Growing Native

- I think agricultural cannot be separated from culture anymore.

(chanting) We don't realize that we're part of the Earth.

We take our lessons and our teachings from what we see in the natural all around us.

- Whoo!

- The right to take fish means nothing if you can't eat the fish.

DARWIN SUMNER: As Indian people we're always connected to the land.

We want to keep our kids connected.

- The language and the culture are inextricably linked.

You cannot talk about one without talking about the other.

EDITH LEOSO: It's about how we take our of our bodies and the way that we take care of our bodies is the way we take care of our environment.

(upbeat music) STACEY THUNDER: Centuries after the first Europeans landed on this continent, native people continued to adapt, change, and survive.

(vocalist singing in Native language) These are the people's stories of reclaiming old ways for health today.

This is Growing Native.

(mystical music) STACEY: Many tribes of the Great Lakes believe that our world came into existence on the back of a turtle shell.

Our ancestors considered the water that flows through the Earth's lake and streams to be like the blood that nourishes our bodies.

Nowhere is there more abundant fresh water than in the Great Lakes region.

Lake Superior, Michigan, Heron, Erie, and Ontario hold over 20% of the world's fresh water supply.

Since before recorded memory, more than 120 bands of native peoples lived along these fertile shores.

The Ojibwe people inhabit the region surrounding Lake Superior, and for generations have enjoyed the wide variety of plants and the diversity of wild game and fish.

(dramatic music) (men chanting in Native language) Today, this land is threatened by several pipelines and open pit mining, that would pollute the purity of the watershed where the Ojibwe have trapped, fished, and cultivated wild rice for centuries.

EDITH LEOSO: When we talk about historic preservation with our tribes, we are talking about a lot more than buildings and structures and places, but it's also objects, that is important to us.

Most important objects to us is the wild rice here in Bad River.

STACEY: The wild rice is so important, so central to the live of the Ojibwe, that it is celebrated at the Bad River Manomin Festival held in Odanah, Wisconsin each August.

(tribe members chanting in Native language) MIKE WIGGINS: Before there was money, before there was capitalism, before there was treaties even, our people were living here and thriving here, and when you look at that and really feel that in your heart, you understand the beauty and the sacredness of this big lake, of wild rice.

Of all of these things that promote life and love, and a higher power taking care of us.

(mystical music) STACEY: As the rice ripens along the Kakagon Sloughs, the harvest begins as it has since the Ojibwe first settled here more than 500 years ago.

HILARY BUTLER, JR.: Migration story says that we come to the place where food grows out of the water, and that would be the end of your migration journey.

So, we came through this place, and we found that the, that the food grew out of the water here, so we stayed here, that's been now going on forever.

EDITH: It is a naturally growing wild rice bed, one of the largest that has not been changed by man.

It hasn't been hybridized.

HILARY: In the way.

STACEY: Hilary Butler has been ricing these fields for 51 seasons.

As a respected elder, he has passed down his knowledge to many of the younger generations, because he feels strongly that these traditions must continue.

STACEY: So, how much rice are we talking about here that you have in the boat now?

HILARY: Well, it'd probably be 35, 40 pounds, maybe.

STACEY: Oh, wow.

HILARY: Wet, that's just coming right out of the...

When they're dried and hard, it might be 20 pounds.

STACEY: So, what's the hardest thing about ricing?

HILARY: Keeping your balance in the boat.

Keeping your balance in the boat, if you get something.

Like this is the real tipping canoe, but it's not for me.

I've been in this canoe for so many years, and it doesn't bother me much.

STACEY: Have you had many falls?

(laughing) HILARY: Yeah, I've fallen out of this boat.

I haven't fallen out, but my partners fall out.

(laughing) (upbeat music) EDITH: Here we are doing the work that we are intended to do out here, and maintaining these rice beds, we know that the storms will come through, and that a lot of this rice will go back into the water to reseed for next year.

And we know that it'll be there for that next year to come, but also those next generations, if we teach our children how to rice properly.

- I believe this line that I heard.

They said that in the future there's going to be a food shortage.

It's not going to be in quantity.

It's going to be in quality.

And when you think about quality food, the things that come out of the Kakagon, Bad River, wetland estuary are sacred and unbelievably cosmically good sources of food, and energy, and vitamins, and all that stuff.

I think that matters.

(music and water lapping on shore) STACEY: For generations, families would camp along these wetlands during the harvest and preserve the rice by drying, (tossing wild rice) cleaning, and then toasting it over an open fire.

(stirring wild rice) This process was labor intensive and could take weeks to finish enough for an entire year.

(pouring rice into roaster) Today, Joe Rose Jr. can do the work in a fraction of the time, by using modern machinery.

JOE ROSE Jr.: It's just a couple of panels that turn real slow.

STACEY: It's hot.

JOE: And I have a little homemade burner underneath it that I made to heat it up, and when the rice comes in, it needs to be dried out good.

When we heat it up here, it completes that drying process, and it also hardens the rice seed up, so that it doesn't break when we're processing it.

(shaking rice) STACEY: Joe doesn't do this for money.

He does it for friends and family, and a small portion of the finished rice.

Much of what he earns is then donated back to the tribe for many of the communal celebrations.

JOE: This one is called the thrasher.

And this is a machine that we built to separate the rice or the hull from the rice.

So, I gotta put tags on them.

MEMBER: Is it sitting there?

JOE: Here, let me get one of these other containers here.

That's not big enough.

As you know, it's very, very important.

It's a cultural resource.

It's a part of who we are as Ojibwe people.

JOE: This one was the 27th?

MEMBER: Yeah.

JOE: A part of who we are as Bad River people, especially.

I couldn't imagine life without it.

It's so much more than just food.

STACEY: This is good rice.

This one's, I mean, I've had different flavors, but this has almost like a lighter flavor to it.

JOE: Mm-hmm.

It's real unique.

I'm obviously biased, but I think Bad River wild rice is the best around.

STACEY: While Joe is using modern methods to preserve the grain.

JOE: Almost done.

STACEY: Groups life GLIFWC, or the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, are developing new ways to incorporate traditional food into their community diets.

CHILD: Yum!

STACEY: LaTisha Coffin and Owen Mahoney have co-authored a cookbook called Mino Wiisinidaa or Let's Eat Good.

(upbeat music) LaTISHA COFFIN: We ask for recipes from our tribal elders, and we would take them and sometimes they would have the naughty things in them like bacon fat or they would be fried, (laughing) and so we-- STACEY: No bacon grease.

(laughing) LaTISHA: Owen is our Community Dietician.

She would take the recipe and she would rework it, so that we would take out the bacon grease and add in healthier fats like sunflower seed oil or walnut oil, and maybe change the way that things are made.

Instead of frying it, baking it, and so that way we would give our tribal members the traditional foods.

OWEN MAHONEY: So, as you can see, we haven't taken any water out.

This rice is really swollen and it's really taken in all that water that we've given it, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna drain it.

LaTISHA: In a healthier way for them to try, but it would still be comforting for them to try at home, and they would feel at ease, being able to do something that was really spelled out in a recipe.

(upbeat music) OWEN: Today, we have strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and we have some dried cranberries here.

These all go into our salad, so we're just going to wash them up real quick and then give them a good cut.

So, you're comfortable digging in?

STACEY: Totally, (laughing) they look so good.

I just want to eat them right now (chuckling).

OWEN: Great, well, we'll start with some strawberries.

(upbeat music) OWEN: So, we're just going to add these berries that you cut so beautifully into our wild rice, and we're gonna add our dried cranberries, and then we're just going to give them a good stir.

This is a really great recipe for a dessert or bake some cake or cookies.

STACEY: Oh, nice, all right.

OWEN: It's got those good whole grains in it from the wild rice, and it's got some delicious berries with their vitamin C. STACEY: It looks so fresh and so healthy, oh, yeah.

OWEN: That's exactly what we're looking for and that's exactly what we're going for.

So, our wild rice is all mixed in and all we need to do now is just refrigerate it until we're ready to eat it.

STACEY: Okay.

STACEY: While we wait for the wild rice and berry salad to chill, (rhythmic music) ..let's take a look at another community whose efforts for a healthy lifestyle begins with the young.

(vocalists singing in Native language) The Red Lake Band of Ojibwe located in Northern Minnesota is entirely owned and occupied by its members.

It is considered a closed reservation, because the land is still held in common.

The local government consists of an elected council, as well as maintaining the tradition of a hereditary chief system.

(vocalists singing in Native language) DARWIN SUMNER: Meskokokuaye statue here in Thief River Falls, it's a good sign of our history.

STACEY: Darwin Sumner is one of the seven hereditary chiefs.

(walking in snow) DARWIN: My father John Sumner Sr. is now the hereditary chief, as it comes down from Meskokokuaye Jr. to my grandfather Joe Kaye.

Now, my dad has it, John.

(vocalists singing in Native language) I organized the youth group called Chief Meskokokuaye All Nation Youth Culture Camp.

We do seasonal cultural camps based on the migration routes of our Red Lake ancestors.

We do camps about every two weeks.

STACEY: The camp is named after Darwin's great grandfather, Chief Meskokokuaye or Red Roe.

For over 20 years, Darwin has made it his life's work to put kids on the right path, and to show them that the outdoors has more to offer than they might expect.

DARWIN: I have this deep passion to work with our kids, 'cause kids who live on the Red Lake reservation or any reservation, they struggle with all the pressures of drugs, alcohol, and one of the things I really want our kids to understand that there's a lot better life than taking that road, that there's an alternate route.

(vehicle engine humming) DARWIN: Before I sobered up, I was walking in the woods and trying to trying to find something.

I didn't know it was there, something I felt was there.

It was the woods helping me heal.

I didn't think I was gonna do it, but with the ceremonies and stuff, it is a miracle, so now I try to show our young children, our young men and women, don't take that route.

KID: Hey, hand him a piece.

(walking in snow) CHILD: He'll break that trap.

DARWIN: Everything we do out in the woods is fun.

We got some cedars back here.

We also harvest for sweat lodges.

Harvesting berries, spearing, sugar bush, trapping.

I can see the bucket; there's nothing in the bucket.

(springing trap) All of these things are medicine to our body.

And all of the things we do to All of these foods we harvest are actually the medicine we need for our bodies.

A rabbit, Josh.

Good job!

Rabbit soup.

KID: Can I hold it?

DARWIN: Nice wahboos, yummy.

KID: Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

DARWIN: It's gonna taste good in some wahboos soup, huh?

As Indian people, we're always connected to the land.

STACEY: Recently, Darwin has been working with Josh and RJ.

JOSH: He called me a big, fat rabbit.

DARWIN: You bet, now, you gotta clean it.

Hold on to the stick, then push the trigger.

Here, hold it up over here.

It's not gonna hurt you, if you stand back here.

Do it.

(laughing) See, Josh, it just turned back.

STACEY: But it doesn't seem like work, because they're having fun.

JOSH: Now, we have to go check the other rabbit trap.

DARWIN: Josh, for every five traps and snares we set, we usually get one animal, so it takes a lot to harvest a few.

So, the more we set, the better chance we have.

We're using that house, and then we gotta bank in there.

Kids are like sponges, and you show them something new, and show them things, basic stuff like tying a knot, how to cast a rod.

There's a hole right there, see there?

It's holed up.

They pick up on that, man, and it's a skill that leads, wow, this is pretty cool, I can do this.

Until it comes out, or we're gonna try and get him where.

So, when he hits these triggers, this trap is gonna snap right around their neck, okay.

And then you take him to other like trapping, show him how to set a trap.

This is called the dog, and that's the trigger.

And they catch and they catch, like Josh and I we were catching bobcats and Martin's here.

He caught a rabbit today, and he says, "Wow, my first rabbit!"

Stuff like that, it's cool.

This beaver's gonna have a tough time.

If he hits the top of the trap, he'll just go around it.

He'll find the easiest place to come through.

He has no problems with the sticks, because they're all natural to his environment, okay.

JOSH DESJARLAIT: I think we set like three traps, four traps, and like five snares, and out of all those traps, I didn't think we were gonna get nothing until the end.

And then when we came to check this snare, we caught a rabbit.

(upbeat music) (vehicle engine humming) DARWIN: Oh, nothing's melted yet, so it's still kind of solid.

You guys okay back there?

Keep them busy, keep them active.

The healthy, active kids, they do better in school and they just do better all around.

JOSH: I still think about fishing.

I can't wait till that hour hand hits the three, so I can get out and go fishing.

DARWIN: JR, these ones have the little blade on them and then it glows, right.

Okay.

Don't lose this in the water, buddy.

Near the bottom, remember how I taught you where the bottom is at?

JR: Yeah.

DARWIN: Right there, when that line goes slack like that, then when it's straight, then it's off the bottom, right.

On the bottom, off the bottom.

STACEY: For centuries, Red Lake Ojibwe depended on walleye as a primary food source.

DARWIN: Get him, go ahead, get him.

Pull him up there, there you go, good job.

Get him up there, buddy.

Keep him coming, there you go.

Flip him on ice, buddy.

Yahoo, good job, give me five.

Good job.

STACEY: But in the mid-1990's, tribal and commercial netting caused the Red Lake fish populations to collapse.

DARWIN: Well, it looks like you got one for you and your dad for supper, now.

It's a nice one too.

STACEY: This forced Red Lake to make a controversial decision DARWIN: Pretty good.

STACEY: To place a moratorium on the harvesting of walleye for 10 years.

(suspenseful music) By implementing an aggressive restocking program, Red Lake began a new era of responsibility, and fish populations rebounded.

DARWIN: Get him JR, get him JR!

(chuckling) Get him JR. Get him JR, all right, you little stinker.

(laughing) Get him out of the way from the hole, now.

Get him away from the hole.

STACEY: The ban was lifted a few years earlier than planned, and today, the lakes are healthy, the people are happy, and the next generation is headed towards a positive future.

DARWIN: Almost a $4 fish there.

JOSH: Yeah, when I grow up, I wanna be like Darwin, so I can take kids fishing, and take them doing stuff.

I don't want them to grow up to be like a lot of other kids on the res.

doing smoking and drinking.

DARWIN: Nothing is rocket science, it's just trial and error, mostly.

But getting these guys out and sharing this with them is I get, (laughing) I get a lot of fun out of watching these guys have fun.

I get a lot of pleasure out of them.

My passion is to be with these guys, because if I wasn't do it with them, who'd be doing it with them?

Passing this stuff on to these guys.

(vocalist singing in Native language) DARWIN: The ice fishing nowadays in Red Lake, we can actually sell our fish, the walleyes, to the Red Lake fisheries.

They give us $2 a pound.

So, that makes it a lot better.

(grunting) (laughing) WORKER: Darwin!

Hey!

DARWIN: Some guys actually try to make a living by fishing.

Bagged them!

(laughing) Kind of slow last night.

WORKER: Cool, nice ones.

DARWIN: Yeah.

WORKER: Yeah.

TIM SUMNER: Red Lake Nation Fishery is probably a unique and probably the only tribal fishery that I know of that they can fish daily and bring it here to the fishery to turn in for payment.

So, it provides part-time employment, if you will.

And it also provides an opportunity for the anglers to take a daily limit of 10 walleye to take home to feed their family.

DARWIN: A couple bucks, huh?

WORKER: About that, yeah.

DARWIN: 28, so, 28 bucks?

WORKER: 29 bucks.

There you go, Darwin.

DARWIN: Two bucks a pound.

(pulling buckets of fish) STACEY: The Red Lake Walleye has been touted as the best-tasting freshwater fish in the world.

Celebrated for its healthy benefits, it has been feature in quality restaurants and grocery stores across the country.

It also one of the traditional foods being highlighted at the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit in Green Bay.

(upbeat music) DAN: We're here for a food conference, and we're here to focus on native foods.

GREETER: Good morning.

ATTENDEE: Good morning to you too.

COOK: And how you wanna check is you just take one kernel and you just wanna rub it between your fingers and see if the hull is coming off.

DAN CORNELIUS: One of the most important things about that is being actually able to eat it, so we've been extremely fortunate to have three of the absolute top native chefs join us for the events.

LORETTA OWEN: When you come back and we played up for this evenings dinner, you'll see how gorgeous it turns out.

And it's yummy.

I put a lot of maple syrup in there.

DAN: We wanted to have it wide-ranging enough too, that would really cover multiple different aspects of what is going on in tribal food right now, what's going on with food sovereignty.

STACEY: Sponsored by the Intertribal Agricultural Council and the Oneida tribe.

DAN: That corn flour that's stiff, we should ground it really, really fine.

GUEST: Yeah.

STACEY: The goal of this three-day event is to bring together cultural practitioners, scholars, activists, and chefs to explore and understand the vital connection between Native American health and the restoration of traditional foods.

ATTENDEE: I really like that.

Even though it's really mild and light but-- DAN: The end product of what we eat, the plate, is absolutely critical, and so we really wanted with this event to have a focus on the food, to help people get excited about the food again.

And so we started conversations with several top native chefs, many months ago, and we had the three that came in and cooked here are three of the absolute top native chefs.

CHEF: A little radicchio, red lettuce, and our wonderful quinoa and Three Sisters Salad.

It's happy and bright and healthy, and here we are.

Welcome to Green Bay.

(chuckling) STACEY: The chefs have a history of incorporating traditional foods into their cuisines, using their knowledge and perspective to create traditional and original dishes, healthy for body and spirit.

STAN SHERMAN: So, the bison is just bison jerky.

It's got some cranberry in it.

And then the wochapi is just mixed berries, so there's raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry.

LEA ZEISE: They're able to bring a level of respect to the food that it deserves.

This food has been sustaining us for thousands of years.

It deserves to be in the spotlight, to be revered, to be respected like this way.

They play that role of being able to turn that food into a meal for us that we can respect.

(mystical music) STACEY: Sometimes, authenticity isn't just in the ingredients, it's also in the way the food is prepared.

ATTENDEE: I love these ball rice noodles.

CHEF: Oh, my goodness.

ARLIE DOXTATOR: I was given a pot by Ken Metoxen, a clay pot that he made from clay from this area.

And I made our corn mashed up.

It was very moving, and I still haven't digested that whole event that happened last night, because it was very profound to cook our original foods in one of our original clay pot vessels.

Oh!

(laughing) Don't film me know, 'cause I'm gonna start crying.

(mystical music) It was a defining moment in my career.

And to witness people eating that product and consuming that product, and watching their faces as they just enjoyed it, and the end result that came from that was just it was amazing.

I'm so happy that I got to do that.

(mystical music) STACEY: Alarmed by the rise in heart disease, obesity, and diabetes in Native American communities, tribes have created awareness programs to help their members make healthy choices.

The crisis is caused by an American food system, based on processed sugars, fats, and salt.

PAUL DeMAIN: Corporate America has taken over food and feeding, and has done a poor job at nutritional value, because they were looking for profits.

You want to live to be 45, eat that food that's coming from Walmart trucks all over the world.

We've got farmers here.

We've got not only indigenous and non-indigenous farmers that can provide that food that's healthy, so we have to get back to community gardens.

DANNY POWLESS: This is Hubbard squash.

This is a small one.

Sometimes, they get pretty big, about maybe three times big, four times as big.

LESLIE WHEELOCK: I think the farmers and ranchers that have always recognized that we don't need additives in our foods.

We don't need additional things on our soils.

We don't need additional things added to our waters in order to make our food the best it possibly can be.

We don't need additional salt or sugars.

(watering plants LEA: We have these really modern, new concepts about organic and sustainable and permaculture.

Those are old ideas, really old ideas that have a place here that were already being employed across the entire turtle island.

So, I think that being able to get some recognition, or at least remember ourselves that these were our original teachings, they're the way that we were doing doings.

We're just calling them something else now, so it's new and fancy that we can research, but they were here a long, long, long time ago.

DAN: If we want to be encouraging and inspiring more local food production, you need to have access to markets, you need to have the food available, and so we really had a focus on trying to encourage development of farmer's markets.

STACEY: Access to the growing number of Native foods is limited in Native communities, and finding them is often difficult, but the Intertribal Agricultural Council is working to change that.

DAN CORNELIUS: Don't want to forget for here at Oneida, this is our white corn.

This is a dehydrated white corn, so it's already gone through the cooking process.

All of these foods have a story, and that's part of what our effort is to, number one, let people know what's out here.

And number two, then be telling more of the story, getting people excited about cooking and ultimately eating the foods.

(upbeat music) KYLE WISNESKI: So, you don't have to be afraid of these animals, okay.

They're nosy, they're gonna wanna check you out, and stuff like that, but since it's a grass-fed animal, they get worked with so much closer.

STACEY: Attendees not only had the opportunity to share knowledge, but also get hands on experience with local producers.

KYLE: Like I said, we spent about 40 to 50 million dollars the last 10 years, 15 years on buying land.

STACEY: Tsyunhehkwa, meaning life sustenance, is an 83 acre, certified organic teaching farm, owned and operated by the Oneida Nation.

(cattle lowing) TED SKENANDORE: Originally, this was a dairy farm and the tribe was able to buy it, because they were interested in doing things with the beef, the white corn, we have chickens here, onsite, and then now we have the greenhouse.

And we're growing plants for people, so they're able to take those things at home.

Actually, we're not here to feed the world.

We're here to teach people how to do this, and they can take these ideas home.

(chicks peeping) KYLE: We just got some day-old chicks in today, some broilers, some meat birds, layers.

WORKER: Did you get a drink?

You gotta kind of watch sometimes, you'll see the bottom of their throat will kind of... KYLE: So, we're gonna start those from day-olds.

We're gonna show you what we do to prepare for those birds, what we do the day of, and then what we do after.

So, it'll be a whole full-circle thing with the chicken and the cows.

(chicks peeping) STAFF: And raise him up to see if he's swallowing.

JEFF METOXEN: And whether you grow a 20 by 20 foot plot, Three Sisters Garden, or you grow 10 acres of white corn, these are steps you can follow that we're learning constantly, relearning, what our people were doing, so that we have these traditional foods, so that we're able to discuss why are these steps so important.

And when you're dealing with food sovereignty, you're selecting that food, and that's the key part of the white corn.

This isn't just any corn.

We aren't using GMO corn.

It's trying to take that heirloom corn that our people have always had in their families, and their generations, and making sure it's around.

And it's beyond ourselves as well.

It's beyond this generation, we're thinking ahead.

CHILD: Seed corn.

MOM: Seed corn.

(speaking Native language) MAN: Say white corn.

CHILD: White corn STACEY: The precious kernels that are carefully selected are descendants of the white corn grown by ancestors long ago, handed down across the generations.

(inspirational music) DON CHARNON: Pollen flying through the air.

Any field within two or three miles on a good, windy day can distribute pollen into our pristine corn, so we don't want that to happen, so that's why these trees were planted.

We have trees, a natural barrier all around us.

It's really helpful, so we don't have to contend with funny-looking, confused corn that doesn't know it's Iroquois white corn when it's finished.

SORTER: What is this?

STAFF: That's probably just some sort of damage on there.

He just said take those out, because they turn brown at the cannery.

WORKER: There was a retail component of Tsyunhehkwa when it was originally started, but now it's moved to what's now called Oneida Market, and so all our products are taken over there as they're processed, so it's what makes that whole loop, so it's a sustainable model.

LEA: People are very excited about Native food.

When people see something on the table that they haven't seen in a long time, somebody says, "Is that Oneida white corn on the table?"

They might have not seen it for years.

Maybe, they haven't been down to Oneida for a couple of years.

They haven't had a bowl of corn soup, and bam, there it is on the table ready for them to take, so make their own corn soup.

It's just this amazing You see the light turn on in people's eyes when they see products like that.

(birds tweeting) LaTISHA: Oh, there's those mushrooms that you, their alcohol.

STACEY: Back in Bad River, my new friends, LaTisha and Owen, are showing me the many foods found right outside our door, but a warning, recognizing these foods requires skill and experience, as many plants can be poisonous, so be sure you know what you're doing, or take someone who does.

LaTISHA COFFIN: So, in the summertime here in the Bad River reservation, there's tons of different resources that we can go ahead and harvest.

One of them is right in here.

What we have here is the wintergreen plant.

We know that this is wintergreen.

Go ahead and pick it.

STACEY: Poke it.

LaTISHA: Yeah, and break it and smell it.

STACEY: Come on.

Oh, yes.

OWEN: Does it smell like anything you recognize, besides the berry?

STACEY THUNDER: The tea!

(laughing) This is good tea, it was the first time I ever had wintergreen tea, and that's amazing.

My grandma lives in LCO.

We have a house there or she has a house there, and we would go back in the woods, so it was with her or with my uncles we would pick these things.

I mean, this actually means a lot to me doing this, because I haven't done it since then.

Does the wintergreen or any of these plants have any medicinal purposes?

LaTISHA: Well, the thing about a lot of the plants that the Anishinaabe people use is that a lot of them do have medicinal qualities, and there's this really strong idea and lifestyle that the food that we eat is the medicine that the people have within their bodies, and so our food is our medicine.

STACEY: Right.

LaTISHA: And part of what the medicinal qualities of the wintergreen is that it has an aspirin-like compound in it, and so when people would drink the tea that would help them feel better, if they had any sort of aches or pains.

But they would drink the tea and it will kind of help alleviate that.

(upbeat music) STACEY: The Ojibwe are one with the land and have always lived within what nature provides.

LaTISHA: And any these sort of wild berry is gonna be a lot smaller, just compared to the things you would probably find in a supermarket.

OWEN MAHONEY: And with the wild foods what you're gonna find with these types of berries is that different environments they grow in, in different kind of like weather conditions, are gonna provide different flavors than what you're typically used to from a grocery store.

But it's one of those fun things to discover when you eat foods from the wild.

LaTISHA: They're so cute.

(laughing) STACEY: Oh, yeah.

(chuckling) They are a little bit more tart, and it needs to go back to my grandma's house.

(laughing) STACEY: The intrusion of English disrupted and the once abundant words spoken to the land and spirits have fallen to a few.

DAN: Quiz bowl occurs all year, and this is the big one at the end of the year.

The winning team will be crowned state champions.

BOY: I wish you good luck.

DAN JONES: And so today, we have 22 teams participating, and they come all the way from International Falls to Minneapolis and all places in between.

What I do here is I moderate, which means that I ask the questions, and so I determine whether the answers are correct or incorrect, with the assistance of a judge.

Welcome to our afternoon section of our Jack Briggs Memorial Quiz Bowl.

We're gonna have the team from International Falls competing against a team from Fond du Lac, so let's have the International Falls team.

STACEY: The Lester Jack Briggs Bowl started 17 years ago to help teach the Anishinaabe language.

DAN: First question is a spelling question, okay.

So, you gotta piece of paper in front of you, and the way the spelling works is that we ask you to spell in Ojibwe, but the only hint we give you is the English word.

STACEY: Held every year at the Fond du Lac Tribal Community College, it's a statewide event that tests the minds and knowledge of young tribal members.

DAN: Spell in Ojibwe the word for bring it.

Fond du Lac, 15 seconds.

WILLIAM BLACKWELL: They started this quiz bowl to have people enjoy with games and things and prizes type of things to enjoy the language, learning the language.

And out of that came college scholarships.

CONTESTANT: B-I-D-O-N. DAN: That is incorrect.

You guys are so close, biidoon.

B-I-I-D-O-O-N, biidoon.

(upbeat music) (moderator speaking Native language) The flower trillium was used for disease of what body part?

There's two body parts, name one of the two.

It's high school students coming together, competing with other schools.

STUDENT: Chest.

DAN: Chest is incorrect.

Questions relating to the Anishinaabe language, history, and culture.

So, it's an opportunity for students to learn and study up on their own history, their own culture.

STUDENT: At the end of the word.

DAN: At the end of the word is correct.

International Falls, one point.

Please shake hands with your opponents.

(contestants applauding) WILLIAM: And these kids come so far ahead from 30, 40 years ago.

And they're saying their name and their clan, and they're proud of it.

And all of these things are saying that we're making it in school, we're doing good, but, hey, we're Anishinaabe and we're proud of it.

And so that's what all of the people involved in this have done, and it's just fantastic.

DAN: Spell in Ojibwe, he or she harvests rice.

SHIRLEY: Well, we start teaching our kids in headstart and on into kindergarten, and throughout 12th grade.

We teach our language to our kids.

DAN: We are the gentle people is correct.

(contestants applauding) SHIRLEY MOSTAD: You notice a lot of parents and grandparents are teaching it at home too now.

At one time it wasn't allowed to be spoken or even taught to our kids.

(moderator speaking Native language) DAN: Is the source for question five.

SHIRLEY: So, it's come a long way.

(contestant and moderator speaking Native language) DAN: Is correct.

(contestants applauding) DAN: We do have a clear winner, Fond du Lac.

Please shake hands with your opponents.

Good job, guys.

SHIRLEY: This is the final competition of the year for quiz bowl, and I had two of my kids show up, Jacob and Eddie, and I'm really proud of them.

They came in fourth place today.

Good job, I'm proud of you boys.

JACOB REYNOLDS: I started Fond du Lac in kindergarten, so I've been taught since kindergarten.

EDWARD DeFOE: Me, I started in third grade.

My Ojibwe teachers were Sunny Greensky and Joseph Barnes.

SHIRLEY: Good job.

Good job.

MOM: I'm proud of my boys.

DAN: The source here is.

(moderator speaking Native language) DAN: How long did the fur trade last?

STACEY: The Anishinaabe language and culture are so linked that you cannot talk about one without talking about the other.

DAN: So, the passing of time was measured from one winter to another.

ELDER: Right, one winter to another was one year.

STACEY: Teachers say many of their students go to them, searching for self-identity and find it in the language.

(contestant speaking Native language) DAN: That is correct, of course, it is (moderator speaking Native language) (contestants applauding) DAN: If you're an Anishinaabe person, these are the things that you do, these are the things that you should know.

And so at a very basic stuff, they should know their Anishinaabe name, what does that mean, their clan designation, how do you get it, how do you acquire all these.

And so these are spiritual identity.

So, the spiritual identity of who and what we are is something that they should basically know.

ELDER: I would like to congratulate you guys on being champions of the state of Minnesota.

(audience applauding) WILLIAM: And so if you're able to converse and relay that information in Anishinaabe language, then you got a pretty healthy grasp of who and what we are.

DAN: Okay, let's give the champions a big round of applause.

(audience applauding) DAN: One of the elders tell us if we don't learn the language, then all we are is just descendants of the Ojibwe, descendants of the Anishinaabe.

We're no longer Anishinaabe.

We're only descendants of the Anishinaabe, because who you are is described in the language.

STACEY: The boarding school era of the early 1900's was the federal governments attempt to assimilate the Ojibwe into mainstream society by eradicating the language, history, and customs, but the language did not die.

As students take the words home, interest in learning the language spreads among friends and family.

DAN: We'll give an opportunity for students to use the Ojibwe language outside of the classroom, and so we create an atmosphere where they can sit down.

It's called an Ojibwe language table, where they can sit there and converse with other people that are working with the language.

(community members speaking Native language) JIM NORTHRUP: We played cribbage using Ojibwe words for numbers.

Our team won by about nine.

(chuckling) DAN: It's a community thing: community representatives, elders sit there, high school students, even young kids.

We're trying to encourage everybody to come out.

(community members speaking Native language) JIM: As I was growing up, I was sent to Pipestone Boarding School when I was six, and my language learning stopped then.

I always felt like there was a void in my life, so I tried to fill that void by coming to the language table.

And now, I'm at the point where I can write poetry in Ojibwe.

(community members speaking Native language) JIM: We're trying to win it, eh?

MEMBER: I thought we were playing.

(laughing) (vocalist singing in Native language) JIM: The best rice out in this lake I know is up at the Narrows.

Grows real thick there, tall.

He said you're not gonna see, easy to get through, so it's the best part of the lake up there.

(vocalist singing in Native language) Most people have that same void I was feeling, and so this is a good way to overcome that to fill that void.

There's the island.

LADY: Where?

JIM: Right there.

There are fire pits up there, you can see them.

LADY: Really?

JIM: Yeah.

STACEY: The Anishinaabe language is in the Guinness Book of World Records with over 6,000 verbs.

JIM: No eagles either.

STACEY: So the language is active and very much alive.

JIM: The tree is turning red.

STACEY: Eight years ago, Jim and Pat Northrup founded the Kiwenz Language Camp.

(people chanting in Native language) The main focus is language, but there are other activities, like dancing, (people chanting in Native language) weaving baskets, and bead work.

JIM: We started the first year and we had 400 people.

The second year, we had 500 people.

Third year, 750 people then 900.

And the last time we counted, the last year we counted was 1,250 people.

That gives me hope.

(people chanting in Native language) And I think by including Ojibwe art with it, it helps a lot too.

The adults were sitting in one of the Waginogans, talking about what we can do better and all that, how to improve it, and we heard the kids over at the swings about 50 feet away saying, "No, say."

(speaking Native language) So they were teaching each other, just from being in that area, just from being around those influences.

TEACHER: This is called hawkweed, English name, hawkweed.

STACEY: If the Ojibwe language is to survive TEACHER: The Indian name.

(speaking Native language).

STACEY: It must be used outside of classrooms.

It must be used every day and more than just a few words around the dinner table.

TEACHER: There's a spirit that goes with these.

If you have a broken bone, it speeds up your healing of that bone.

(vocalist singing in Native language) JOE: There also is a story that if the Ojibwe language is no longer spoken, the earth is gonna end.

And so I jokingly tell my students, "We're saving the world."

(birds tweeting) STACEY: As the long summer days stretch into fall, the white corn at Tsyunhehkwa farm is ready for the harvest.

STAFFER: We have three busloads of students that show about, about 60 apiece.

And we parcel them up into three groups, and one third of them enter the corn field when it's just ready to harvest.

(walking through corn talks) And each student takes a row, and they pick all the corn and throw it in a bag.

(picking ears of corn) And then after about 20 minutes or so, because of their short attentions span with elementary, we bring them back up here.

And we have about an 80 foot circus tent here, and we set them up in there.

We drop off the corn, and they sit around in a circle and shell the corn, take the leaves off, and put them in boxes, so we can take care of the corn really well.

TED: To me it feels like when you're putting your hands in that soil, it's therapy.

It just releases something in you that makes you feel good.

LEA: We call our white corn Oneida white corn.

We also call it (speaking Native language).

And (speaking Native language) means mother's milk.

And so there's two meanings there.

When you squeeze the kernel, it squirts, just like a mother's breast milk, but it also means the sustainer of life.

That is our original food is mother's milk, so by calling the corn (speaking in Native language), it not only honors that it's very juicy and delicious, but also that it is our mother.

It comes from our mother Earth.

DON CHARNON: And in a circle such as we create around the corn, we'll have four generations.

We'll have elders and young and old, and they'll be looking to each other, is this a good cob, is that a good cob?

And I remember one fifth grader, we were telling them about what a seed quality corn would look like, it's gotta have eight rows, really good color, the right length.

And he stood up and he said, "This corn is legendary," 'cause he had a really good cob, and everybody laughed.

Now we use that term now.

We added that term to our vocabulary, do you have a legendary cob that we can use for seed.

(children laughing) DON: I believe that we are made from the dust of the earth.

I believe the creator made us, placed us here on this planet, and made everything so that we would be healthy.

And I believe the soil has some 93 nutrients, and if those nutrients can be captured by vegetables and food, then we can maintain our health a lot better.

STAFFER: And my biggest thing that I try to put across is to know your farmer, so you can know where your food comes from.

LEA: We are connected to it.

Without the corn, we would not be here.

And without us, the corn wouldn't exist.

Because when a corn cob falls to the ground, it can't survive and grow more corn plants.

All the seeds will sprout at the same time, and they'll choke each other out and die.

So, the corn needs us to take care of it, to select the seeds out, and to plant them individually, so that it can continue to grow.

We are the corn, and the corn is us.

(inspirational music) STACEY: The kids at Tsyunhehkwa may not realize the importance of what they're doing, but the seeds they are helping pull have come full-circle.

It has been placed in their hands, and will one day become their responsibility.

It is an heirloom, something they can't live without, won't live without.

It is family.

(inspirational music) As I eat dinner with my new friends, there is a familiar laughter that transcends reservation boundaries.

The stories here share a common thread that binds us to each other and to the land.

And I realized that the community is as strong as ever.

(man chanting in Native language) (elder speaking in Native language) The corn won't grow without thoughtful care, and rice won't flourish without the human hand, just as Native language won't survive unless it lives in the minds of the people.

The indigenous people that call this land home do not consider the Great Lakes as mere objects.

Just like Turtle Island, they are a living, breathing organism.

By reconnecting the young with the natural world, it revitalizes the spiritual bond forgotten in today's society.

But it is very much alive in the hearts of those who will carry it forward for the next seven generations.

(inspirational music) (birds squawking) Oh, cedar tree, clap your hands and sing with me (man singing in Native language) Oh, cedar tree, clap your hands and sing with me (man singing in Native language) Oh, cedar tree, clap your hands and dance with me (man singing in Native language) Oh, cedar tree, clap your hands and sing with me (man singing in Native language) There you go.

You can sing it too now.

VOICEOVER: Growing Native is available on DVD.

To order visit shopvisionmaker.org or call 877-868-2250.

(upbeat music) This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, Tulalip Tribes, San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians.