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From North House Folk School - November 15, 2024

From soups to hotdishes and salads to stuffings, many Minnesotans are familiar with wild rice as a staple of the Midwestern diet. Fewer are aware of the tools and methods used for harvesting and processing manoomin (wild rice) and the deep cultural significance this plant continues to hold for traditional Ojibwe lifeways and treaty rights. 

Students of all grades at Cook County ISD 166 connected with these traditions on October 29 during a school program led by Jeff Harper (Leech Lake) and Michelle Marion (Akimel O'odham and Anishinaabe, Leech Lake) through a partnership grant received by the Grand Portage Band and North House Folk School from the Minnesota Humanities Center. 

ISD 166 principal Josh Belanger reflected on the value of learning both in and outside of the classroom, and shared that “those types of opportunities can be difficult to organize when a teacher or school is acting on their own. Having these types of partnerships eliminates so many hurdles in creating these unique and important learning opportunities for our students.”

A birch bark canoe lent from the North House campus illuminated the harvesting process as Harper and Marion explored each stage with students. Tools crafted during a public program hosted in Grand Portage in August – including ricing poles, knockers, and winnowing baskets – were also used in the demonstrations. 

Younger grades were able to participate in a hands-on component, while middle and high school students attended a presentation.

“Many students who might not always feel comfortable or engaged in the more typical classroom setting were the ones standing in front, asking questions, and sharing personal connections to the learning. This is what educators dream about,” Belanger shared. “Whether that classroom is happening within four walls of a school or around an open fire pit standing in drizzly rain, these types of experiences help drive home the foundational value of any quality educational institution; that learning never stops, and learning happens everywhere.”

The rice processed during the school day will be sampled by the students, and extra manoomin will be shared with Tribal elders in Grand Portage. 

The winnowing baskets, ricing poles, and knockers will return to a tool library in Grand Portage, intended for Band member use. The received grant will also support the creation of a set of crooked knives, used in the creation of these tools. 

“North House has collaborated with Grand Portage for many years, and it’s exciting to continue growing this partnership,” North House Program Director Jessa Frost shared. “Bringing greater understanding of manoomin, wild rice, into the school is a key piece of our shared efforts to support connections to Indigenous craft while strengthening vital community relationships.”

This work is funded in part by the Minnesota Humanities Center with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.