Slideshow

Neshnabe Menomenkewen
Traditional Wild Rice Harvesting

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

HOPKINS, MICHIGAN - 100 people attended the cultural training workshop from 12 American Indian tribes and First Nations from Canada. People traveled to West Michigan from as far away as Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

Manoomin (wild rice) has historically been important as both a unique part of Southwest Michigan's wetland ecology and for its central place at the heart of traditional Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatomi culture.

Wild rice is a grass species whose grain provides the base of the food chain for wetland, lake and riparian habitats where it occurs, especially during late summer and early autumn. It is a key element of the Great Lake's coastal and interior wetlands.

"We took the participants through all steps of harvesting and processing the rice. Even though, there is no rice to harvest in the lake, we were going to do a demonstration of how it is done, but the winds prevented us from even going down to the lake today," said Roger LaBine, an elder of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, based in Watersmeet, Michigan.

Roger LaBine - Chippewa

“This training is about the history, spiritual and cultural significance of the use of wild rice by our people,”

said LaBine. "There was high interest in today's training. It was nice seeing people come from various tribes."

posted October 18, 2011 12:00 pm edt