Four incredibly color-coordinated pale faces chat about patterns with Chippewa Chief Big Bear in Itasca Park, Minnesota back in 1935. His tribesman sold many items to visitors, including beaded bags, baskets, toy birch-bark canoes, and other handicrafts. They also held husking parties, such as these, with the intent to supply rice for sportsmen’s game banquets.
While other tribes chose corn as their main crop, the Chippewa lived in a “place where there is food upon the water” surrounding the Great Lakes region. Wild rice, or “manoomin” in the Ojibwe language, was integral to their diets as well as their entire way of life. Wisconsin Chippewans have harvested manoomin for centuries.
In 2018, Chippewa Indians from Turtle Lake, Wisconsin continued to gather in the name of rice, hosting their 45th annual Wild Rice Festival. The pow-wow was the showstopper.
While rice beds have been diminishing, threatened by climate issues, pipelines, and mines, Chippewans struggle to protect the crop by reseeding lakes and waterways, hoping to meet the needs of their communities as well as pass on the culture to younger generations.
Who knew wild rice was such a big deal? To most of us, it’s just a side option at restaurants.
Or a delectable holiday dish, such as this cranberry squash wild rice pilaf.
Seriously, I could eat that right now.
Check and see if your state celebrates wild rice as well. Why, we even have a Texas Wild Rice Festival in San Marcos! There’s the mayor floating the river in the middle of the festival.
Prices seem fair in most places, even if you don’t get a pow-wow or float down a river.
And don’t forget to dress up!
I Don't Get It 
Amazing how so much life goes on that some of us have no idea about, great post 😀😀
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You can have my share Kerby. Not a fan. I acknowledge its importance to America but I prefer white or brown rice.
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I hear you.
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Love me my wild rice. Of course, white, short grain rice is king in this household for…reasons. Anyway, I don’t know how much wild rice California produces although it is the clear leader in white rice production. I’ll bet if you brought a pack of Uncle Ben’s minute wild rice to one of those gatherings you would cause heart attacks among the native American contingent. Enjoyed the post.
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I’ll take some of that wild rice too Kerbey. Looks amazing. Like this post of yours.
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Thanks!
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I hope they can rescue their way of life, Kerbey.
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Thank you for the education. I am now enlightened about the significance of wild rice to this indigenous culture and, therefore, American history. It is delicious.
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