Manoomin

Upcoming Event, Raising Awareness and Knowledge of Proposed Pipelines that Threaten MN Wild Rice

Victoria Sweet

April 17, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm, Hamline University School of Law will host a law student training event. The students will learn about administrative processes related to proposed oil pipelines, specifically focusing on the ones slated to run through Minnesota.

From the press release:

Honor the Earth, a Native-led environmental organization, has joined with a coalition of related organizations to protect Minnesota’s wild rice stands. The group is participating in the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (“PUC”) and administrative processes regarding two proposed oil pipelines threatening some of the most significant wild rice stands in the state. To advance those efforts, Winona LaDuke of Honor the Earth and her team of legal allies will train Minnesota environmental law students on April 17th. Hamline University School of Law will host the event from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm which will also be available statewide via webcast. Environmental law students from all four Minnesota law schools (University of Minnesota, William Mitchell, Hamline, and St. Thomas) will be reviewing the legal and administrative cases. 

Press interviews will also be offered from 10:30 am – 11:25 am in the Moot Court Room.

Further information on the pipelines and efforts to propose alternative routes can be found in the press release:

Press Release Honor the Earth

News coverage here.

Sandpiper map

Manoomin Project — Planting Wild Rice in U.P.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Earthtimes.org:

(Marquette, Michigan) – Teenagers planted wild rice on Saturday in a four-year effort to restore the grain to northern Michigan with help from American Indian guides.

Delayed six weeks due to a severe drought that hampered Midwest wild rice production, at-risk teens on Saturday (November 3, 2007) planted several miles of the Dead River near Marquette beating a snowstorm that arrived Monday afternoon.

The groundbreaking Manoomin Project has teamed hundreds of at-risk teens with American Indian guides who have planted over a ton of wild rice since the summer of 2004 .

Manoomin means wild rice in Ojibwa.

Wild rice disappeared from Michigan over a century ago and is a vital part of Native American ceremonies and traditions.

“You are the first ones to bring wild rice back to the area,” the teens were told by American Indian guide Dave Anthony of Marquette. “I am pleased that you are here and what you are doing today is very important.”

“This is very, very significant, this is a gift from the creator, it’s food grown on the water,” said Anthony, who attends Northern Michigan University (NMU) and belongs to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa (Ottawa) Indian based in Harbor Springs, MI. “Wild rice is the original North American grain and is very nutritious.”

The importance of the project was not lost on the teens who picked up a few Ojibwa words.

“Megwiich,” said Danny Carello, 13, of Ishpeming saying “thank you” to nature in Ojibwa while carefully tossing wild rice seeds into a small pond along the Dead River.