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Manoomin (wild rice), which covers a vast portion of North America, is a sacred food to the Anishinaabeg and other Indigenous peoples. “Anishinaabeg” means literally “original people,” whose prophecy and migration story directed them to settle in the region, “where the good berry grows on water.” This “good berry” is Manoomin, or wild rice. The heart of the Anishinaabeg culture and traditions lies in the geographical center of biodiversity for wild rice. Located in the northern Midwestern states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan), and southern Canada, the Anishinaabeg have honored and cared for wild rice for thousands of years. The Anishinaabeg culture believes the intrinsic identity of wild rice is such that it holds within it a spirit given by the Creator to the Anishinaabeg for their sustenance, both spiritual and traditional. This characteristic precedes economics and laws. It stands as a fundamental human right of the Anishinaabeg and as a source of dignity in their culture. Manoomin binds the Anishinaabeg together as a community and instills a relationship to their land that nurtures their spirituality and their livelihoods. Unfortunately, the Manoomin is now being threatened by the completed mapping and potential genetic manipulation of the wild rice genome.

The fight to save Manoomin is directly related to the national and international movement against the globalization of the world’s food supply, the corporate take-over of our common foods, and the introduction of genetic pollution into our ecosystem, food, and bodies. To respond to these threats the Anishinaabeg are organizing to educate their community and to stop the bio-piracy and bio-colonialization of their culture.

The people gather every harvesting season for ceremonies and to harvest that which the Creator has given them. While giving thanks for the gift of Manoomin, the Anishinaabeg are also seeking support for their battle to save their culture and traditions. With the genetic research by the University of Minnesota that has produced the genomic map of wild rice, the possibility of further patents on wild rice varieties seems inevitable. There are also fears that the natural stands of wild rice on protected and ceded lands may be infiltrated by hybridized or genetically modified wild rice varieties, as happened with corn in Mexico (Ed note: see Doreen Stabinsky’s article on page X).

Here in northwestern Minnesota, on Gahwahbahbahnikag, the “White Earth” Reservation, wild rice grows abundantly. Each individual lake contains its own stand of wild rice, making each a center of biodiversity. Wild rice from the White Earth Reservation in the western portion of Minnesota tastes and looks different from wild rice from the Fond DuLac Reservation in eastern Minnesota. Winona LaDuke, founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, stated, “The abundant biodiversity of wild rice in Indian country assures that there will be a crop somewhere for the Anishinaabeg. This is the way the Creator designed it.” The biodiversity of wild rice must be protected from the hybridization programs, genetic research, and patenting to ensure that Anishinaabeg and other people can continue harvesting the natural wild rice for generations to come.

Biocolonialism, widespread in Western societies, is based on the premise of domination over nature, and is realized in the actions of large agribusiness. Debra Harry, Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Bio-colonialism, states that, “…colonization is an age old process of theft and control facilitated by doctrines of conquest…that claim the land as empty and non-productive (in its natural state)…and as the self-proclaimed ‘discovers’ of crops, medicinal plants, genetic resources, and traditional knowledge, these bioprospectors become the new ‘owners.’ The quest for knowledge by ‘bioprospectors’ through exploration and research has led to the mapping of the wild rice genome, creating threats to the sacredness of Manoomin.”

The commodification and commercialization of common foods and agriculture can be seen in the continued research on wild rice. Since the 1960s, the University of Minnesota’s hybridization programs (they have four known experiment stations) have produced nine different hybridized varieties of paddy wild rice. Scientists like to state that they are improving the plant by making it more efficient: conducive to mechanical harvesting technologies and standardized for ease of collection and processing. However, they do not take into account the adverse and damaging effects of their so-called improvements on the Anishinaabeg people and others who rely on natural wild crops. The private and corporate takeover of wild rice production destroys our environment by increasing the frequency of chemigation (chemical irrigation) on paddy wild rice. It also turns desert land in northern California into aquaculture habitats to grow a plant

that is native to wetland and monsoon type ecosystems.
The bio-piracy of a sacred food and destruction of a spiritual livelihood has infringed upon the sovereignty and spiritual dignity of the Anishinaabeg. In a genome research lab, Ken Foster has engineered a method, in which, by so-called Cytoplasmic Male Sterility, he produces a hybrid strain of wild rice. Cytoplasmic Male Sterile wild rice exists in nature; however the cross breeding of two varieties allowed Foster to claim his “inventiveness” and secure two patents on wild rice. The previous existence and knowledge of this trait created a strong argument by the Anishinaabeg that these patents are infringing on Indigenous cultural, intellectual, and sovereign treaty rights.

Universities and private research labs are moving to profit from their work on wild rice. It is urgent that Tribes, along with the environmental and food safety community, address these issues and take action. The corporate control and claims of ownership over wild rice using these patents is another form of colonialism and infringes on Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights granted by the United States of America. A treaty is made with sovereign nations; these Treaties need to be honored and upheld.

The University of Minnesota, one of the collaborators and large supporters of wild rice genetic research, is located in the region of origin for the species Zizania palustris. The center of wild rice biodiversity and germplasm in the northern Midwest and southern Canada is of great interest to the University of Minnesota and the paddy farmers they support. The establishment of a $20 million paddy wild rice market in the late 1990’s is one of the economic and moral reasons that the University of Minnesota uses to continue to genetically modify wild rice. Ironically, the majority of paddy wild rice is now grown in Northern California and shipped back to the Midwest.

Out of concern for the well being of their members, the President of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Norman Deschampe, wrote a letter to President Mark Yudof of the University of Minnesota asking him to halt wild rice genetic research and objecting to the research of wild rice as “imprudent and even provocative.” He wrote, “This rice from these waters holds a sacred and significant place in our culture…we urge the greatest possible level of caution before the University proceeds too far in this process…” Though the plea to halt genetic research was sent in September 1998, almost a year later, in August 1999, the genome map of wild rice was published, showing the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and the Anishinaabeg that their request was obviously ignored. Additionally, upon the publishing of the wild rice genome study it became known that two of the researchers that worked on this genomic study now work for Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred, the worlds two largest seed companies.

President Deschampe ended his plea to the University of Minnesota President with the demand that “We (the Anishinaabeg) are prepared to undertake every legal and lawful measure to protect our interests in this matter. I hope you do not feel we do so merely to stop the progress of our general society. (We are all too aware of the historical outcome for Indians when the general society feels we are in the way of their progress.) I assure you, our interest is only in protecting the few rights and advantages that we have granted at such great cost.”

The bio-piracy of a sacred food and destruction of a spiritual livelihood has forever altered the intrinsic identity of Manoomin and has infringed upon the sovereignty and spiritual dignity of the Anishinaabeg. Actions are underway to secure the rights and sovereignty of Native peoples and their beloved Manoomin. The right and responsibility to protect wild rice for future generations is an inherent right of the Anishinaabeg, and is further protected by their self-governance, sovereignty, and Treaty rights. u

If you would like more information about these acts of bio-piracy, please contact the White Earth Land Recovery Project at 1-888-779-3577 or email us at welrp@unitelc.com. You can also visit us online at www.welrp.com.

Brian Carlson is the Political and Environmental Community Organizer for the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Ponsford, MN. He has a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.