Frederica Freyberg:

Experts say summers in Wisconsin have gotten about two degrees warmer since 1970 which has wreaked havoc on wild rice, an important part of native life. But hotter summers aren’t the only reason wild rice is facing challenges. “Here & Now” reporter Nathan Denzin has this story.

Joe Graveen:

Hopefully in my lifetime I’ll see it come back. My grandchildren, my children, they’ll have that.

Nathan Denzin:

As the leaves start to change and summer drifts into fall, native people in northern Wisconsin have one thing on their mind: wild rice. But due to climate change and other human causes, wild rice is becoming less abundant.

Joe Graveen:

We used to have close to 75 bodies of water with wild rice on it. Now we got two rivers.

Nathan Denzin:

Wild rice, or manoomin in Ojibwe, grows in shallow streams and lakes across the Great Lakes region. Manoomin is extremely nutritious, delicious, and fundamental to how native people in this area live.

Joe Graveen:

This is a map from 1911.

Nathan Denzin:

Records dating back to 1850 show over 225 acres of wild rice in the Lac du Flambeau area. But today, that number is closer to 100. Joe Graveen is the wild rice technician for the Lac du Flambeau tribe. He says manoomin is the reason native people migrated to the region.

Joe Graveen:

A lot of prophecies told us to go to where the food grows out of water, which is wild rice, manoomin.

Nathan Denzin:

That was over 2,500 years ago, and native people have been harvesting wild rice ever since. Before ricers can knock, roast and thrash the seed, environmental factors have to be just right year-round for the seed to grow.

Maddy Nyblade:

It also needs harsh winters or cold winters with thicker lake ice.

Nathan Denzin:

Maddy Nyblade is a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota who works with Graveen and the tribe to study wild rice and why it might be disappearing. She says that winter is when manoomin faces its first challenge.

Maddy Nyblade:

So we are seeing less snow, less lake ice duration and both of those have a negative impact on rice.

Nathan Denzin:

Wild rice needs a long-lasting freeze that turns over nutrients on the lakebed. Recent shorter winters means that doesn’t happen as much. After winter, wild rice needs shallow water to germinate. However, dams, culverts and other interventions over the last two centuries have raised water levels too high for the plant to grow.

Joe Graveen:

I have documents that shows where the United States government flooded hundreds and hundreds of acres of wild rice, not even 12 miles from here.

Nathan Denzin:

By August or September, if the rice was able to survive, it’s ready to be harvested. That’s when people like Greg Biskakone Johnson and his partner Alexandria Sulainis head out in canoe to knock.

Greg Biskakone Johnson:

Being Ojibwe, you should probably either use it, eat it, harvest it, or share it.

Alexandria Sulainis:

When it’s time to harvest manoomin, everything stops and we go out ricing.

Nathan Denzin:

Biskakone Johnson is an artist and cultural educator in Lac du Flambeau, who has been ricing for most of his life. Sulainis is the owner of Adaawe Design Collective and is originally from a tribe in Michigan where rice beds have all but disappeared. On one end of the canoe, he pushes the pair through delicate rice beds with a large pole, careful not to accidentally destroy any stalks. Manoomin needs a very particular environment to thrive, and Johnson says the wake from motorboats can cause a huge problem and destroy acres of rice beds. Unless you’re on a lake with no rice like we are, wakes can be large enough to shake rice off the stalk or churn up lake beds and stop the rice from growing in the first place.

Greg Biskakone Johnson:

That means less food for me and my family, my tribe.

Alexandria Sulainis:

It’s a shame to see things in decline and to see them in decline for such selfish reasons.

Nathan Denzin:

And the plant faces dozens of other threats, including invasive species, water pollution and severe storms.

Maddy Nyblade:

Because it’s impacted by so many different factors, it can show us what’s happening and be a signpost of our environment.

Alexandria Sulainis:

When you mess with the natural way of things, there’s always going to be consequences that you can’t predict.

Greg Biskakone Johnson:

It’s only going to progressively get worse and worse, and so our children and our grandchildren are going to inherit our mess, our mess that we made here.

Nathan Denzin:

Graveen says that for the last few years, he has been working with the Wisconsin DNR and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to secure protections for manoomin, which would at least insulate it from boats and dams.

Joe Graveen:

You can’t sit back and not say nothing, you know, cause that’s how important it is.

Nathan Denzin:

Until meaningful climate action or other interventions are put in place, manoomin is likely to continue its decline.

Greg Biskakone Johnson:

We have to tell our children that’s not how it should be in the future. You guys deserve better.

Nathan Denzin:

Reporting for “Here & Now,” I’m Nathan Denzin in Lac du Flambeau.

Frederica Freyberg:

Starting next week on this program, we bring you special reporting on the experience of Black people in Wisconsin through the generations.

Nathan Denzin:

I’m Nathan Denzin. Join us as PBS Wisconsin News embarks on special coverage, “Wisconsin in Black and White,” a look back and a look ahead at racial justice. A one-hour special in a series of reports starting next week.

Frederica Freyberg:

The premiere of Wisconsin in Black and White next Monday at 8:00 followed by weekly special reports on “Here & Now.” For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news tab.