Lake Michigan-Huron Manoomin/Mnomen/Mnoomin/Manomae Workshop Gimaada’oonidimin manoomini-gikendaasowin (We share wild rice knowledge) January 26-28, 2021

Objectives/Outcomes: ● Share cultural considerations for restoration, impacts from hunting practices, ● Share and discuss genetics research ● Share work on manoomin ecosystem services ● Reinforce the cultural roles/significance of manoomin in restoration and monitoring work ● Report on final geographies for data collection ● Issues and Actions - geese predation, genetics, future support from NOAA, strengthening inter-tribal knowledge sharing

Slidedecks here - ftp://ftp.coast.noaa.gov/pub/manoomin/workshop2021/presentations/ Note: FTP site does not work with the latest version of Google Chrome.

Day 1 - Understanding Manoomin/Mnomen Welcome and Opening Ceremony - Heather Stirratt (NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management) and Lauren Dey (Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians) Heather Stirratt - Welcome and boozhoo! Thank you for joining us. We are particularly grateful for Lauren Dey’s leadership and support as this meeting’s co-host.

Lauren Dey - Chi-miigwech. Recognizing virtual format is not ideal, but glad we have this option. Would like to share a video produced by her colleague Spencer to open the workshop with a prayer and welcome all to this week’s meeting to honor and learn about this important plant. Recorded welcome featuring Renee Dillard: https://youtu.be/fQqxjZx7KRk.

Heather Stirratt - Thank you to Lauren, Spencer, and especially Renee for sharing this beautiful video. We are pleased to have this option to gather during challenging times when being together in person is not possible. We are joined by participants from the four states bordering the two target lake basins - people have joined from Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Thank you to the NOAA staff helping to pull off this virtual gathering.

1 Map of workshop attendees’ locations provided in their workshop registration.

Why is NOAA leading this engagement? Started in Lake Superior with FY’17 GLRI funds to work with BIA; we started by listening. Want to make sure that people have access to wild rice and can experience it, that the ecological role of wild rice is understood and preserved, but especially that the cultural context and tribal community needs are expressed. Convening - three workshops helped identify and share restoration, monitoring, and research efforts and needs. Outreach and Education - We heard that there was a persistent need for outreach - for example, landowners not respecting wild rice on their property in exchange for an unencumbered view. What does wild rice look like? What should people do to respect it? Also, how can both tribal nations and others reconnect to wild rice traditions through wild rice camps?

Cultural and Ecosystem Study - what are the ecological services that wild rice provides? How do tribal nations value wild rice? We’ll share the details of this study later today to see if there is an interest in exploring something similar in the Lake Michigan-Huron basin. GIS and Remote Sensing - finally, we sought input on needs for mapping of wild rice and were able to fill some of those data gaps.

Something very exciting since our last workshop is the addition of Jen Ballinger to the NOAA OCM team; we are very grateful for her leadership and engagement with all of you in the preparation for this gathering.

COVID has changed our ability to meet in person, and also the level of effort. This virtual meeting has taken about three times as many staff as previous in-person meetings. We cannot commit to another such workshop remotely at this time; if we can gather in person safely, we

2 can explore that option down the road.

Are we recording this week? No. There may be some conversations that come up that some folks would not be comfortable sharing or having recorded. What we will commit to is sharing results of what we learn together this week, to the extent you are comfortable with your work being shared more broadly.

Break question: How do folks feel about the lack of ice on the Great Lakes this season? Are there any other climate related concerns related to wild rice that you’re noticing/concerned about? Wyatt Szpliet: the pole shift may be causing some climate change in the great lakes Peter David: In my area, we have been in a bit of a winter drought, which I think is good, but warm temps are a concern; a good hard winter seems to correlate with better crops. Allison Smart - LRBOI: warm temps and lack of ice cover are a concern not just for manoomin, but other native species. Dani Fegan: The ice has finally started to fill in on the St. Marys River, with more single digit lows expected this week. Nobody has been fishing out near our house yet, though. Kaylene Ritter: I grew up in northern Ontario, on a small lake. It was unheard of ever seeing the lake to go through thaws during the winter, in the past 5 years, this has started to happen - never ever seen the ice melt in Jan/Feb before - very unusual

Panel Presentation: State of Manoomin in Lake Michigan/Huron ● Peter David, GLIFWC (Moderator) ● Jennifer Kanine, Pokagon Band (Panel) ● Lauren Dey, LTBB (Panel) ● Allison Smart, LRBOI (Panel)

We have three panelists here today to share with us some of their insights and expertise they’ve gained from working with manoomin across the Lake Michigan-Huron basin. Moderating today is Peter David, a Wildlife Biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.

Lauren Dey is a Water Quality Biologist who works for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians whose lands today are in the northern lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Dr. Jennifer Kanine is the Director of Natural Resources for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. While the band is located near Dowagiac, Michigan, the tribe is working extensively throughout southwestern Michigan and even into the Indiana portion of the basin.

Our final panelist is Allison Smart. Allison works for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians as their Environmental Division Manager. Little River is also in Michigan’s lower peninsula, south of LTBB and north of Pokagon and near where both northern and southern wild rice grow.

3 I hope this sets the stage for us to jump in and get a holistic overview of manoomin in the basin. Let’s start with a little more about our panelists from our panelists with our first question:

What are some of the challenges you’ve seen in wild rice restoration and monitoring work in the Lake Michigan-Huron basin?

Jennifer - Many challenges, both human and wildlife. For humans, lack of awareness and education, leading to lack of respect for manoomin. They want to cut or treat manoomin for views, drive through beds with boats, causing damage with motors or damage from wakes, climate change (storm intensity & frequency and watershed flashiness can quickly change water level - can damage the plants, particularly at vulnerable life stages. Brown spot can also increase with climate change.

Wildlife can have big impacts, especially waterfowl. Flowers can get stunted from overgrazing. Muskrats and beavers can impact manoomin stands as well. Carp prevent reseeding efforts; they just eat the rice.

Aquatic Invasive Species- phragmites, outcompete manoomin, especially in stands where it’s monogenetic. There are also some native plants that can outcompete manoomin as well.

Allison - Jennifer has captured almost 99% of the issues. Another challenge is determining which species to plant, being on the frontier of Z. aquatica (southern rice) and Z. palustris (northern rice). Challenge getting access to manoomin seed for restoration. There are challenges of where to store manoomin where homeowners perceive manoomin as weeds and don’t want to support the work.

Lauren - LTBB only has a few stands that have sizable rice stands in their service area. They struggle to figure out what conditions are the best for rice to grow. Often have to travel to get to other stands. Have been doing work on figuring out the right water quality, sedimentation.

Education is a big challenge. Not many know that there is wild rice in the area so they’ve been working on getting the word out on that.

Followup, what about the geese population? It can be hard for some people to understand they have a negative impact even though they’re part of the ecosystem.

All - Education is needed to reestablish ricing culture.

Can you share an example of a successful wild rice project in your community?

Allison - Has had some success. Talked about Arcadia Lake restoration project. As they worked on the channel, not targeting wild rice, but wild rice just popped up. Likely due to lowering the water levels .

Monitoring program- have been monitoring for about 9 years this field season. Collecting a lot

4 of data on bed fluctuations, locations, being able to compare year to year which is useful for seasonal impacts like storms.

Lauren: Not sure if they can label anything a success yet. LTBB is establishing a monitoring program but more focused on trying to find rice/where rice could grow. Want to hire a staff person to go out and check out various waterbodies. But really looking forward to getting their long-term data set started.

Jennifer - Prior to 2015, restoration in Pokagon band was using seed from N. MN, but weren’t seeing a lot of growth. Did not appear to be enough genetic plasticity for it to grow in SW MI and NE IN. They then seeded with local manoomin for three years and established 3 acres of wild rice in tribal waterbodies, up from 0.25 acres cumulatively prior to that.

Peter - I really want to give kudos to these monitoring efforts. Peter gave an example of a ricer’s diary that was so helpful in seeing the data over time. It’s hard to know when you lose rice and that diary was key to knowing about that. Encourage everyone to keep track of this kind of data.

What does respectful wild rice management look like to you (and/or the community you work for)?

Lauren - You have to know what you’re doing restoration for, for wildlife? For people? To bring back the culture? LTBB is doing it for all three, but a struggle because “fighting” wildlife in some places that consume the seed. Want to restore to bring back the cultural component to the tribe - both as a food source, but also as a shared community activity. To ensure this happens in a respectful way, citizens encouraged them to harvest in a traditional way before integrating newer technologies to speed up the labor-intensive process.

Allison - This is an important question as an Anishinaabe who works for not my tribe. It’s always important to think about how decisions will affect the community. As you engage more, you;ll get more advice. There are moments where you can use TEK with western science but there are times where western science does not.

A guidance management plan for manoomin got delayed due to COVID similar to sturgeon plan.

Always appreciate when folks tell her what things should not be done in order to ensure that they are doing things respectfully.

Jennifer - Echoes Lauren and Allison, involving the community and following guidance, for example she always consults the language and culture department. You need to make your own tools from beginning to end to understand how difficult it is to get from an unfinished tool to the wild rice on your table. No one understands the process and effort to go from a cedar tree that becomes your handmade knockers to the meal you eat.

Lots of ceremonies that go along with rice harvesting. We need to make sure by listening to our elders to follow these things that are respectful to the rice. If we don’t we won’t have that

5 opportunity anymore; it will be taken away from us. It’s a privilege to be out on the water harvesting for 10-12 hours a day. It’s a labor of love.

From chat: Allison, could you give an example of where TEK and science do not work well together?

Allison - Agrees with doing things the “hard” way; taking the time to do things by hand when doing restoration activities. You could do non-traditional harvest, but better to do this in the correct way and get a good result.

Peter - One of the greatest things I gained from working for the tribes, is the viewpoint that this plant is more like a human being. Acknowledged that he’s not a tribal member but got to learn from some of the harvesters as he started career. It helped me do a better job of serving manoomin and the tribes in supporting this plant. It helps to acknowledge “it” as a being. When you talk to the rice beds when you are in them, it really changes how you look at things.

From chat: When you have been given the gift of manoomin also, when you have been given the gift of manoomin it is important to take a handful and place it in a likely spot that it will grow, plus a pinch of asema requesting it grow where you have placed it or nearby.

From chat: It was very interesting to hear about the difference in restoration success when using local seeds. Can you talk more about why this might be, from a TEK or Western science perspective?

From chat: Seed from Minnesota and Wisconsin has been planted in Michigan for well over a century...interesting to see what genetics work finds.

Allison - Little River is one of the first tribes in MI to start genetics work. We felt the value in understanding manoomin on the genetic level is important. Knew that there was a lot of rice being used from WI and other areas. Got concerned that, as other plants, that it (local rice) has its own identity that may have been being ignored. But they made it clear to the researchers that they were working with on what they wanted to work on. Interested if there was genetic variation between the rice that was being brought it in versus that from MI.

Lauren - We have been trying to use local seed, but we don’t have a lot of seed to pull from. Don’t want to take away from anyone else who needs it. Some of the tribes work in the same waterbodies.

Jennifer - Don’t want to negatively impact the rice by taking too much. She has a genetic background so that’s why she really prefers to use local rice. They were spending a lot of money on the MN rice but wanted to know if it would be better to use that money to use on local sources. Saw that the local sources had more success in growth. There is some plasticity in the MN rice that it will grow, but a much higher percent of local rice will grow. Rice is more maladaptive for climates that they’re not from. Looking to get more southern IN rice to see if it will grow in northern IN will grow as a way to try to plan for the future as the climate shifts

6 north.

Peter - We’ve seen some success with moving MN rice to northern MI/UP but knows it’s a much shorter haul. Yes, sometimes it feels like it may be disrespectful to keep using rice and not have that rice grow.

From chat: With regards to wild rice or wild rice habitat restoration efforts which climate change adaptation strategies have been considered or should be further evaluated?

Peter - Important question, and it’s tough. Restoration based on what the landscape was like in the past and it may not be close enough to what we need to do in the future.

Allison - Very intrigued by the project Jennifer is doing to bring more southern seed sources into their restoration projects; she’s leading the way. This is something that Little River is also likely to try. Very concerned about storms and damage to beds. Aware of Fond du Lac’s efforts to control water levels and damage with water control structures.

Jennifer - Restoration of floodplains in southwest Michigan would be very helpful, especially near Dowagiac. Flashiness in dredged/straightened tributaries and in agricultural areas that have been ditched and tiled to get water off the land and into streams as quickly as possible. This can knock down the wild rice as it pulses through the system. Can we get a watershed-scale response to address this?

Lauren - We really want to focus on getting more local seed like Jennifer. It’s really smart to consider using rice from further south to use in their area.

From Chat: Thank you, panelists. Maybe this is too much of a rabbit hole but on the southern seeds point, has Zizania texana ever been considered? I don't know much about the Texas wild rice but in videos I have seen it lives in deeper water too. Allison Smart - LRBOI: Z. texana is a Federally Endangered Species that is also a perennial. So we haven't thought of using it for those reasons. But an interesting thought! Chat comment: Water temp increasing could be a factor in germination of our Manoomin as the seeds need to be in water at a certain temp in the winter for germination. Chat comment: Been visiting the Texana Mnomen. Potawatomi and Kiowa were in that area, and Kiowa Springs. They ended up in Mexico. I believe they recognized Mnomen from here in the Great Lakes.

Jennifer Ballinger: Chi-miigwech Lauren, Jennifer, and Allison. You all provided such thoughtful and insightful words. There was so much information to take in and reflect on. And miigwech to our attendees for asking some great followup questions too!

7 Panel Presentation: Lake Superior Manoomin Cultural and Ecosystem Characterization Study - Abt Associates, Nancy Schudlt (FdL), Karena Schimdt (KBIC), Roger Labine (LVD) Heather Hosterman, Abt Associates - Great to hear from the state of manoomin in the Michigan-Huron panel. It sounds like there’s some commonality with the Lake Superior basin work they’ll be talking about. All tribal partners that participated in the study are represented on today’s panel except for Lac du Flambeau.

This project had specific aims/goals. Wanted to inform manoomin management throughout the Great Lakes by characterizing manoomin as well as cultural/spiritual importance to the Anishinaabe. Also wanted to document the ecological importance of manoomin and unique role.

Kaylene Ritter, Abt Associates - Methodology - how do you put a value on this priceless resource? How do you go about that? Project team really struggled with that. But used literature to start to describe these values. Gave overview of the methods they considered (see slide). But the group wanted to emphasize the non-monetary platform and combine ecological and cultural aspects to combine the best parts of different approaches to come up with a combined HEA approach. This was based largely on restoration projects that members of the project team were involved in. Looked at the degraded state of rice then how they improved and described the ecological metrics then used a habitat equivalency analysis to describe the degradation to characterize the restoration. With that, they were able to describe how many more “units'' could/would have to be done for “full” restoration.

Nancy Schuldt, Fond du Lac - We wanted to select cultural and ecological metrics that would help communicate out the study’s findings. For cultural metrics, the team wanted to clearly articulate the relationship between manoomin and the Anishnabe people. Agreed upon five statements that people could respond to to help paint a picture of how their manoomin beds were doing.

8 Recall from the morning’s opening ceremony that manoomin is a relative. Is it present? Is it harvestable? For ecological metric, the team wanted to capture biodiversity, landscape context, function, and habitat integrity. In addition, consider hydrology (water levels - climate change, beaver dams) and water quality (sulfate levels).

Roger Labine, Lac Vieux Desert - Damming of the river, first for logging and then for energy and flood control, manoomin started to decline. Have a number of additional threats - beavers, aquatic invasive species, and others - to the point that they didn’t open the beds to harvest. Sued Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company (WVIC) to get the right to stipulate a maximum water level. Massive restoration effort in 2002-2005. Roger became involved in wild rice restoration in 1972, and oral history provides information for the times preceding to document metrics. Manoomin declined and tribal members were deeply affected by the Indian Removal Act and forced to leave their homes - either to join KBIC or others were moved west. Tribal nation was nearly lost, but in 1988 received federal recognition. Ultimately, restoring 243 acres in Rice Bay and to offset loss from WVIC dam, would need approximately 3,034 more acres. Securing funding has been a big challenge - BIA, GLRI, BIA, and NRCS have been helpful sources of support.

Karena Schimdt, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community - Sand Point Sloughs is a culturally significant place for KBIC; powwow grounds, wetlands area with medicine, lighthouse. Probably historically rice grew there until more recent years so that’s why it’s an important place for restoration. 1999-2002 were banner years for wild rice.

Mine tailings in the area are a concern; they’ve been drifting southward towards this area. Sand Point is a very dynamic area, and with lake levels increasing, their restoration efforts have been a wash. This has provided an opportunity for youth to get out and see wild rice. Stamp sands were capped with 6 feet of soil and this has opened up a great restoration opportunity, including plants for medicines. With the migrating stamp sands, however, water quality is declining. Manoomin was in poor condition from 1920 to 1990. In the 1990s, seeding efforts began and rice did well, but then started to decline in 2005 due to shifting stamp sands, invasive species, and lake level increases.

Restoration has not been successful lately. Still an important area to teach youth about seeding rice and through rice camps; grateful to Roger for his knowledge sharing and guidance. They hope to harvest enough rice for restoration; currently dependent on White Earth for MN-based seed. They have restored 8 acres, but would need 175 acres to make up for losses.

Link to report on Abt Associates website here

NOAA Support for Tribal Partners - Brandon Krumwiede, NOAA OCM So what is NOAA doing with wild rice? It’s a species that falls under the Office for Coastal Management- keeping our coastal areas in balance. NOAA does more than weather! :)

The Lake Superior workshops convenening was very successful. So successful so that’s the

9 reason why we are continuing outreach throughout the basin to our tribal partners, with this workshop being one of the first virtual engagements.

Remote sensing is one of those things that NOAA can do besides weather forecasting. One thing that literature/previous studies showed was that there is a need for more and higher resolution data collection for manoomin and other aquatic plant species. This data can also be used to document rice stand density and life cycles like senescence.

For more info on the scientific methodology of the hyperspectral data collection, please refer to Day 2’s presentation from our contractors, Galileo and TetraTech on the data collection process.

A number of NOAA staff are here in the region to help connect you with resources and services. One of our newest team members is Becky Nicodemus, our Great Lakes Learning Services Coordinator, who can help connect you to training resources on Digital Coast.

NOAA also wants to hear from our tribal partners on what projects are needed to do manoomin restoration. What are the trainings we can provide to help you? Please let us know. We want to hear and offer support in wild rice restoration success.

Questions: While not directly in your core activities, perhaps Brandon could touch on existing data records of precip and other climate factors that might be useful for those monitoring rice to find correlations to productivity, etc.? Yes there is a wealth of data available at NOAA NCEI's Climate Data Online (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/) website. Their Mapping Tool (https://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/maps/ncei/) really helps you to dive into the available local station datal, allowing you to select multiple stations, and extract the data of interest. 10 There is a lot of data to wade through here.

Another quick summary is the Climate at a Glance (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/). Below is a link for a quick plot in which I look at Vilas County, WI Precipitation from 1970-2020 at 12 month intervals plus the 50 year trend and smoothing of the time series. It is very clear the rapid increase in precipitation over the last 10 years.

Here is the plot Brandon mentioned in the meeting: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/county/time-series/WI-125/pcp/12/1/1970-2020?tren d=true&trend_base=10&begtrendyear=1970&endtrendyear=2020&filter=true&filterTyp e=loess

POTENTIAL NEED: Is there a training on DigCoast that would help folks find this data?

Peter David: The links Brandon provided were really interesting and use[ful] as we looked at a region with poor production (and yes, in Vilas County).

As others have said, education to the general public is needed. I think Allison and others from Little River have some lessons on how they did sturgeon restoration which got collaborations/buy-in from non-Tribal members in the area that helped. What are some of the education efforts NOAA has for the public? Digital Coast Academy is an important suite of training resources on a variety of topics, and is a good entry point to NOAA’s training and technical assistance capabilities. Brandon is regularly asked to present not just on wild rice, but a range of topics. We should mention that Sea Grant has also been directly involved in manoomin specific outreach and education, and hard copy photo books of wild rice camp are available by request from Michigan Sea Grant and in digital form here. To let folks know about data along the lines of what Peter requested and was connected with, NOAA may be able to offer a Diving into the Digital Coast virtual training, specifically related to information and data resources that might most closely related to wild rice.

Day 2 - Collective Knowledge Sharing Sessions

Working with Tribal Governments and Data Sovereignty - Allison Smart, LRBOI Disclaimer: this is just Allison’s perspective from her work with Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; she’s not an attorney and this is her sharing in good faith with this group, but it has not been fully vetted by the Little River Band’s legal team.

The Federal government has trust responsibilities with sovereign nations. And there is a need to understand where tribal governments exist and where the ceded territories are located geographically. Know who’s land you are on when working on projects. In the GLs there are several ceded territories including: 1854, 1842, and 1836 (2 consent decrees). Article 13 rights were negotiated and reaffirmed in the 1980s. With the right to hunt, fish and gather. This extends to the ability to do restoration on these lands without permits or permission - this is 11 covered in the consent decree. Important to collaborate and reach out to the tribes to ask about the work you are interested in doing. That helps coordination and aids in avoidance of duplication of effort. They can be very good partners as they may already be doing that work, or can help you get started.

Allison has learned through hard knocks or hard conversations and has experience in navigating touchy subjects. Tribes can provide guidance on how best proceed. They can provide research permits on their lands since they don’t need to permit through the state.

How/When to approach tribes - collaborate with tribes (willing nature to do so); you want to study a culturally significant species; tribe x is working on the project of interest; you want the data that a tribe is collecting; these are all some instances when you may want to reach out to tribes but these are also times that tribes would appreciate having information on such work.

Ways to do this: Reach out and be patient as tribes have limited capacity and may not respond immediately (after a week - send a kind reminder of the request); Be prepared for different responses/answers that say no or that folks are just not ready to jump in for whatever reason and more discussions may be necessary; Consider the timing of your request - is there a better time than not to engage on project interests.

Come in as a collaborator, not as a savior - don’t assume the tribes aren’t already doing the work or that you understand their priorities. Come with curiosity - not “we’re here to help.”

12 There are many tribal staff who have extensive experience with certain resources and more often than not, they are not involved in collaborative work from the very beginning of a project.

Studying culturally significant species is an important consideration; these are tribal nations’ relatives. A common example of these requests - can use electrofishing to catch fish, but sturgeon are culturally significant and to the tribal partners, you are electrocuting their brothers and sisters. They engage in more labor-intensive and low impact ways.

Explore methods that are more culturally sound and done in the tribal “good way”. Do not steal ideas and methods from the tribes. Tribal researchers are few in number and so be willing to reach out and join the staff in conducting the research alongside them. Comparable data is very desirable by tribal researchers.

Things affecting whether tribes will share data...Some tribes have agreements with the state; Is the data FOIAble. Cultural resource info is protected information; they can sometimes put additional layers of protection. It’s the right of the tribe to decide what data/information they wish to share and how it gets shared. Tweaks in what is shared (e.g., graphs, averages vs point data, site specific information vs. a larger dot on a map that broadens the site specific mention) may help tribes be more comfortable with the data sharing request.

Benefits of Collaboration: Tribes can bring support, expertise, knowledge of the area, and possible funding.

Do’s and Don’ts ● Keep an open mind ● Collaborative spirit ● Invite tribal reps and don’t speak on behalf of tribes ● Cite tribal work ● Give credit where it’s due ● Don’t tell tribes what research should be done or needs attention

13 So, you’ve been told no…Maybe the timing isn’t right, but don’t give up. Reach out to tribes at a later date to talk further. Consider ways to modify your project that might make it more palatable/of interest to the tribe.

If you work for a tribe, there are ways you can protect your data; trust your IT department. Work with your tribal council to fund research so that information is not as easily FOIA-able (e.g., not reporting data to federal grants). Possibly share graphs or summary tables, not raw data.

Allison has a number of “dreams” for what would be most helpful in the future:

Questions: Wondering if you can speak about varying perspectives on invasive species, as non-native species causing harm vs. beings who are simply moving around, doing their thing. This is a tough subject - the science is fluid on where species will migrate. Have a mantra of “all native species, all the time.” Need to consider how treatment may affect other species.

Thinking forward to the remote sensing work proposed how best should remotely collected data be handled over trial lands? Not just our project, but thinking of other data collection efforts as well. Imagery, lidar, etc. Reach out to tribal natural resources departments. Flights over tribal lands are complicated. Each tribe has a different opinion and sensitivity level with that work. Reach out and let the tribe know about the work that’s proposed, planned and coordinate accordingly.

Could Allison talk more about the consent decree and state permits? Does this apply to projects only on tribal lands or on public and private lands too? All research is done under a tribal research permit. For example, all lake sturgeon work

14 under consent decree. Culvert replacement still requires Army Corps and/or EGLE (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) permission because dirt moving triggers involvement of state and federal partners.

Identifying Manoomin Haplotypes in Michigan - Jon Mauchmar, LTBB Jon has been working with manoomin for 3-4 years so he’s a beginner when it comes to genetics, but will offer a sense of where they want to go with this study.

Acknowledgements: First experience at Michigan Tribal Environmental Group, which broke the ice on manoomin haplotypes discussion. Several Master’s students working on genetics related questions. Questions include:

1. Measurable difference between our local seed and re-seeds itself and our seed sources from MN? 2. Is introducing MN seed beneficial for grinding in genetic diversity? 3. Or is MN seed less suited to the area and we should focus on using local seed? 4. Could this explain why some test planted areas fail in the sites that appear to be good manoomin habitat? (Some projects don’t work out despite similar conditions - are there seeds that will be less particular about where they grow?)

Core sample comparisons help us look at variations in growth patterns across geographies. Sampled 20 individual plants per waterbody and have analyzed seed from MN sources (wasn’t able to go collect leaves). 99% of plants sampled have good resilience to stressors like geese predation. Samples are placed in stationary envelopes, pull desiccant from envelopes making sure the samples are safe from additional moisture, samples then placed in the freezer until such time as analysis can be performed.

Researchers see plants that look physically different but growing on the same waterbody. Some plants have 10-15 stems, but typical is 3-6 stems. Is it a phenotypic difference, or a genetic one?

Trying to achieve a better match between seed source and restoration site - beds are not filling in as well as they feel it could. Tribal members are interested in learning about wild rice; have been able to collect the seed for restoration.

When seed is collected you have assurances about the source. Longest seed collection stent has been 48 hours and seeds can be kept moist until the sampling methods can be completed.

Other tribal partners are looking at genetics. For example, Frank Zomer at Bay Mills has been doing this work. Interested in hearing from others that are doing similar studies.

Questions: Depth and density seem to determine the amount of tillers. Have you noticed this? Is there a cost estimate per leaf analyzed?

15 Jon: Yes, water depth has an effect. We have 200 samples and we’ve spent around $2700 for analysis of those samples. Of course some graduate students do in kind research as well. Frank Zomer: Roughly $12/sample depending on how many samples you have and how much of the analysis you need done

Have you done in-lab germination studies on the MN seed? It must be logistically challenging to keep seed viable from MN to your areas. Jon: We usually have really good germination, but it doesn’t always reach full maturity. Once it gets past the floating leaf stage, it doesn’t always progress. Sometimes it’s geese predation, but not always known why it doesn’t succeed. Lauren Dey: That has been a concern in the past. I think some years have been better in terms of transporting prior to seeding (LTBB has been seeding since 2002).

I seem to recall some genetics work being done in areas that might support both northern and southern. Can anyone comment on that? Jon: All of LTBB’s results have shown it’s Z. palustris. Allison Smart: this is work that Whitney [Belaski] did; excited to see what LTBB’s study comes up with. They did see genetic differences between Z. aquatica and Z. palustris. Belaski Thesis: Factors Influencing the Genetic Structure of Two Wild Rice (Zizania) Species in Michigan, Central Michigan University

Jon, are you noticing some genetics being more disease resistant compared to others? Haven’t noticed brown spot disease as much with where we are currently doing research, but haven’t noticed any connection to genetics at this time.

Could Allison talk more about the consent decree and state permits. Does this apply to projects only on tribal lands or on public and private lands too? If we are out doing electrofishing surveys under a tribal research permit that’s done under a consent decree. If it’s done outside of this permit, then we need to coordinate and obtain the necessary permits/permission from federal, state, county agencies, as necessary.

We've noticed that processed rice from one of our local beds (LTBB) has a completely different color (more red) than processed rice from MN. Has anyone else encountered that? Allison Smart: We’ve noticed some of our beds are a deep purple color, but that’s really interesting; we’ll keep an eye out for that. Peter David: I have seen lots of color variation, but not finished rice I would consider reddish.

Jon, have you thought about the possibility of microbial communities affecting where manoomin can grow? Folks at UMD [University of Minnesota-Duluth] are looking at this with Fond du Lac by looking at microbial communities in the soil and root zone in different stands. I’ve heard about the study but we haven’t looked into it. It does make sense that it could have an impact.

16 Indigenous Knowledge Sharing: Manoomin Conversation Report Out - Jen Ballinger, NOAA OCM Jen shared a fond memory of rice camps along the MN border. She was 21 working for Dennis Jones as an Ojibwe language, culture, & history teaching assistant at UMN. Was a good opportunity to reconnect with the Manoomin rice culture as it defines her identity as an indigenous woman. Jen was lauded for her parching skills by her (not then) husband. :)

Jen opened in Ojibwemowin: “Saagajiwe-Gaabawiik gemaa Jen Ballinger indizhinikaaz. Makwa indoodem. Besho Waawiyaataanong indoojibaa. Gichi-Onigamiing gii-onjibaa nookomisiban. Indede miinawaa nimaamaa daawag imaa noongom. Indaa omaa Azhkebagi-ziibiing.” (My name is Saagajiwe-Gaabawiik or Jen Ballinger. I’m bear clan. I grew around Detroit, Michigan. My late grandmother was from Grand Portage. My parents live there now. I’m living here in St. Paul nowadays.)

Jen conducted several conversations leading into this workshop. She affirmed that indigenous knowledge is important to support tribal sovereignty and that she valued the opportunity through her NOAA work to have these conversations. Tribal natural resources staff and community representatives were a part of these. When NOAA began this work in Lake Superior, we learned that one workshop wasn’t gonna be enough, that additional project needs existed and that NOAA could serve as a collaborator in that work. We also learned that the work wasn’t limited to Lake Superior. That other work was necessary in the Lakes Michigan and Huron basins. Does the Lake Superior approach transfer to the more southern basins? Not “as is” - need to adapt it - but certainly some lessons learned. It also gave NOAA an opportunity to learn from the engagement experience, not just in lakes but in regions across the US for NOAA’s tribal engagement work ahead. If you want to work on wild rice, start by listening to and learning from those that are already working on restoration, research, and monitoring.

For Lakes Michigan and Huron, we established a new workshop planning committee and asked how we can work together on Manoomin projects. NOAA needed input on what work is desired. The planning committee reviewed the questions that were used in the community conversations over the past six months. Some sample questions included, but weren’t limited to: 1. What do you hope to see as an outcome of the forthcoming workshop? 2. Why is Wild Rice important to you?

Lots of ideas, common themes, and interests were expressed during those conversations. There was interest in geospatial and science projects, cultural topics (e.g., rice camps), more participation from tribes in restoration work for partnerships sake. NOAA documented the input provided as well as provided an informal thematic analysis. Broad topics that came up in just about every conversation included cultural importance, capacity issues (e.g., COVID field season impacts), tribal collaboration and convening value, research needs (e.g., climate change impacts on Manoomin, water quality, geese predation, genetics, restoration best practices). Folks also shared stories about Manoomin, treaty rights, and several other interests. There is always some data source that would be more helpful for guiding wild rice efforts. 17 Overall, the input was very useful and helpful to inform the workshop folks are attending this week. Each conversation made Jen miss the opportunity to have that in person conversation with folks. That said, being able to do it via this means was still very good.

Despite a small sample size for the community conversations, hope these responses reflect your experiences. Jen inclined to believe that when people start to give the same answer, we’re getting at a truth. It’s sad that this part of indigenous culture has been lost, it’s a keystone species for tribes and a keystone species for ecology.

Short coming of English expression of wild rice is the pronoun “it” - which doesn’t capture how tribal members express their relationship to manoomin. These answers noted “it” when referring to wild rice and that is such a shortcoming of English when trying to describe this indigenous thinking. In English, an “it” implies it is inanimate or not living. But manoomin too is an “inanimate” noun in Ojibwemowin, but again that is a way for English speakers to describe their understanding of Ojibwe linguistics and how to speak with correct noun-verb agreement, sentence structure, syntax, etc.

So I may say “it” but that’s not at all how some people think or feel about this plant. Even with technical linguistic terms, there’s still something missing in the translation if you only think of “manoomin” as the inanimate noun found in an Ojibwe-English dictionary. But this is best that English can manage to capture the wealth of cultural information that is inherently contained in Ojibwe words, and the teachings associated with these words, or maybe a better way as explained by Kaagegaabaw later in the day, but the spirits that are associated with or take notice when you speak certain words in Ojibwe.

One response highlighted how the community they work for is excited about restoration to become better “acquainted” with manoomin, which reinforces that feeling of wild rice as a being or relative.

Questions: Are you able to say more of the research that folks were interested in? Genetics, Water quality (sulfate research), ecological information is welcome (e.g. soil, ecological parameters that help support rice growth.)

What were the differences between what NOAA heard in Lake Superior vs Lake Michigan/Huron basin? Jen: Goose predation was a major theme (some folks stating that they try not to be upset with the geese). Waterfowl hunting was also noted. Jon Mauchmar: There are about 30 times more geese now than in 1970 in MI Brandon Krumwiede: and fewer geese hunters. Lee and Nmush: Using my border collie to Humanely deter geese. USFWS compliant. Peter David: And of course geese are a being super compatible with humans, and biological carrying capacity is likely higher now in many areas than it was

18 historically.

From chat: [I’m] Slowly getting on board with Dr. Robin Kimmerer’s “Ki” in replace of “it”. From chat: Definitely second talking to tribes about their priorities.

Is there a need to characterize/map manoomin habitat in the basin, or is this well characterized already? Jen: Updating wild rice water bodies map for Lake Michigan/Huron remains a need, as NOAA has made good progress updating those maps for Lake Superior.

POTENTIAL NEED: Map and/or characterization study of Z.palustris versus Z.aquatica habitat to understand what water bodies are suited to supporting both, which could only support one and if there are methods to “transition” northern rice waters to southern rice waters as a part of climate resilience and adaptation.

POTENTIAL NEED: Convening of tribes to talk about their research priorities and which federal agency or agencies to collaborate with and support tribal needs.

Michigan SeaGrant’s wild rice photobook mentioned again. Tribes/tribal staff can email Todd Marsee, Michigan SeaGrant, to obtain a hardcopy - [email protected]

Geospatial Contract Overview with TetraTech and Galileo - Renee Wamsley, TetraTech & John Merrill, Galileo Group OCM can leverage NOAA Coastal Geospatial Services Contract (NOAA CGSC) to access a wide network of expertise to fill data and mapping gaps.

Renee Wamsley, TetraTech - TetraTech is a prime on the NOAA CGSC and able to do a lot of different types of research and data collection. Had a contract to collect hyperspectral imagery to delineate wild rice beds in six areas of Lake Superior. John and Gabe will cover the technical aspects of this work.

19 John Merrill, Galileo Group - Hyperspectral Imaging - Covers visible spectrum and spectrum well beyond the visible (up to 264 bands of data). Can detect minute differences in the ways that plants reflect light. Plants are highly reflective. Can differentiate between plant species with hyperspectral imagery - also very data-intensive. Involves dozens or hundreds of data points. GIS data is organized into lat/longs which georeferences the location of plants mapped. Multiple uses for a single dataset.

Gabe Hoekstra, Galileo Group - 2018 hyperspectral work covering an area of just over 200 square miles (in six different sites across the Lake Superior basin). Target species was Wild rice (palustrus sp) and secondary species included Phragmites, pickerelweed, waterlily, and watershield. Timeframe was August - September 2018 when wild rice was most green and easy to detect; unfortunately, much of the wild rice was browned out in 2018.

Airborne data collection was the fast part of the process - details of equipment used is available in the slidedeck. They collected a single row of pixels to represent 1-m wide band on the group.

Boat and ground data collection was the lengthier portion of the project work. Took about 3 weeks. We used a field spectrometer, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS; for geolocation purposes), and Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled camera (geo-tags pictures taken).

Contractor provided CIR Mosaic in each area of interest, a flight line detailing the area covered, and a map of the GPS points, and geo-tagged images. The contractor used an analysis method which identified known locations of target vegetation using ancillary NOAA data, they then extracted the spectral signature from the individual species, and then they used the spectral library to find pixels with similar spectral signatures and performed the classification of species they found at each site. Deliverables mentioned here were shown via the slide show for each 20 area of interest mapped.

Hyperspectral is one of the best ways to scientifically delineate vegetation cover on the ground. Overall, we learned that data collection should occur early in the fall season. All project goals were achieved and deliverables are repeatable for other geographies which set the stage for possible work in Lakes Michigan and Huron. Since work was done in LS, we have the opportunity to leverage economy of scale if we can identify this work on a broader geographic scale - brings cost/acre down and fills more data gaps with a single aircraft going up. This becomes a very cost effective way to delineate the species (or other species).

Planning field work this summer - August-September 2021 - to collect data from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan down to Southwest Michigan and NE Indiana. Lots of other data sets that were collected and could be better leveraged for this next body of work in Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Questions: Can we look at photos and identity rice using spectral image techniques? Yes, but the data from those historical images is much coarser and has less resolution that the images collected from the most recent LS work.

Given the rapid lifecycle and constant change in rice growth, would it be worthwhile to take one smaller basin with a good bed, and fly it maybe weekly late july- early sept to help identify an ideal time in the growth cycle to target? Answer: Yes, this would be a useful study. Some of the northern areas it was already browned out, while southern/warmer waters were still green. But there are other considerations - collecting on Indiana shorelines, along rivers, and on islands near the UP - so it’s hard to predict the optimal date. Chat comment: That suggestion could also detect changes in the ripening of manoomin. Brandon Krumwiede: Biggest challenge is funding; collecting data over multiple seasons is difficult. If we collect data in floating leaf stage, then some of those stands may never reach full maturity due to geese predation or other stressors.

Would be interesting to have that local study in place on a lake as brown spot disease starts to propagate. It can move so fast and would be especially useful for harvesters so they could get out before the rice drops. Looking more at that temporal phenology. The Galileo team did not observe much brown spot when doing the ground-based portion of their data collection. Brandon Krumwiede: You did see a shift in the spectral signature in the imagery when moving through different life stages. Now we have a spectral library that can be applied for Manoomin mapping.

Can hyperspectral techniques be used to detect hemlock woolly adelgid, and invasive insects that kill hemlock trees? Not directly. We can detect vegetative stress (e.g., emerald ash borer), but hemlocks tend not to be canopy species and therefore are more tucked in and difficult to image.

21 Chat comment: Manoomin beds affected by brown spot would benefit from letting the seed drop so it can reseed itself...many of the infected beds that I have seen didn't have much viable seed. Chat comment: Good point. I have seen brown spot where seeds hardly develop, but also where 10s to nearly 100 acres of almost ripe rice drops practically overnight. I guess it would depend on your knowledge of the lake's seed bank and also community needs.

John Merrill is excited to continue this work, and hoping to partner with any of you that are interested.

Icebreaker/Informal Conversation Time Manoomin is... ● Subsistence ○ more than just medicine or a plant ● Sustenance ○ The word I chose was sustenance. My thought was sustaining people and tribes, culture, wildlife, and the entire ecosystem. ○ Arrowhead plants love them to eat ■ learned about wild rice from Lee and where the arrowhead plant is ■ wild rice is never too far so it’s a companion plant ● Love ○ Love it since hearing the stories and would turn head in the direction ○ Love the land and a part of the Potawatomi footprint. ○ We camped in the Illinois River valley in Peoria, Grass Lake and you could identify that Potowatomi people carried the seeds there ● Culture ○ was taught that this is what our people did as a way of life ● Wonder ● Life ○ It is life sustaining for both wildlife as well as the people's that it is such big part of culture ● Integral ○ New to the topic, but liked to see the others' responses to the questions of answers like sacred which showcased the importance to others ● Restorative ○ wild rice as a food, and something that heals (ie. chicken wild rice soup is what she thinks of when sick) ● Life ○ manoomin is very important to many different beings ● Patience ○ waiting for the crop, watching, ○ restoration takes patience - from all angles, ○ patience fits with rice ● Culture

22 ○ community connection ● Connection ○ lucky to work with the partners in this project, ○ friendships, ○ bringing communities together, ○ also connects the ecosystems in which it grows ● Precious ○ it is a gift from the creator, but also because there are a lot of environmental stressors that act upon manoomin. ○ thinking of the opportunity to try to restore it in the face of those stresses and threats. ● Life-Giving ● Home ○ Brought me back to my homelands ○ Gives me an opportunity to work for tribes ● Sovereignty ○ Food sovereignty ○ Tribal sovereignty ● Social ○ Gathers us in our community with laughing and teasing that happens too ○ Using manoomin for every occasion and ceremony ○ Sharing rice, sharing equipment, sharing knowledge ● Identity ○ who we are. ○ Importance of maintaining for seven generations. ● Relationships ○ The word manoomin includes relationships, plants, animals, people, more than just a sacred plant, identity and relationships ● Sovereignty ● Health ● Learning ○ cultural, ecological, health benefits ○ manoomin is also a teacher ● Generosity ● Blessed ○ growing relationship, ○ learning ○ and so many cultural and ecological connections ● Life ○ keystone species that supports life, ○ tribal members reconnecting with ancestors, ○ traditional culture ● Community ● Healing ● Keystone

23 ○ As in, keystone species. ○ Manoomin can create its own ecosystem. ● Sovereignty ○ People can be more independent. ○ Have their own food source. ● Rice Camp ○ My first big meeting opened my eyes to what goes on during a rice camp. It was a week-long event. It opened my eyes to the whole experience. There's so much to say I don't know where to start. ○ I captured the whole process while there. From creating your own tools to the restoration process (seeding some of the beds, which covered canoe safety for example). A wide range of topics were covered. ○ Passing the torch to younger generations was something I took away as being very important. ○ It was a wide range of attendees, which was neat. The host KBIC and partners were really welcoming. ○ There were many stories. It was very educational. ● Health ○ All encompassing term for environment dept, health dept, culture, and the entire community. ○ Indigenous lifeways are supported by first foods. ○ Spiritual health. We take a lot of stock in our programs on how they encourage traditional lifeways. My program has full community immersion.

Monitoring and Restoration Small Group Discussion - Padlet Moderated by Tricia Ryan & Jen Ballinger Other Notes: Indiana Dunes NP is one of the most biodiverse parks in the nation and it's important to understand what we have and not lose what we have. Beaver were hunted to extinction in IN then reintroduced with beaver from WI, likely a different phenotype. May need to think about how beavers manage to make sure there aren't unintended consequences.

There may be other companion plants and animals to manoomin like seeing muskrat and turtles as a part of our creation and migration story.

Seeing disconnect from tribal citizens and rice. Some don't see themselves as a rice tribe so working to get the cultural and citizen buying to support restoration efforts

There has been a human (through traveling and carrying the seeds) and genetic transport of seeds. Could put a cultural prism over the genetic studies. There are instructions in our stories for the carrying, planting and growing of manoomin. We are identifying seed sources for future restoration.

Looking outside of the Great Lakes basin, we are finding wild rice beds. And the line is a little

24 blurry in the southern part of the basin.

- Padlet Moderated by Brandon Krumwiede & Rachael Franks-Taylor Other notes: - Tribal staff time and turnover is another issue that tribes are dealing with. - Culvert replacement and impacts to hydrology that impact wild rice (flooding, permitting not necessarily required or followed). Hydro modifications and negative impacts. - For example Lily issues can be linked to the culvert issues above. - Michigan is working on a statewide inventory of culverts. - Development of sediment deltas due to hydro modifications introduce burreed and cattails that impacted wild rice habitat. - Development of deep areas that also negatively impact rice. - Technical support is needed for field instrumentation and stronger communication networks (cell coverage) in the remote areas to support real time or near real time reporting. - Warm winter this year, lack of ice cover that can remove competing vegetation. Rise in water temperatures and impacts to germination. - NAICS training, climate change, and thinking about wild rice. Need to think outside of the box. - Brown spot with high heat and humidity. - Hands are already full enough. We need to work on it and it's tough to think about what is next. - Photos from one week to another, how quickly things are changing. - Worried about brown spot impacts. Also rice worms are an issue. It would be good to monitor rice worms as well. - Everyone remembers the extremes when it comes to what is observed. - Transplant emergent wild rice plants, not just the seed? - Rice is going to grow where it wants to grow. (Take away)

- Padlet Moderated by Heather Stirratt & Allison Smart Other notes: It sounds like getting more folks out and ricing is a struggle. I have only heard of a few members regularly harvesting. Youth ricing events have relatively low participation, and it seems like there is a need for more community available canoes. Those who do have equipment, like threshers, do make it available to share though! Having done some youth work over in Bad River and also hearing from friends and staff there, there is a stark difference between communities.

- Padlet Moderated by Kirsten Rhude & Marie Schaefer Other notes: Does anyone know if there is any rice yet at Indiana Dunes? My wife grew up near there, and I have seen old maps with it.

- Padlet Moderated by Becky Nicodemus & Liz Lasicki

25 MI Wild Rice Initiative Presentation - Barb Barton, MDOT Barb is an Environmental Consultant with the Michigan Department of Transportation. She started working on Manoomin back in 2008 and has learned much from her colleagues. Barb will share details on the journey, the meetings, opportunities, challenges and more from working at a state agency with tribal partners.

Michigan has historically held a lot of wild rice. 200 historic sites and 150 extant sites. Of historic sites, only 6 continue to exist today. Monroe Marsh is a good example of what has been lost - while previously the marsh was predominantly wild rice, no rice exists there today as a result of dredging and pollution nearby. Ricing culture has also been interrupted by disappearance of ricing beds and other factors. Seeding was intermittent until the 1980s, when Archie McGeshick (Roger Labine’s uncle) returned to his homelands at Lac Vieux Desert and started to plant rice once again. Barb contacted Michigan tribes to ask when restoration reseeding started to occur. In 1991 KBIC, 1996 Bay Mills, in LTBB started in 2002 and other tribes along the way had notable restoration efforts.

Goals of programs were to protect manoomin, restore habitat, local seed source, learn about where manoomin grows, evaluate oil spill impacts, honor the gift of Manoomin, and create cultural programs for use by tribal communities.

Obstacles to reseeding include: ● Availability of green rice; ● Transportation of rice seed; ● Purchasing seed; ● Insufficient Knowledge; and ● Water Levels fluctuation.

First wild rice conference in Michigan occured in 2006, with several meetings in the 2000s. Barb traveled to all 12 MI tribes in 2009 in her role with Michigan Natural Features Inventory, but the time was not yet ripe for Michigan Wild Rice Initiative.

KBIC held its first rice camp in 1999 and several others occurred from 2008-present day. Barb wrote “The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan” to help folks understand restoration efforts,

26 historical information, causes of decline and efforts to reseed. Manoomin was integrated into the Michigan Water Strategy soon thereafter.

Michigan Wild Rice Initiative was born in 2017. Designed as a long-term, ongoing collaboration that would build off of previous planning and priority setting efforts. First meetings of Initiative partners were conducted in 2017 and meetings were held about every 6-9 months. Through these meetings, the following issues were identified: ● Tribes take the lead ● Cultural sensitivity ● Harvesting opportunity ● Education ● Legal Protection (Z. aquatica in rivers is listed as a MI protected species, but lake rice is not) ● Data management and sensitivity ● Manoomin Stewardship plan ● Genetic integrity - No paddy rice ● Mapping initiatives ● Chemical treatment of lake weeds ● Concern about habitat threats

Group focused on how to develop partnerships, secure funding, TEK and western science integration, and engagement with state legislators. There were seven subcommittees that were initially convened. Two of those are active today: Restoration and Outreach/Education Sub-committees. But others are flagging a bit; always looking for more people to participate in the Initiative and share knowledge and contribute capacity.

A number of setbacks during COVID; for example, they weren’t able to spend any money so couldn’t purchase seed for restoration so there was no seeding in 2020.

There remain opportunities to grow. These opportunities include efforts to strengthen partnership and collaborations, building trust and deeper relationships, heal historic conflict, and learn how to work together and protect a sacred plant.

Future is bright and hopeful. Looking for more partners/members of the MI Wild Rice Initiative, filling empty seats on sub-committees. There will be a change in leadership coming this March/April. Challenged by so many things pulling members in different directions. Have vacancies and we are looking for more members to pitch in. Legal advice/expertise and state inventory support are definitely of interest to our sub-committees.

Roger LaBine- have been trying to get caught up to brother states to the west, MN and WI. Here in Michigan, we’re playing catch up. One of the things discovered through MWRI is need for outreach and education; this should include secondary schools and general public outreach to overcome “environmental amnesia” about wild rice. This presentation was meant to pique interest - consider what you can contribute; you needn’t be a tribal member, you needn’t be “credentialed” - just willing to help work to get Michigan up to speed with MN and WI.

27 Barb - For those that have been involved in these discussions for a long time, wild rice was not known by non-tribal members and the connection between tribal communities and manoomin had been weakened. It’s an amazing journey and what is now known. It’s like a dream come true how much awareness and attention have grown.

Roger noted the need to develop a centralized location to store and archive educational material. Lauren Dey is chairing the MI Wild Rice Initiative Education and Outreach sub-committee and she’ll be taking this need on first hand to find a long term solution to address this need. Roger empowered everyone to think about their ability to contribute to the MI Wild Rice Initiative work plan. If there is interest, please reach out to Katie Kruse ([email protected]) or Sally Kniffen ([email protected]) are both POCs for engagement with this group.

Questions: What is paddy rice? Rice grown on a farm. Additional information can be found here: https://mooselakewildrice.com/ Chat Comment: University of MN has developed 9 new genetic variants of wild rice which are not native, as they’ve been genetically modified for various reasons (e.g., high rice yield, etc).

Long-standing history with Pokagon Band and ricing; Simon Pokagon has written about ricing there and practicing bundling. Varying levels of ricing and rice knowledge in the community. But, still, may not have done much ricing in that area. But in 2008, LTTB didn’t see themselves as a ricing community, but now they have taken on restoration. Even if tribal governments have not been active until the 80s or 90s, many tribal members have kept it alive. If community members don’t know much about their tribes’ history with ricing, this might be a first target for the MWRI Education and Outreach Subcommittee.

Jennifer Kanine: I was able to share the information regarding Simon Pokagon that Lee had provided with the Language and Culture Director and Archivist. We started working in INDU [Indiana Dunes National Park] in 2018 and were surprised by the amount of mnomen found in the park. We have continued to perform surveys and monitor the mnomen beds. We have worked to reduce the invasive species around the beds (mainly phragmites) to be able to protect the beds into the future. Also have Albert Jenks letters sent to them by Barb Barton.

The Language of Manoomin - Kaagegaabaw James Vukelich “Boozhoo indinawemaagaanidog. Kaagegaabaw indizhinikaaz. Mikinaak indoodem. Mikinaak-wajiwing indoojibaa. Besho Gakaabikaang indaa noongom. Hello my relatives. My name is James. I’m a descendant of the turtle clan from the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe who lives close to Minneapolis at this time.”

James is grateful to LTBB and NOAA for the opportunity to talk today. To begin a talk about the

28 meaning of the word manoomin, we should start with some basic linguistic terms. Etymology is the meaning of a word and the history of how that word may have come about. It’s the story that goes into a word. A morpheme is the smallest unit of words that carry meaning and that’s the extent of getting into technical, linguistic terms.

Manoomin as we look through an Ojibwe perspective, “-min” is the smallest part of the word that has meaning or morpheme in the word manoomin. When you see it at the end of a word in the Ojibwe language, it means something small and globular or seed.

Manoomin could mean “the good seed” or “the good berry.” When we use “mino” in Ojibwe, it often means “good”. It also possibly comes from a reduplicated morpheme, maminoomin, that was eventually shortened to just mino-min or to “manoomin”.

According to the late Tobasonakwut Kinew (aka Peter Kelly), a citizen of the Ojibways of Onigaming of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 (Ontario, Canada) and noted elder in Midewin, it comes from a meaning that roughly translates to the spirit berry, deriving from manidoo-min, the spirit berry. It could possibly be translated to a spiritual delicacy.

In the Ojibwe word for August, Manoominike-giizis, that means the wild rice harvesting moon. It could also refer to a delicacy, one that is made or done during the wild rice moon and eaten as a ceremonial feast.

Alex Snead, another elder from the Treaty 3 area of Ontario, said that manoomin is a good name for this grain, but there's an older name of “manidoo-gitigaan”, the spirit’s garden. Gitigaan implies a plot of land that is looked after or cared for. Manidoo translates as a spirit, or maybe more accurately a mystery. Some people refer to this as a god but generally thought to be someone that we as human beings cannot truly comprehend. Gizhe-manidoo, that kind spirit is often translated as analogous to God. So getting back to the morpheme “mino-” meaning good.

James showed a Norval Morrisseau painting of binesi and mishi-ginebig, the thunderbird and the snake. Similar iconography has been seen in Mexico and other indigenous communities in the Americas and globally, such as in Garuda, India and Enki (Sumerian) cultures. There are also petroglyphs of these and similar figures throughout the Great Lakes.

29 Morrisseau, N. (1965) Thunderbird with serpent [Acrylic on paper].

These two beings have an eternal and reciprocal relationship. While a common explanation is that binesi is a protector spirit and mishi-ginebig is an antagonist, their relationship is more nuanced. Their relationship is that thunderbirds feed from mishi-ginebig as a way for that spirit not to overpopulate the world. But mishi-ginebig also survives due to binesi so there is a balance that exists between them much like many other aspects of the environment balance and depending on each other. This balance is also important to humans. Manoomin sustains us and there needs to be a balance with us that helps us be good stewards for the manoomin.

Manoomin has taken very good care of us. It is a very healthy food with protein, high fiber, low in fat with lots of vitamins and minerals. It has fed us. When processed properly, which was essential for the long winters of this region, we also see how it has fed Anishinaabeg for millenia. And we should also think about how it can feed our spirits. Wherever you find manoomin, you will find Anishinaabeg. Much like binesi and ginebig cannot exist without each other, perhaps Anishinaabeg and manoomin cannot exist without each other as well. We show respect when we honor it through harvesting and treating it like a gift.

Therefore we should treat it according to our traditional sacred law, inaakonigewin. If Anishinaabe cannot exist without manoomin, we need to show it: zaagi’idiwin (love), manaaji’idiwin (respect), acknowledging that each others’ lives need it to be looked after, that we carry it in our hearts. If we start to treat it according to our seven grandfathers’ teachings, we will for sure be able to look after it properly and we will be able to continue to gift manoomin for seven generations into the future.

Day 2 Wrap-Up Quote of the day - “The Manoomin are us and we are the Manoomin” - James Vukelich James also gave the workshop a shoutout on his Facebook page that evening after his presentation. As of 2/2/2021, this post now has 496 likes and 16 shares.

30 Storytelling - NO NOTES

Day 3: Relationship Building for Next Steps

Comments in the chat about Adobe Connect: Dani Fegan: Aaniin kina waya! Just thought I'd say that this is the most engaging virtual conference I've been on in a while. Thank you all! Dani Fegan: Also -- I might be Adobe Connect convert. Frank Zomer - BMIC: I agree, Dani. Definitely the best virtual meeting/workshop of the pandemic

Screenshot of the workshop classroom as Day 3 began.

31 Cross-Basin Exchange Jen Ballinger moderated this session. She started by sharing something she found profound from one of her Ojibwe language and culture teachers, Ogimaagwanebiik (Nancy Jones, Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation) about Anishinaabe knowledge sharing- “Every teaching is true.” Once she was able to wrap her head around that teaching, she had and continues to have a really good time visiting with folks from all over Anishinaabewaki (Anishinaabe lands aka Indian Country) and is so grateful for all the things she’s been able to learn.

For those in Lake Michigan-Huron basin, what issues do you want to dig in on? Either from work in Lake Superior, or from each other?

Allison Smart: Interested in trying to figure out density work in rice beds. Spectral imagery prospects are exciting given that costs of flights/drones are going down. Would love to hear from Superior partners on their experience with that work.

Dani Fegan: Responding to Allison, different scale from what happened in Lake Superior, but at Sault Tribe, they’ve started doing some mapping with drones. How well can we monitor beds using UAV? Some tribal governments already have a UAV pilot, and it hasn’t been difficult to get this going. They want to develop a UAV monitoring protocol.

Allison Smart: That would be awesome to have a shared protocol and comparable datasets.

Dani Fegan: Sault Ste.Marie tribe purchased a drone, received some training on how to fly and use it, then developed a team of drone pilots that gained field experience in an open field. Really the way to start is to develop that capacity/expertise and then deploy it to help others as well. Funding can be a barrier, but we managed to obtain a drone at a very cost effective price. ● Type of drone and cameras used? ○ https://www.parrot.com/en/shop/accessories-spare-parts/other-drones/ sequoia ● Chat Comment: Seems like it could be great to develop a "best practices" guide to the drone work to develop consistent approaches, and possible info sharing where that is comfortable, so that pooled information might be robust enough to give an index to year to year abundance on a state level.

Dani, how long did it take to train up? Studied for the exam for a couple hours a day and then took the test, then went right out to test that knowledge/skill by flying in the field.

Would love to have rice camps be more accessible to help “all” value Manoomin. Any public camp tips that folks can offer? Deanna Erickson: Manoomin link from LSNERR on wild rice curriculum - https://rivers2lake.org/?sfid=1428&_sf_s=wetlands&_sft_topics=human-culture Lauren Dey: MI Wild Rice Initiative is developing some materials/curriculums pertaining

32 to rice camps; also LTBB has started a sturgeon in the bay classroom program, which could be a model for manoomin as well.

How about best practices and ideas for hosting rice camps (when it's sage to)? Peter David: Often bio staff are maxed out during the field and harvest season. So, it takes a village to pull these off. Darren Vogt: 1854 Treaty Authority wild rice camps are advertised broadly, and meant for the public. Really want to raise awareness among both band members and non-tribal folks. It’s been very successful and they hope to continue. “Canoomin” training focused on canoe skills and safety related to manoomin harvest, as well as workshops to create their own knockers. Their contact for rice camps and outreach efforts is Marne Kaeske, [email protected] Peter David: Would also just mention, that while youth outreach is often a focus for outreach, I think there is a great opportunity to target "middle agers" who have a great interest in this.

Deanna Erickson: Looking to translate Manoomin lessons translated into Ojibwewowin. Tom Howes has been a wonderful partner at Fond du Lac Tribe to provide students access to St. Louis River rice beds. Students have exposure to geese predation challenges, for example. Also helps students identify rice on the water. When working with students/teachers we work with small groups and involve tribal partners in that lesson/curriculum development as well as offer opportunities to students to deliver presentations to FDL tribal members directly.

Lessons Learned for Partnerships? Frank Zomer: Bay Mills has gotten seed from many different sources. Can we determine which source is doing well in a variety of systems? Are there distinct genetic variants in MI that we should be aware of? Is there other work like this going on? We’d love to fill gaps in our research questions, understanding that seed sourcing can be a sensitive topic. Jon Mauchmar: agrees this is an important point; especially genetic info on the southernmost populations. Chat comment: Really important question and much of it is laden with controversy given some of the actions taken by the University of Minnesota in recent years. Frank Zomer: his work was mostly eastern Upper Peninsula (and Jon added in the northern Lower), finding some common haplotypes; there’s a paper that describes MN and MI UP (plus one Ontario site). There is one haplotype believed to be distinct to the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. There’s less stigma with genetics in Michigan since this area didn’t have to deal with the paddy rice issue that more western areas did. Email is [email protected] for anyone that is interested in being involved in genetics research. Jon Mauchmar: Our research didn’t show any east-west patterns. Peter David: If we can demonstrate that there are genetic differences, it justifies protecting each of these places. Could be a result of disrupted genetic interchange. Chat comment: Distinct populations could have populations separated from pre-contact gene flow patterns by western societies. 33 Climate Change impacts on Manoomin? ● Peter David: ○ Recommends reaching out to Rob Croll at GLIFWC ([email protected]) to also provide more input on this. ○ GLIFWC and other partners have started to investigate the impacts of climate change on manoomin. Wild rice jumped to the top of the list as species impacted by cc. It affects every rice bed. This is huge. ○ The disease impacts are concerning; encourages monitoring of brown spot in conjunction with other monitoring (e.g., for abundance). Artificially created wetlands, infrastructure, and other approaches may be considered; thinning rice beds may offer some protection from disease. ○ Likely needs dialogue around options that tribal communities never wanted to have to consider. In addition, nutritional value declines as carbon increases. ● Brandon Krumwiede: Is anyone developing weather/climate observation networks to understand impacts to native plant phenology to include wild rice? This came up in some of the breakout groups this week. ○ Indigenous Phenology Network might have some insights: https://www.usanpn.org/nn/indigenous-phenology-network ● Darren Vogt: 1854 Treaty Authority has developed a monitoring strategy aimed at tracking climate impacts. Looking at days of ice, temperature, and ice thickness studies. Continue to track rice worm and brown spot occurrences as well. ● Chat Comment: Just like our people get together, we bring different mnomen plants, from the same species, to potentially have a more virulent plant. In other words, separate mnomen stands, separated from gene flow patterns, may be less virulent. We harvest seeds from Indiana and Illinois, that may experience more high temperatures, than here in Michigan. Observations of Mnomen Brown Spot disease in MI, were not seen at the same scale in the same species of mnomen south of MI. ● Dani Fegan: Sault Tribe Wildlife Program would love to be in a spot where we can harvest seed nearby/somewhat-locally for restoration. I'd just love to hear from folks that have started in a similar situation as us and have had some success of their own. Just an open invite if anybody would like to chat and share advice. ● Chat Comment: Use your tribal community to collect/harvest seed nearby, takes a tribe. ● Chat Comment: One of our biggest obstacles is that there aren't that many beds nearby where it would be appropriate to harvest much seed from for seeding somewhere else. ● Chat Comment: There are definitely good seeds in the UP not too far from the Sault. ● Chat Comment: May not need to harvest too much to get some decent stands started, just need to protect small stands from the geese/carp ● Chat Comment: Those few seeds are exponential. That's how seeds work. Care for those few that mature, they ares saying we are here, we want to meet our relatives like you anishinabek ● Chat Comment: I guess that depends on how we define nearby, too.

34 Impacts of Settler Colonialism on Manoomin: Shifting Systems of Wild Ricing - Marie Schaefer, Michigan State University Marie started with a Michigan State University Land Acknowledgment:

For more information about MSU’s land acknowledgement: http://aisp.msu.edu/about.land

Marie is an Odawa descendent and settler, did not grow up in these traditions, but is eager to continue to learn. Sits on Northeast Climate Adaptation Network, chaired by Sarah Smith, and MI Community and Anishinaabe Renewable Energy Systems. Currently post doc and recently graduated with her Ph.D. Most of the work that Marie is involved in is that of braiding indigenous knowledge with that of western science. Important to come at this with a good heart.

Settler colonialism - What is it? - Manoomin story - Migration story “the food that grows on the water”; essential to our survival and identity. Part of the 13 moons seasonal rounds. - Threats ...see slide - Settler colonialism - settlers create their own homelands on indigenous lands - System of erasure - seeks to erase indigous people from their homelands, either through: - 1) Disappearances - making indigenous people invisible on their own homelands and disconnect with their own landscapes - 2) Dilemmas - offer “choices” that all have some element of erasure (e.g., forming a government that doesn’t align with tribal structures in order to become federally recognized) - Impacts of this are: - Shift from women led to male led - More commercial focus - found in grocery stores (origin from CA and other non-native areas; cultivated rice not “wild”) - Government involved in harvest determination and restoration efforts

35 which didn’t exist previously - Rice found on farms vs rice found in rivers/lakes - Rice camps - only 1-2 days as opposed to week long events

How did manoomin become a commodity? Why is what you can find in Great Lakes grocers being grown in California?

Turning point 1: Before the 1950s, manoomin was only found in rivers and lakes, but there was interest among settlers to grow as a commodity. First farm-raised wild rice was grown in Minnesota, up to 120 acres in 1958. At this point, rice shattered (dropped seed) into nearby water bodies.

Turning point 2: University of MN - Conference to bring together “experts” (not tribal knowledge holders) to create the Manoomin agricultural industry.

Turning Point 3: Manoomin grown in CA in 1972-present day (seed delivered in a cooler from a MN farmer to a friend in CA!). CA passes MN in acres of Manoomin grown for commercial sale. 90% of grocery sales are from CA cultivated rice.

2021 - It would be great to have more wild rice grown by Great Lakes tribes. There is a lot of research ongoing around this work and food sovereignty. UMN is conducting research on indigenous food sovereignty program to revitalize manoomin.

36 Gender System Impacts: ● Gender was more fluid before settler colonialism ● Women had a system of ecological guardianship to manage Manoomin ● Commodification of Manoomin changes women’s roles and responsibilities ● Men appear to be public face of manoomin habitat restoration and wild rice camps for some tribes ● Women continue to play essential roles with challenges in this shift of gender responsibilities.

This resulted in women focused indigenous manoomin collective - created through discussion who self-identify as women and two-spirited over the last 4 years. In 2016, only one Anishinaabekwe was presenting on the Manoomin track at an EPA Region V Tribal Water Workshop that Marie attended. Historically women would have been leading spaces like this so this collective was formed to try understand how this shift happened as well as empower its members to take up their traditional cultural roles. One result from this collective, another member was able to include women’s traditional stewardship responsibilities of water and manoomin as a the title of the UMN Manoomin symposium in 2019: “Ikwe Oganawendaan Nibi

37 Miinawaa Manoomin — Women Protecting our Water and Wild Rice”.

Also seeking ways to connect folks to indigenous-grown manoomin; please send Marie links of either sources available virtually or COVID-safe ways.

Questions: What was the most surprising thing you’ve learned? When women come together we do amazing things. And...that MN seed was delivered in a cooler to CA farmers for cultivation. So much privilege in that action.

Are there concerns about agrifying rice? Marie: Yes! Lots of discussion around that topic. Michigan just doesn’t have wild seed and so while we want more rice it’s unclear how to do that in a good way. Really it’s a different answer for each tribe. Hopefully, we will slowly get an answer if we continue to ask that question. From chat: Recently saw a citation that indicated early after Euro arrival, it was women that decided how much rice the family could sell to the settlers, because they were the ones that knew how much the family needed itself.

Do you know if the Canadian manoomin is paddy grown? There is a store where I buy it from that has US grown and occasionally Canadian grown. Marie: There’s definitely paddy rice there, but in the Treaty 3 area of Canada, there is wild harvested as well. Packages have this information so read carefully if you want to support native harvesters. Followup from Jen Ballinger: It looks like the paddy rice that is grown in California is not grown in Canada, at least on a wide commercial scale. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs suggests that commercially produced wild rice is derived from “lake-grown” seed (i.e., transplanting naturally occurring wild rice) that is then mechanically harvested from the waterbody. This older, and likely out of date, document from Agriculture Canada (now Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada) states that American “paddy rice” is not grown in Manitoba or elsewhere in Canada.

Please reach out to Marie with any questions or information to share: [email protected].

BIA Funding Opportunities & Coordination for Manoomin - Jessica Koski, BIA Member of KBIC and for over 5 years she has worked with BIA and GLRI. Jessica’s current role includes service as the fish and wildlife biologist in the Minneapolis vicinity of Dakota lands.

BIA Mission - To enhance quality of life. Role of Fish Wildlife and Parks - support 36 federally recognized tribes in MN, WI, MI and Iowa Tribes throughout the midwest, encompassing 62 million acres including treaty-ceded territories. Branch of Fish and Wildlife and Parks - administers $30M in annual funding to fulfill its responsibilities (e.g., leads management coordination of two regional led programs including Circle of Flight and GLRI; also support national programs like noxious weeds program). The

38 Branch coordinates and collaborates as liaisons to intergovernmental organizations and Midwest tribes.

Funding Opportunities for Tribal Wild Rice ● Circle of Flight - began in 1990s; targets waterfowl and wetland enhancement on Indian Lands; provides $700K annually through competition means. Here are a few examples: ○ Monitoring predation on wild rice - Grand Traverse Band ○ Wild rice seeding - Lac Courte Oreilles Band ○ Nett Lake Wild Rice Restoration - Bois Forte Band (outside of GLs, but another example of how successful wild rice restoration can be - treated over 400 acres for invasive species; wild rice acreage totaled over 3,000 acres and yielded over 1M pounds) ○ Wild Rice seeding - Lower Sioux Indian Community ○ Little Round Lake Wild Rice - GLIFWC ○ Wild rice seeding - White Earth Band (outside of basin)

● GLRI Distinct Tribal Program - $15M annually (proposals due mid-February) ○ FY20 start - projects must align with GLRI action plan 3; wild rice projects are primarily supported through FA4. Some work with FA2 and 5 as well. ○ GLRI tribal capacity may also be of interest - solicited every three year and next offering will be in FY22-23. BIA will consider emerging needs as they arise. ○ Hamlin Lake Wild Rice bed near fish community assessment site - Little River Band; long-term monitoring and fish surveys; education and outreach to the public with Grand Traverse Band ○ Manoomin finds a new home at Lake Plumbago - Keweenaw Bay Indian Community - also data collection. ○ Monitoring wild rice - Nottawaseppi Huron Band ○ Traditional harvesting of wild rice fro restoration - Gun Lake Tribe

● Additional funding opportunities:

39 ○ Invasive Species Program (BIA) - Annual competition with deadline in mid-January ○ Tribal Youth Initiative (BIA) - Annual competition with deadline in mid-January ○ Annual Year End Funding (BIA) - One time project needs; submit requests to Agency Superintendent before August 31, 2021; excludes positions/salaries.

Wild Rice Coordination - BIA was involved in development of Action Plan III and bringing tribal input into the plan. A major change is how native species restoration is being tracked - now not just the number of projects. Wild rice is recognized as a target species in the action plan, although non-target species can also be funded under GLRI. Having these targets established may help bolster wild rice restoration, especially among other federal partners like NOAA, NPS, and USGS.

Some of the other species in the Action plan have targets and yet we do not have that for wild rice. BIA is grappling with what targets make sense for Manoomin, if any. Perhaps we need different targets for different geographies? The goal is to start discussions on this topic and see if tribes think this is a good way to go? Some questions that we’d love feedback on include: What would a significant biological outcome for wild rice look like in 3 years? In 7 years? What should the next steps be to develop target outcomes for wild rice under GLRI?

Questions: Are there project write ups/summaries for the Circle of Flight? Here's the latest brochure that includes COF project accomplishments (among other BIA Wildlife and Parks projects): http://www.glifwc.org/publications/pdf/COF2019.pdf

Perhaps a type of recovery plan perspective would be helpful for focusing on tribal goals and increasing populations and viability? Jessica: Possibly. BIA could help to connect folks on that idea. If targets are to be suggested then tribes should lead the efforts to restore toward that end. Matt Preisser: Suggested that the LAMPs could be another good connector for aiding these discussions along. Heather Stirratt: Age old question of what we are restoring to? What's the baseline? Should we (collective context - not aimed at NOAA) set aside some funds to convene a group?

POSSIBLE NEED: Convening to assist tribes in providing input on the questions that BIA is asking. BIA noted that NOAA would be a good partner toward this end.

Matt Preisser: Next SOLM [State of Lake Michigan] (2022) conference could be a nice piggy backing opportunity to convene for this purpose. Chat Comment: Tribal Environmental Program Managers Conference in Region V at EPA could also be a good venue. Brings together all 35 tribes. Matt Preisser: LAMPs are 5-year plans drafted in a rotating cycle between Great Lakes. Happy to report that wild rice restoration is already a priority in the draft Lake Michigan LAMP. I'm the State of MI rep to the LM LAMP work group (several tribes are also

40 active). If you want more context or names, shoot me an email: [email protected] Heather Stirratt: Age old question of what we are restoring to? What's the baseline that a tribal community wishes to restore to? Chat commnet: A meal, the ability to tell our stories, to see the creation story, the muskrat and the turtle, to be able to acquire a meal, and transfer knowledge to our children, is my restoration goal or metric.

Jessica is trying to gauge how interested folks are in following up on the notion for this discussion. Limited staff but BIA is obtaining more positions to help add capacity for regional tribal work. Jessica’s email is [email protected] for folks who are interested in talking further.

It's the Geese!: Manoomin & Geese Predation - Jon Mauchmar, LTBB; Deanna Erickson and Hannah Burgstaler, LS NERR Jon Mauchmar - Geese in Michigan are about 30 times more prolific than that of the 1970’s. There are other species that disturb rice. Carp, Mute Swans (although wasn’t able to photo document - didn’t appear to disturb the beds), ducks, and rusty crayfish, for example. (Lee noted in chat that swans typically feed on sprouts underwater - you can see them with their tails in the air.) We’ve looked at exclosures as a means to see if plants could make it to maturity and avoid predation/disturbances.

Photo monitoring helped with understanding of what’s happening in rice areas. Have 5-6x more photos with geese than ducks, and numbers of geese are also higher. Geese particularly like small stands or edges of larger stands, so they can see across if any approaching predators and space to take off. By summer it is very clear that the plants do better in the exclosures than outside. Researchers have tried leaving exclosures in the same locations over multiple rice seasons and that does appear to help and work across seasons. Masonry twine (just a couple of lines with some edge poles) seem to work too, which provides a much more cost effective approach for controlling geese predation on rice.

Deanna Erickson - In St. Louis River estuary, between Duluth, MN and Superior, WI - historically, a huge wild rice bed. Many stories about ricing on SLR and historic map of where beds used to be. But very little exists now.

These days rice exists on WI Point and Allouez Bay, which is why folks are focusing on restoration efforts in these areas. FDL and 1854 treaty authority have done a great job reseeding and monitoring rice in these areas. Continually have trouble with rice being able to mature before the geese come in devastate immature stands.Have tried *many* deterrence measures, but no clear proven strategy.

Part of our research is to understand relationships between water levels, geese and existing rice 41 stands. Four sites (i.e., Allouez Bay, Duck Hunter Bay South, Walleye Alley Bay, and Oliber-Little Pokegama Bay) have been selected for manoomin stand studies. Photos depict lots of geese with rice plants in their mouths. Also see quite a few waterfowl in rice vegetation stands. Allouez Bay had geese present most days for a period, and then they were gone, while Duck Hunter Bay had very few until a two-day period in September.

Walleye Bay had spikes throughout the season. Researchers also calculated the max/min water depth each day. Water levels rise above 3 ft in Allouez, Oliver-Little Pokegama, and Duck Hunter Bays. This information can help folks determine where geese are and where water levels exist that might warrant use of enclosures to aid/reduce with geese predation impacts. Hannah took a video of water levels in Allouez Bay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AZo2405OpU&t=4s Challenges with photo monitoring include that it’s labor intensive work in the field and post collection photo review.

Questions: What size mesh did you use for the enclosures? Answer: ½” mesh with the two-string method; also tried ¼” down in the muck at least a foot to keep rusty crayfish out, but didn’t do a better job of protecting the plants. Brandon Krumwiede: Yeah the 2 string is what MN DNR has recommended, however, they mention it with energizing it (electric shock) in their shore home owners guide: http://www.orangecountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/884/Homeowners-Guide-to-G eese-Control-PDF

It's cool that the two string set-up worked! I guess I was just wondering if the enclosures could function as protected seed sources that would reseed the surrounding area somewhat naturally? More seed available within the enclosure, more than reseeding.

Have you seen any increase in geese in an area, due to wildlife control release companies? Where they collect the geese from golf courses and release them in other areas? Grain elevators are the biggest motivator of geese coming in.

Is the goal of fencing to give a bed a chance to establish and be more resilient would you plant to keep them fenced off? or would you plan to keep it fenced? Answer: Yes, just give a bed a chance. From chat: Important to give waterfowl a chance to eat too.

Jon, where you kept the exclosure out 2 years, do you think the second year gain was due to more seed being produced inside, or possibly due to carp not consuming seeds out of the sediment between years? Is there a size above which the geese can get into the exclosure? Jon: 10-20 feet; too large an exclosure would give the geese enough space to get in and out Lee Sprague: Takes a lot of different ideas and using/adapting all of them; also suggests using decoys. And Nmush (his border collie) is going to help deter geese. Note that dogs are USFWS compliant for geese deterrence. Lee has a specialized kayak to get himself

42 and Nmush in/out of the beds. They’ve also used predator sounds, distress sounds, a variety of decoys, and mylar/shiny deterrents. Darren Vogt: I believe exclosures in the St. Louis River were 20 x 100 feet. They were effective with about 2 feet extension above the water line.

Has asking the DNR for less restrictive goose harvesting regulations on rice restoration areas? Might be too political. Deanna: LS NERR has a meeting planned about the geese in the next week or so and goose regulations will definitely come up. Brandon Krumwiede: Does that meeting include City of Duluth reps? I know that is also the biggest hurdle on the MN side of the estuary as well. Deanna: Yes, and we do understand that harvesting on the Duluth side is difficult given the urban nature of that geography. Chat Comment: Taking geese during the regular hunting season is not very effective. Need summer round-ups, which the public can be very mixed on. But if the geese are utilized in a good way, there is more acceptance. Human use actually gets complicated, but there is a zoo in Superior that would welcome the food.

Impacts of Common Carp Movement and Habitat Selection on Wild Rice Restoration - Frank Zomer, Bay Mills Indian Community A single big year for common carp can really affect a rice bed/ecosystem. Lots of similarities between this project work and that of the geese projects just discussed. Wild Rice is an annual plant, which matures from ice off through early fall. Common carp occupy the same shallow waters as wild rice.

Waishkey Bay Wild rice is an area of interest but it’s susceptible to carp disturbances in the bay as well. Objectives of study include:

Several techniques have been used to assess carp rice interactions including acoustic telemetry. Known positions are recorded via acoustic receivers and help researchers understand overlap between carp and wild rice habitats. GLATOS Network also contributed to the study, along with exclosure strategies to test which performed the best to protect rice stands from disturbances. Heat maps were generated to illustrate intensivity of habitat use throughout the study system.

These maps also help researchers understand spawning hotspots based upon known spawning timeframes. June 11- July 8 was the sensitive time identified for common carp overlap with rice habitat interactions. High degree of spatial and temporal overlap between carp and rice habitat. Exclosures - rice grew in all seeded plots and there was no significant difference in rice growth between those exclosures used and areas where exclosures were not deployed.

43 All carp that were present in 2019 left Waishkey Bay, half returned in 2020. Some stayed near, while others went great distances. Most in-migration occurred in mid-June to early July. Some carp have overwintered in the bay. Researchers have animations of carp migration behaviors over the study period. Contact Frank Zomer for more information ([email protected]).

In summary, common carp spent much of their time in areas of high spatial overlap with wild rice habitat. Spawning and disruptive behaviors did impact the rice habitats. It’s not known why carp sometimes travel great distances. Wild rice grew in all seeded plots (not just those with exclosures); excluding carp did not influence seeding success, possibly due to low densities. Future seeding should avoid known carp spawning locations to avoid damage during the sensitive period. Managers should avoid spawning areas for rice reseeding efforts. Impacts may be limited to high density areas. Work was supported by GLRI via BIA.

Questions: Which part of the Manoomin do the carp actually eat? Evidence of carp eating seeds more than plant materials. That said, carp are omnivores and thus will eat anything.

What % of the carp diet is manoomin? It is system dependent. Carp will move around and eat anything that they can. Opportunistic feeders, they are!

Do you think high lake water levels could have impacted your findings? Yes, it seems like water levels are affecting this a lot. Maybe we’re not seeing carp’s backs because they're fully submerged. Grand Traverse Bay offers guided fishing trips for carp, but this hasn’t been able to happen with higher lake levels. (Fly fishers got mad at the bowfishers for shooting all the carps.)

It's really interesting to see the individual behavior of the carp. What explains their individual behaviors? Is there reason to believe that their behavior follows trends over years?

44 Nice thing about acoustic tags is that they last a long time - almost 10 years. I hypothesize that there’s a sex behavior difference in terms of males/females residence times in rice beds over a given spawning season.

Have you thought about giving the fish names as opposed to numerical representation? Funny, but there has been discussion about this at Bay Mills with various community members. Slight group consensus was to give them names. Frank welcomes any good fish names that people have to share if he does decide to give them names in the future: [email protected] ;) From the chat: Lee and Nmush: Always anthropomorphize Becky Nicodemus: Carpy McCarpface Lee and Nmush: Nemo, Freshwater Version Daniel Plath: Smokey, same as I name I give all of my chickens. Good name and it is their fate

The Community Values of Manoomin: Spirituality, Kinship, and Partnership - Kyle Whyte, University of Michigan Kyle is enrolled in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. For the last 10 years has had an opportunity to help knowledge keepers and knowledge gifters, elders and youth, share their knowledge about wild rice. Typically, Kyle uses slides normally, but with the passing of Adobe Flash, he’s having to remake his 1000s of slides! Wants to share what he’s learned about manoomin - and also other relatives - plants and animals. There’s a lot of great Ojibwe writings on the importance of wild rice - detailed economic, social, family, political histories have been documented by these scholars.

Screenshot submitted by Marie Schaefer.

Spirituality - accountability as a dimension of spiritual relationships. For many, assumed spirituality was meant to convey something akin to that encountered in Christian faith. But

45 that’s not necessarily a helpful way to think about the meaning of wild rice. More, people were referring to a more grounded and complex sense of spirit - an experience where your engagement with wild rice as part of a community where the members are responsible to each other, including wild rice itself and other plants and animals. For Anishnaabe people, you’re often living on lands that have shrunk and where rights have been taken away. Not just reverence, but this sense of cross-accountability.

Kinship - a concept of community resilience through consensuality, trust, and reciprocity. Not limited to settler idea of your genetically-related family members. This term can help acknowledge the long-standing relationship with wild rice. To be in a kinship relationship, it goes beyond a biological tie; it needs to be the very best of what you expect from and offer to one another (again, trust, independence, respect, and so on).

Partnership - respecting coalitions of self-determining communities and peoples. Hears from many scientists that they want to partner with tribes, but revealing that they have not yet been partnering. Manoomin has always been about partnership. If you look at those deeper histories about wild rice, it was not just about manoomin, but also about maintaining alliances and social structures within and among tribes. Manoomin harvest was an important way of lifting up the role and leadership of women. Study of certain plants needs a lot of care taken; wild rice should not just be approached from a “science” perspective - need to understand the context.

Questions: Responsibility is a key part of trying to establish a relationship with these other beings we see as our relatives, what would be a good way to incorporate that in places where they haven't necessarily been thought about, for example state and federal partners that want to work with tribes? Kyle: Societies have a way of coming to know the world. An indigenous elder or even a youth that has tried so hard to learn the language. People trust and love them. Their expertise comes from and is shared in activities that engage with the community. In contrast, in Western societies, there are also scientific experts, but people don’t always trust them; they may not trust the government. Necessary reforms could be job descriptions at state and federal positions, the political/relationship-building things that one does within the job is not an optional add-on, but integral to the research/study itself. Chat Comment: culture bearers/ knowledge keepers credentials are hard for non-natives to recognize, and sometimes our own communities struggle as well.

Roger Labine: I co-chair the education and outreach subcommittee for MWRI; this talk is on point for the efforts to bring cultural sensitivity to non-indigenous partners. Conveying the spirituality point to University of Minnesota researchers was an important breakthrough: “This is my brother. I like him the way he is. I don’t want to change him.” Kyle: Yes, talking about relationships has been helpful and progress is being made. Need to introduce reciprocity and make progress there as well. The concept of consent and respect for wild rice for its own independence.

46 Some of Kyle’s work: https://umich.academia.edu/KyleWhyte Other recommended reading: ● Wild Rice and the Ojibway People by Thomas Vennum - the economics and cultural importance of rice form pre-contact to the 1950's ● Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer ● Holding Our World Together by Brenda Child - talks about gender roles

Closing Remarks and Ceremony - Heather Stirratt, NOAA OCM; Lauren Dey, LTBB; Netawn Kiogima, LTBB Heather Stirratt - The Lake Michigan and Huron Manoomin Workshop Planning Committee drafted several objectives for this workshop including: ● Sharing cultural consideration for restoration, impacts from hunting practices; ● Share and discuss genetics research; ● Share work on Manoomin ecosystem services; ● Reinforce the cultural roles/significance of manoomin in restoration and monitoring work; ● Report on final geographies for data collections; ● Issues and Actions - geese, funding opportunities, strengthening inter-tribal knowledge and awareness.

We hope you’ve found this time together as useful towards that end. Please do reflect on this as you will soon (see the link in the chat) be asked to provide feedback on this workshop that we will use to guide decision making at future tribal engagements. NOAA will prepare a workshop summary for the planning committee’s review and once cleared we will share that with all registered participants shortly.

We started on Tuesday with a statement of gratitude - thanks to the elders, tribal council members, planning committee members, and to everyone for participating this week, across four of the five Great Lakes, in all four directions. At that time, I said I’d like to recognize our amazing NOAA team that made this week possible alongside our tribal partners. And so, I’d like to publicly acknowledge the great honor and privilege that it’s been to work with: Dani, Marian, Tricia, Brandon, Rachael, Kirsten, Becky, Liz and Jennifer (isn’t she a gift to us all). From notetakers to producers, moderators to timekeepers, small group leaders and facilitators - we’ve built a team that takes this work seriously. It’s not just what we do, but how we do it that matters. Our NOAA team stands ready to serve and steward where there’s a will and a way - even in COVID, global pandemic times.

As a final thanks, miigwech to Lauren Dey and LTBB for the willingness to co-host our workshop this go round. It’s been a remarkable experience/journey - thanks for everything!

With that I will turn things back over to Lauren for final words and for our cultural closing to round out the week in a good way.

47 Lauren Dey- Thank you to the planning committee, to NOAA, and for this excellent opportunity to engage with each other. Welcome Netawn Kiogima to provide a closing prayer.

Netawn Kiogima- Advice to field scientists - you are going out to the relatives, you are entering someone else’s home, bring an offering of asema/tobacco whether you are native or not. Bring it as a sign of respect and acknowledgement for the relatives and ancestors, to reinforce that you want to do this work in a good way. Ask people for advice before going into these sacred places. We’re all connected, we’re all related.

Netawn offers a manoomin prayer on behalf of the workshop attendees.

Netawn and RJ offer a song to close out the workshop.

48 A prayer that LTBB Language Department and community members can use when going out and working with mnoomin.

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