Wild Rice Harvesting
Time for wild rice harvest in Minnesota. A friend was out yesterday and got 125 pounds. Tomorrow, we pack a few things, put the harvesting canoe on the roof top of the car, and head for the rice lakes.
The harvesting canoe is a cedar strip canoe with no seats and very narrow gunwales and thwartes. Seats and wide gunwales and thwartes cause more of the rice to deflect into the lake instead of landing in the canoe. A ricing canoe does not need to be licensed.
Our first ricing will be done at Wigwam Lake, where my g-g-g-grandmother had her ricing wigiwams (hence the name of the lake).
I will be standing up in the canoe, pushing the canoe with a long pole known as a gon-da-ke-i-gun-ak, and Wing and Sara will sit in the bottom of the canoe with two 3 foot long sticks each and "knock" the rice into the canoe. This is known as bawahm. When they both disappear beneath rice, it will be time to head for shore and bag up the rice.
We will dry the rice on canvas tarps by our campsite overnight, singe it in a kettle over a campfire to remove the beard, "dance" on it to part the husk from the grain, and winow it by throwing it in the air in a light breeze - using birchbark winnowing trays. The drying and singeing is called "bahsahn" and the dancing is done in a pit, called a botahgan, which is lined with cedar staves and a canvas tarp or deer hide. New mogasins, never worn, are required for the dancing.
There is a special ceremony for eating the first new rice. We used to have duck, grouse, or woodcock, baked in clay, with the new rice, but now we bring chicken as the bird season is not yet open.
Sometimes Manomin Ikayng feels a little sad now. This used to be a big deal for our family. My parents, grandparents, all my cousins, aunts, and uncles used to be there for a week. Now it is just me, Wing, and Sara.
At the website listed below there is an audio segment ("Listen," left center) of Winona Laduke talking about ricing. Worth listening to. Below that is a photo gallery of ricing photos.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4165045
I am very POed to find out the permit has gone from $11, last year, to $26 this year. Soon they will be taxing air.
Time for wild rice harvest in Minnesota. A friend was out yesterday and got 125 pounds. Tomorrow, we pack a few things, put the harvesting canoe on the roof top of the car, and head for the rice lakes.
The harvesting canoe is a cedar strip canoe with no seats and very narrow gunwales and thwartes. Seats and wide gunwales and thwartes cause more of the rice to deflect into the lake instead of landing in the canoe. A ricing canoe does not need to be licensed.
Our first ricing will be done at Wigwam Lake, where my g-g-g-grandmother had her ricing wigiwams (hence the name of the lake).
I will be standing up in the canoe, pushing the canoe with a long pole known as a gon-da-ke-i-gun-ak, and Wing and Sara will sit in the bottom of the canoe with two 3 foot long sticks each and "knock" the rice into the canoe. This is known as bawahm. When they both disappear beneath rice, it will be time to head for shore and bag up the rice.
We will dry the rice on canvas tarps by our campsite overnight, singe it in a kettle over a campfire to remove the beard, "dance" on it to part the husk from the grain, and winow it by throwing it in the air in a light breeze - using birchbark winnowing trays. The drying and singeing is called "bahsahn" and the dancing is done in a pit, called a botahgan, which is lined with cedar staves and a canvas tarp or deer hide. New mogasins, never worn, are required for the dancing.
There is a special ceremony for eating the first new rice. We used to have duck, grouse, or woodcock, baked in clay, with the new rice, but now we bring chicken as the bird season is not yet open.
Sometimes Manomin Ikayng feels a little sad now. This used to be a big deal for our family. My parents, grandparents, all my cousins, aunts, and uncles used to be there for a week. Now it is just me, Wing, and Sara.
At the website listed below there is an audio segment ("Listen," left center) of Winona Laduke talking about ricing. Worth listening to. Below that is a photo gallery of ricing photos.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4165045
I am very POed to find out the permit has gone from $11, last year, to $26 this year. Soon they will be taxing air.
