Wild rice, Michigan’s official native grain, used to grow in abundance across the Great Lakes region.

Now there’s an effort to bring it back.  

Wild rice also goes by the name manoomin by Indigenous people here. Translated it means “good berry.” It can still be found in a few places in Michigan. It can still be found in a few places in Michigan.  

Recently, the Michigan Wild Rice Initiative, led by tribes in the Great Lakes region along with state officials and academic experts, has been working to encourage and restore more manoomin beds around the state.

Indigenous people harvest manoomin by canoe throughout the Great Lakes region. One person guides their way through the wild rice beds and another knocks the rice off the rice stalks using wood sticks called knockers.

The rice collects in the canoe. Once ashore, it’s bagged, dried and hulled.   

Manoomin, as reported by BridgeDetroit’s Jena Brooker, has an earthy taste and chewy texture unlike white rice and is more nutrient-dense, providing essential calories, vitamins and minerals.  

According to the Michigan Wild Rice Initiative’s Stewardship Guide, manoomin is regarded as sacred. The group wants Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members, especially youth, to embrace the cultural, spiritual and ecological value of manoomin.

As part of National Native American Heritage Month this November, BridgeDetroit’s Jena Brooker along with One Detroit’s Bill Kubota take us on wild rice harvest where some new manoomin beds now grow because of a dam removal on northeastern Michigan’s Au Sable River. They also show how manoomin is processed and why it’s so important in this region.