Wild Rice -- Mahnoomin
Page Navigation Buttons---Wild rice is Mah-NO-min in Anishinaabemowin. The -min part of
the word rhymes with "bit". It means seed. The first part of the
word is a contraction of Manido, spirit-giver of this traditionally
important and sacred food grain. As did Maple sugar, manoomin
gave its name to the moon (month) of harvest, typically the end of
August-early September in northern Minnesota: Manoominike
Giizis, the moon (month) when it is harvested. The harvest is a time
of fun, but hard work, too, especially processing the grain on the
spot, even with some modern aids.Manoomin grows as reeds about 8-12 feet tall in water about 3-8
feet deep in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and marshes north of the Great
Lakes. There are thousands of different varieties, each growing in its own particular
niche of depth, temperature, mud, water quality. Wild rice is very sensitive to the
environmental conditions of its niche. When a hydroelectric dam was built by Northern
States Power Company at Winter, Wisconsin, that flooded burial grounds of the Lac
Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation of Wisconsin, the water level was changed only by
1 foot several times yearly in the dam's operation. Even though the rice wasn't flooded
out, this water-level changing killed off much of the rice depended on by traditional
LCO people, and figured considerably in LCO's long lawsuit against NSP. Victory
there didn't bring the rice back. I don't know if there are rice beds in the areas affected
by Canada's huge hydro projects, but if there are they won't survive, because the
plants don't like changes, the species are perfectly adapted to the way things are in
different areas, including seasonal water levels, quality, temperature.As you will see from all the Anishinaabe words used for everything about rice, it was
the most important food in traditional lakes country life. Usually any people has a big
vocabulary about that which is very important to them. I use Mille Lacs pronunciation
and spell it phonetically. The "oo" in the word mahnoomin does not rhyme with moon,
it's a long "oh" with the accent on it.In the old days, they say, women would go out on the ricefield lakes of a family about 2
weeks before the rice was ripe. They would tie some narrow bundles of rice reed-heads
into tight sheaves with basswood twine. The twine was in a big ball in a tray behind the
woman. It ran over her shoulder in a little leather loop. She pulled the still-unripe
heads together and wound and tied them (mamaawashkaawipidoon). The grains from
tied rice wouldn't fall in the water. It could be cut off later in the winter, and shaken
out. Those grains took a longer time to cook, but they were very special, they say. It
took several days for women to tie up lots of sheaves. No one does this any more.Wild Rice
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrice.html (1 of 8) [5/17/2004 11:56:41 AM]