Manoomin: Wild Grain of the Water
The Cultural Importance, History, and Commercialization of Wild Rice
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Wild Rice and Commercial “Wild” Rice
While mainstream grocery stores stock "wild rice," what you are most likely seeing on the shelves is cultivated wild rice. In the last two decades, farms have been cultivating such rice in paddies - which is also why this wild rice is called "paddy rice" - under the title of "wild rice." While these strains (many developed in the 70’s and 80’s) were breed from native wild rice, it is no longer the same as what you will find “in the wild.” And true wild rice still exists. It is harvested largely in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It more often found online and in specialty markets outside of the wild rice region. If you are not familiar with wild rice's texture and flavor profile, the only difference you might recognize between the two is the price.
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Species & Native Regions in North America
Wild rice is not related to common white or brown rice; wild rice is part of the Poaceae family. Of the four main varieties of wild rice, all but one are native to North America. The most popular is that variety that inspired such domestication - Zizania palustris. This wild rice is native to the western Great Lakes region, especially the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, as well as Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan lakes and streams. Another variety, Zizania aquatica, grows naturally along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal regions as well as a section of the eastern Great Lakes, especially along the Saint Lawrence River and areas of New England. However, it is Zizania texana, a wild rice variety native to central Texas that is less known but in great danger of extinction, partly due to its short pollen range (less than a yard). Regional variations of wild rice have disappeared or become threatened from some regions, usually due to pollution and over-development.
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According to the Native Wild Rice Coalition, the list of American wild rice (Poaceae family) is longer, including some variations of the 3 main types found in North America. They list:
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Z. aquatica
Z. aquatica var. aquatica
Z. aquatica var. brevis
Z. palustris
Z. palustris var. interior
Z. palustris var. palustris
Z. texana
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Some endangered, rare, or lost varieties include:
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Z. aquatica: Ohio - Threatened; Pennsylvania - Rare; Rhode Island - Special Concern
Z. aquatica var. aquatica: Michigan - Threatened
Z. palustris var. interior: Kentucky - Historical
Z. texana: Texas - Endangered
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The Native Harvest:
The Historic Process of Native American Wild Rice Procurement in the Western Great Lakes
When the manoomin (Ojibwe for wild rice) harvest time came, which for many was in late August. Anishinabe families left their residences for their respective wild rice camps, situated on the banks of shallow waterways that produced wild rice.
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A week or so before the rice was ready to be harvested, women set out to examine and claim their crop. They tied strategic wild rice plant tops in bunches with basswood cordage in her distinctive style. When time to harvest, they untied or cut open these bundled tops and let the now free and ripe rice seeds fall into the bottom of their boats. For the rest of the rice crop not bundled, they used rice sticks - two 3-foot long sticks - one in each hand, to knock the seeds from the rice plant. With one stick these ladies bent the tops of the plants over their canoe, and with the other, knocked the seeds against the other stick to loosen and free them, catching the grains in the bottom of their birch bark canoe. As they are knocking rice into the bottom of the canoe, it was the usual place of related men to “pole” the boat through the rice bed. The men used a pole because the water was shallow enough to do so, and poling the canoe gives them better control over the boat's course. Poling also left the wild rice undisturbed as paddling could knock the rice seeds from the plant before in position to collect, losing a good amount of the crop.
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When the bottom of the boat was filled, it is brought into shore and the grain was unloaded onto large birch bark sheets laid upon the ground in partial sun. The seeds were left for a time to dry, usually up to a day, before they were parched over a fire. In post contact times, this step was done using a trade metal pot. Before European contact, this step could still be accomplished in earthenware pottery.
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Another method of drying the rice was also employed: A drying rack was set up over a low-heat smoky fire. The rack, constructed of wooden poles, was given a 3-inch layer of grass, onto which the loose, still in the husk rice was laid over to catch the smoke that rose through the grass layer. Presumably, their woven mats could also be used as a breathable platform to smoke the rice. Rice treated in this manner was referred to as hard rice; hard rice could be stored indefinitely. After smoke dried or parched, the rice was beaten in a mortar to loosen the hulls. This could also done by "treading" the rice.
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The rice was then winnowed by either tossing and catching with a birch bark tray, or pouring from a standing height onto a birch bark sheet on the ground. The point of either was to let a breeze take away the paper-like hulls. Not all sections of the hulls left though, so the rice was then treaded (with covered or clean feet, or it was done keeping the rice in a hide bag) to loosen the last of the hull fragments. These hull fragments were sometimes kept and consumed as a delicacy of sorts. The dried, hulled wild rice was then packed away for later use. Some pouches, made special for wild rice storage, were created of interior cedar bark strips in a checker-plaited weave.
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Important Note: Many Native families and communities still harvest wild rice in a traditional method. For some areas, Native Peoples are the only folks permitted to harvest rice in certain waterways. You can support Native rice-harvesters by purchasing wild rice they have processed (see the bottom of this page for links to Native-growers and harvesters).
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Further Reading: "Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians" by Frances Densmore & "The Jesuit Relations" by Allen Greer.
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Traditional Native American Wild Rice Dishes
Wild rice, with its chewy, nutty flavor was enjoyed alone or with animal grease and/or maple sugar for flavoring. The Ojibwa were known to add blueberries to their wild rice dishes. Other likely combinations included cranberries and wild onions/leeks (combinations seen often today). Among the historic Ojibwa and their neighbors, wild rice was sometimes cooked with meat or fish; one meal referred to as tassimanonny was a dish of wild rice, corn, and fish boiled together. When cooking wild rice in meat or fish broth, the boiling broth was poured over the rice. The pot was covered and the rice cooked in the flavorful broth. They also made dishes from ground wild rice meal.
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From Wild to Cultivated:
When Did The Change Start?
Before 1965, most wild rice sold on grocery market shelves or in consumed in other food products (like multi-rice mixes), were harvested from natural shallow stands of water. However, earlier in the 1950's, experiments in domestication and mass cultivating wild rice were starting to be explored. Such men as Joseph Bowron and Oliver H. Kelley first theorized such an idea, but it was James and Gerald who pioneered the concept when they grew an acre of wild rice in a man-made rice paddy in Minnesota. By 1958, they expanded their crop to 120 acres, which inspired others to follow. Then in 1965, Uncle Ben, Inc. began to contract acreage for wild rice cultivation. Such efforts to domesticate and commercialize the wild rice led to the eventual breeding and hybridization of the plant to make "shatter-resistant" varieties. 900 cultivated acres of wild rice in 1968 expanded to 18,000 acres in 1973; that's 20 times more in just 5 years! Today, most US cultivated wild rice comes from domesticated paddies in Minnesota and California. From this point on, wild rice would never be the same, and most American dinner tables would never see actual natural wild rice, even though their instant rice boxes claimed to contain "wild rice."
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Source: Alternative Field Crops Manuel, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, and University of Minnesota: Center for Alternative Plant & Animal Products and the Minnesota Extension Service.
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From a Native Perspective:
The Loss of a Food Resource is the Loss of Cultural Identity
Wild rice was a sign given by the Creator that the Anishinabe Native Peoples were to settle upon the areas they claim today. The tradition of wild rice procurement is still alive and well, as it was hundreds of years ago. Such harvesting methods are still largely the same. Family-style rice collecting from boats is still highly practiced. For many Native families who have the rights to harvest the rice on state or public trust lands, such an activity provides an annual event to gather with family, and the chance to pass along an ethnic practice that gives newer generations a feeling of identity in our mixed-cultured American society. Not to be underestimated is also the financial gains of the rice harvested when sold to commercial distributors, or the nutritional benefits of the wild rice in their families' diets. For many who don't live on high wages, the take-home amount of wild rice provides their families with an important source of nutritional whole grains. And wild rice is not just important to the human realm, but also to the animal realm. Many animals feed upon the wild rice, or use the plants for habitat.------------------------For the wild rice to prosper, clean water must be provided. If the water becomes polluted or the water levels change, the wild rice cannot thrive. It needs our commitment to protect and manage it. The cultural value of this wild crop is priceless to the Native People who have traditionally existed on it as a staple cereal, and a true benefit to our American cuisine.--------------------------For more info on wild rice, we suggest the Native Wild Rice Coalition. Their website: http://www.nativewildricecoalition.com/ and their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Native-Wild-Rice-Coalition-315753635514/
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