‘A resilient plant’
Chandra Colvin MPR News
Three tribes in northern Minnesota report a late start in this year's wild rice harvest with varying results. For Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa heavy rainfall and precipitation in the spring and summer proved to make growth difficult for wild rice, negatively impacting the amount of wild rice that could be harvested.
Bois Forte Band's natural resources program manager Chris Holm says Nett Lake, where band members typically rice, had around 5,000 acres worth of beds to harvest in 2023. However, this year there were only an estimated 800 acres available.
"It seems like we're getting more instances of more extreme weather and water level fluctuations," Holm said. Nett Lake's average depth of water where beds are located is three feet.
This was not the first time in recent years that Nett Lake has experienced flooding in wild rice beds. Holm says 2022 also proved to be a difficult season with flooding.
Thomas Howes is the natural resources program manager at Fond du Lac Band. He says wild rice begins its growth cycle around spring each year beginning with the seeds that fell into the waters from the previous fall's harvest. Under the right circumstances, it can take anywhere from weeks to months for those seeds to germinate and grow.
"If [the water level] doesn't recede fast enough, it essentially drowns out," Howes said. "A majority of what I saw this year was a lot of [wild rice] drowned."
On the opposite end, White Earth Nation saw a plentiful season this year despite delays. Wild rice manager Cliff Crowell says their wild rice enterprise bought around 280,000 pounds of rice from band members.
Crowell says band members did need to start the season ricing farther away from the reservation. As the season went on, they were able to move closer and closer to home.
"Our ricers are traveling off the reservation, going to different places that are known to have wild rice. This year, most of those places weren't very good with the high water," Crowell said.
He says ricers saw success later in the season at Lower Rice Lake, where approximately 210,000 pounds was harvested. The lake is located on the northeastern part of the reservation in Clearwater County. Only band members are allowed to rice on the lake.
According to Crowell, this year's harvest brought in more than last year's estimated 250,000 pounds of wild rice.
Effect on tribal communities
During harvest season, gathering wild rice can provide an additional source of income to communities.
Holm says the season brings in temporary jobs for band members as wild rice from Nett Lake is hand harvested and then bought by the Bois Forte Band's tribal government to sell online. During a small harvest year both the number of jobs and quantity of wild rice is limited.
"We never know what a given year is going to bring us," Holm said.
Howes says challenging harvest years can also prevent band members from providing food for themselves or for their families.
"If families were planning to take someone out to teach them, it's a lost opportunity," Howes said.
For many communities, wild rice can be more than just a staple food or source of income. It is a sacred resource that embodies traditions, cultural heritage and relationships with the land.
"It's central to our ceremonies, when we start in spring and when we end in fall, or if we're having a funeral or a memorial service or a naming ceremony," Howes said. "Any large community gathering."
Both Howes and Holm say the cultural significance of wild rice is the reason that both communities maintain and take care of the plant.
Looking to next year and beyond
How successful a harvest is can vary from year to year. Weather, pests and human factors can affect the wild rice plant cycle throughout the season.
Bois Forte Band is looking to make investments in computer advancements to predict weather patterns for upcoming seasons to prepare for changes and fluctuations.
Holm says the tribe has been consulting with Georgia Tech University and engineering firms to create wireless censors to monitor weather and water levels to make predictions based on the time of year. The band recently submitted a grant application and is waiting for final approval to move forward with the proposed censors.
Nett Lake already has a central flow point where a dam system is in place, allowing for Bois Forte Band to have some control over water levels. Making predictions with censors would allow the community to prepare in advance for needed water levels, Holm says.
"It's an attempt to get a just a little bit of a step ahead of an event instead of reacting to everything after it's happened," Holm said.
According to Crowell, White Earth Nation typically sees consistent seasons despite looking out for pests such as rice worms. The tribe has a relationship with the Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in which they are able maintain water levels in Lower Rice Lake via stoplogs.
"When we do see a high influx of water, we can either remove or put in stoplogs ... so it's not fluctuating to where you see a high influx of water," Crowell said.
Crowell says it's a system that has been in place even before the current dam system, which was installed in 2006. He says White Earth Nation band members have historically utilized logs to maintain control of water levels.
"The silver lining to this is that although rice is a fragile plant, it's also a resilient plant," Holm said. "The rice seeds that it sheds can stay in the lake for a very long time and wait for conditions that are suitable for growth."
