  Subsistence by hunting, fishing, and harvesting native plants has never been merely a means to survive. These are religious acts and vehicles for social cohesion. Survival has always been difficult and individuals have not been able to count on being successful in the search for game or other resources. Sharing among family members and “gift-giving” (including feasting) between groups of non-kin worked as a form of social insurance. Relatives had to work cooperatively in many economic pursuits. The common view was that the natural resources belonged to all the people and individuals were only entitled to use rights. Today, tribal resources, including income from tribally owned businesses, are available to all. The game animals and plant resources also allowed the indigenous peoples to participate in regional commerce from the time of contact with Europeans to the present. Today, traditional subsistence activity is culturally associated with tribal sovereignty, and tribes own businesses, including fish processing plants.

  Listen to Dan Stone, Little River Ottawa, explain the importance of fishing rights to tribal sovereignty and cultural identity. Non-natives express their reservations.

  Identity Through Fishing. Video courtesy of tdndavid/YouTube, 2007. View transcript

  And, these activities are culturally iconic, so that tribes are working to revive the technologies associated with subsistence activity, for example as part of educational programs.

  Listen to Reggie Cadotte from Lac Courte Oreilles explain how he is helping to perpetuate traditional ricing technology among Indian youth

  Identity Through Ricing. Video courtesy of Indian Country TV, 2009. View transcript

  Fulfilling family obligations has always been central to identity, and “family” is defined in culturally distinct ways. With the exception of the Dakotas in Minnesota, clan membership is central to an individual’s identity in Indian communities. In Native belief, clans originated at the time of Creation, when the “Giver of Life” delegated power to various spirit beings, most of whom can appear in animal form. These spirit beings founded the original clans. Men and women belong to their father’s clan. Throughout the Great Lakes region, people from different groups could find allies among people who belonged to the same clan. Members of the same clan had a close bond, especially within a community.

  Listen to John Low, Pokagon Potawatomi, explain how clan identity worked in the past and present

  John Low on Potawatomi clan identity. Production by Mike Media Group, 2009. View transcript | View at Internet Archive

  In Ojibwa clans, for example, the close bond between one’s “brothers” extended to brothers and sons of one’s father’s brothers. Also, the several clans in a village owed each other certain duties, so the clan organization also worked as a political organization with particular clans providing particular kinds of leaders. Over time, clan duties have changed, and today in many communities clan identity is representative of cultural identity for individuals.

  Listen to Ernie St. Germaine, an Ojibwa from Lac du Flambeau, explaining the importance of clan identity

  Ojibwa Clan Identity. Video courtesy of WDSE-Duluth/Superior, MN, 2002. View transcript

  Dakotas extend the kinship relationship to a wide network of relatives on both the father’s and mother’s sides, so that people in a community have many brothers, sisters, grandparents, and so on. Kinship obligations motivate people to cooperate and share.

  Reliance on spirit helpers was important to the indigenous peoples of the region. Individuals sought visions to contact a spirit helper, and individuals had encounters with them in dreams. A relationship with a spirit helper meant that in return for gifts of food and tobacco, the spirit helper granted power to be successful in hunting, curing, and warfare. Group ceremonies, including the Medicine Lodge and Dream Dance worked on this principle. In recent times, peyote ritual provided a means to attain visions and prayers for success. Sometimes the acceptance of Christianity came as a result of a visionary revelation.

  Beginning in the 1970s, there was a widespread social movement that promoted cultural “revival.” In every community, there were people (sometimes few, sometimes many) who still spoke the Native language, remembered important events in the past, and knew the subsistence technologies, songs, and ceremonies of their ancestors. They served as an important resource for individuals and communities seeking to re-energize cultural identity in the modern world.

  Listen to Mille Lacs Ojibwas Jody Allen Crowe and Edward Minnema discuss their language program

  Language and Identity. Video courtesy of WDSE-Duluth/Superior, MN, 2002. View transcript

  Do you want to read about an instance of Ojibwa cultural revival?

  The PARR [an anti-Indian fishing rights organization] rally witnessed one of the first public displays of modern cultural revitalization at Lac du Flambeau. For some time, a spiritual leader from Grand Portage in Minnesota, having dreamed that the unfolding conflict over fishing rights would become important, had been instructing the people of Flambeau in cultural practices that had been forgotten. A number of people were taught how to construct spirit poles, which are placed in front of one’s home. These are cedar poles about twenty feet long that are stripped of their bark and branches up to the last few feet; here medicines in the form of tobacco offerings, strips of colored cloth, and eagle feathers are often tied. A rock is often put at the base of the pole and tobacco offerings are placed upon it. Wayne Valliere remembered that this spiritual leader also taught the Flambeau singers four songs that they were to sing when they went to the PARR rally [in 1986].

  Tom Maulson and a group of nearly one hundred people from Lac du Flambeau attended the rally in Minocqua. They brought a drum and an innovative ritual they later referred to as a friendship ceremony. The presence of the drum was significant to the tribal members; its use is a mode of establishing a relationship with the non-human persons who empower human beings. The drum that was brought to the rally was a descendent of the Drum Dance drum given to the people of Lac du Flambeau by the Bad River band who, in turn, received it from groups further to the west, who ultimately got it from their old rivals, the Dakotas. The Dakotas received it when a woman who was hiding in a lake from the U. S. Army was taken up into the spirit world and given instructions about the making and decorating of the drum and the songs and offices that went with it. Once the drum was made and its offices of belt carrier and pipe carrier filled, the soldiers came to dance. The drum thus represents an imaginative encompassment of one’s enemies, largely on one’s own terms.

  What transpired that day was understood by the Flambeau people to have been influenced and guided by the spirits. As Wayne Valliere, a young man at the time, began to sing the first song, he noticed that all of the scowling protesters, adorned in blaze orange jackets (a symbol of anti-treaty sentiment), hats, and anti-Indian buttons, turned to look at him. Amid catcalls and hooting, he kept singing. Then the crowd stared up at the sky. “I saw them look up and I looked up and I saw an eagle making twenty-foot circles over the drum. He did that through the whole song, four times through. We sang three more songs and by the end those people were quiet. Then we walked through that whole town carrying that drum.”

  For the singer, the eagle represented a validation of what he calls the ways of the ‘gete Anishinaabe’—“the ancient Indians.” Larry Nesper, The Walleye War, 2002, pp. 81-82.

  Today, local communities or reservations devote resources to perpetuating oral traditions, their Native language, and activities they regard as traditional. They may introduce Native terms for their group to replace those terms used by Euro-Americans, for example Ho-Chunk rather than Winnebago, and Waswaaganing rather than Lac du Flambeau. Certain historical events may be reenacted as collective rituals of identity, as the Dakota do with a memorial ceremony for Dakota men executed after the 1863 Sioux Conflict.

  Listen to John Low, Pokagon Potawatomi, discuss key symbols of Pokagon identity: the leadership of Pokagon, the Catholic mission, and subsistence technology

  John Low on symbols of Pokagon identity. Production by Mike Media Group, 2009. View transcript | View at Internet Archive

  One of the most important ceremonies where symbols of local identity are expressed and generate a sense of group distinctiveness is the community powwow. Here, there are gift-exchanges, the honoring of relatives, demonstrations of subsistence technologies, use of Native language, particular songs that have local meaning, and speeches that reinforce collective memory and cultural values.

  Learn about the Pokagon Potawatomi community’s powwow

  Potawatomi Powwow. Video courtesy of WNIT Public Television. View transcript

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  Woods and Stream, Keweenaw Bay L’Anse Reservation

  Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

  Witch Tree, Grand Portage Reservation, Minnesota

  This tree grows out of bare rock on the shoreline of Lake Superior. On tribal land, it is a sacred site for the Ojibwa. For generations they have left tobacco offerings there to the water spirits in the lake in order to gain protection when fishing and traveling on the water. In the Ojibwa language, the name for the tree means “spirit-little-cedar.” There are many other sacred sites in the region. And, of course, many of the mounds in the Midwest are sacred sites for Native people (Missaukee Earthworks, in Missaukee County, Michigan, for example). The photo was taken in July 2008 by Aaron C. Jors

  Sugar Camp, ca. 1850

  This watercolor painting by Seth Eastman shows a family camp in a grove of maple trees (the sugarbush). The house frames are covered by bark and the women have marked the family’s trees with an axe. They have made cuts in the trees and inserted wooden spiles. Containers catch the sap and then are emptied into barrels. The sap is boiled to make sugar. Mary Eastman, American Aboriginal Portfolio (Newberry Library, Ayer250.45.E2, 1853)

  Canoe Maker, 1940

  This Ojibwa couple is traveling to the Mille Lacs Trading Post, where they will sell the canoe. Much of the woodwork, sewing with hides and cloth, beading, and basketry was sold to tourists and resorts during the 20th century. This work was adapted for the market in many respects, but commercial handcraft also served to perpetuate the traditional technological skills that contemporary artists and crafts people need to sell art and to make outfits for powwows and other ceremonies. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society, Location no. E97.35r46, neg. 35791

  Ho-Chunk Laborers Picking Cranberries, 1900

  Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) families and groups of families worked as agricultural laborers throughout the year, moving from farm to farm with the seasons. Ethnographer Nancy Lurie has explained that these seasonal migrations paralleled the traditional seasonal subsistence migrations. They picked strawberries and cherries in the summer, moved to farms where they harvested corn and beans, then traveled to the cranberry fields in the fall. Photo courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, BAEGN4423

  Ricing, Lac Vieux Desert Community

  Katherine and Mark Sherman winnowing to separate the chaff from the grain. Today ricing can be a community-wide, rather than a family, affair, and whereas women used to be primarily involved, today men participate as well. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band

  Sugar Bush Education

  Sharon Nelis, Bad River tribal member, shows members of her family (Austin Nelis and granddaughter Rena LaGrew) how to tap sap from the maple tree. Families go to the sugarbush (a stand of maple trees) to collect sap to boil for syrup or, with more cooking, to make sugar candy. Photo by Sue Erickson, courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

  Clan Credentials, 1849

  This pictograph on bark was submitted to the President of the United States in January 1849 by the Ojibwa delegates who came to petition for the return of some land ceded in 1842 at the treaty of La Pointe. The delegation had not been authorized but these Ojibwas made such an impression with their native dress and their dancing that Congress agreed to pay their expenses. Each delegate identified himself by clan, as he represented his clan in the political negotiations. They sought to present their “credentials” as representatives for their people, and birch bark scrolls traditionally were used to record personal qualities. They brought with them an interpreter. In this drawing of the scroll by Seth Eastman we see: 1) the Crane Clan, represented by Oshcabawis, the leader of this village on the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. The eyes of the other clan animals are directed toward him (by lines) to show that they were of the same mind and the lines connecting their hearts indicate that they have a unity of feeling and purpose; 2) the Marten Clan, represented by the warrior Wai-mit-tig-oazh; 3) the Marten Clan, represented by the warrior O-ge-ma-gee-zhig; 4) the Marten Clan, represented by the warrior Muk-o-mis-ud-ains; 5) the Bear Clan, represented by O-mush-kose; 6) the Man-Fish Clan, represented by Penai-see; 7) the Catfish Clan, represented by the warrior Na-wa-ge-wun. The line from the forehead of #1 represents his progress or course, and the line going back to # 8 represents the purpose of the trip (to obtain the rice lakes, indicated by the # 8). The number 9 represents the path from the shore of Lake Superior to the village of the delegates and #10 represents Lake Superior. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information, respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 1851 (Newberry Library, Ayer250.S3h 1851, vol. 1, Plate 60)

  Offering Tobacco, ca. 2008

  Larry Baker offers tobacco to spirit beings before the rice harvest as part of the reciprocity expected in subsistence activities. He sprinkles the tobacco in the water. Photo by Shanna Clark, alumna of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College

  Honoring Veterans

  These veterans are the Honor Guard at Lac Vieux Desert Powwow, Watersweet, Michigan, in 2008. They carry staffs signifying military experience and lead the dancers into the arena at the start of the powwow. Their service as an honor guard honors both them and veterans in general. Military service also has worked to revitalize traditional cultural practices throughout the 20th century. For example, men who served in World War I often were the focus of prayer ceremonies in the peyote church or other ceremonies, such as clan war bundle rituals. When they returned they were honored in victory dances, as were their ancestors in earlier times. These warrior traditions were reinforced and revived as a result of military service in World War I and II, and subsequently. Also, veterans often formed organizations that assumed political and ceremonial roles in their communities. Photo courtesy of Lac Vieux Desert Band

  Ho-Chunk Peyote Leaders, ca. 1913

  The “peyote church” attracted about half of the Ho-Chunk people, according to ethnographer Paul Radin. Most people joined after they were cured of an illness by peyote ritual. Many of the ritual components were comparable with traditional religion, but several Christian elements had been added by younger members through vision experiences. The church rituals or “meetings” took place weekly and more often in the winter and summer seasons when the Ho-Chunk Medicine Lodge ceremonies were also held. John Rave introduced the peyote church to the Ho-Chunk in 1893. He had been in Oklahoma during an emotional crisis, where he regained his health after participating in the ritual. Over time, several other leaders emerged in Wisconsin. Participants used a rattle and small drum, taking turns singing throughout the night, while they ate from the peyote plant. They also carried beaded staffs and eagle fans. The elements that were consistent with the Winnebago or Ho-Chunk religion were the offering of tobacco to the peyote spirit, the use of peyote as a medicinal plant, vision experiences, and singing as an act of prayer. Christian elements included readings from the Bible, baptism of new members in peyote water, and Christian symbolism at the “altar.” This altar included a mound (“Mt. Sinai”) at the end of the fire on which there was a Bible and the peyote plant. A cross was drawn on the ground in front of the mound. Members considered the peyote church to be helpful in their adjustment to the non-Indian world. The peyote church co-existed with the Medicine Lodge and Christianity, according to Radin. Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 1915-16 (Newberry Library, Ayer 301A2 1915-16)

  American Indian Center, at its Present Location, Chicago North, 2009

  The center opened at the instigation of the Chicago Indian community with assistance from philanthropic organizations. It was the first urban center in the country. At this time, Chicago was one of five original relocation cities that drew Indians from several states. Winnebagos (Ho-Chunks) and the Three Fires (Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi) organized tribal clubs to reinforce a sense of community and culture. Urban Indians could identify themselves by their urban community as well as by tribe (or in lieu of tribe). These “urban Indians” were very influential in the treaty movement and cultural revitalization generally, and they maintained ties with their home communities. Today the center serves people from 50 tribes as a major gathering place where many activities take place—powwows, bingo, potlucks, family and community celebrations, and wakes. Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/Zol87

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• 1 2021-04-19T17:20:02+00:00 Wild Rice 1 image_header 2021-04-19T17:20:02+00:00

  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)

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  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).