After a wholesome meal of wild rice and wild-crafted mushrooms, I find myself inspired to recount my experiences at the Anishinaabeg reservation, home of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, a program founded by Winona Laduke. And with the excitement of recent actions against Dominion coal still ringing in my head, her words carry a timely significance; "If I can stop a few coal plants from being built, or put up a some wind turbines, I can go the Creator knowing that I tried."We met Winona at the Ripple Effect concert at the RNC. She enjoyed the fun yet sophistacted spectacle that is the Sustainable Living Roadshow, and invited us to her reservation. They were having a pow-wow that weekend, and would be blessing a piece of land set to receive a new structure, a symbolic device offering a degree of independence for the reservation: a 20 kW Mitsubishi wind turbine. It was a momentous and appropriate invitation, we could not refuse.
I woke up on the bus in the early morning, having fallen asleep during the late-night ride to the res. I walked outside into a field, immediately struck by the air. I wasn't prepared for this kind of cold.
The people of at the pow-wow welcomed us warmly to this cultural event. Rotating crews of men beat drums and sang unfamiliar words with powerful and hypnotizing voices. Men and women in traditional and semi-traditional clothing danced their respective dances in circles, in a sort of competition. The dresses of some women jangled as they walked. Their clothes had many ribbons, with small cones of metal hanging from their ends. I was intrigued to learn that sometime in recent history, a woman was instructed in the dream to replace with traditional sea-shell dangles with aluminum can lids, rolled into cones.
The kids at the pow-wow were off the wall, to say the least, free to run around and have fun. Ofcourse, with our games and free giveaways we were honored by their constant attention. It was cool seeing 8 year-olds running around with RYSE stickers on them. Three little kids were interested in our Dr. Bronner's soap samples. So interested, in fact that they ended up opening the packets and squirting them at me.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted. The bitter cold had returned, but fortunately a man at the pow-wow was selling winter hats! I spent some time hanging out with a veteran named Doug, while others chilled at a small fire. I turned in early. We had another important day ahead of us.
We had been invited to see a part of the long process of obtaining wild rice. Unfortunately the timing wasn't right in order to see the harvest, where canoes are used to float by the rice, and sticks are used to knock the rice into the boat. It's a skillful art as old as time. The process of rendering the final product, however, has been modernized to an extent. We were brought to the processing facility, where a half-dozen men (and one boy) operate decades-old furnaces, shaking and rotating machines. The grain pods must be heated, rotated, heated again, filtered and separated. I can't imagine how much work it took before the machines. Of course, these people are making more rice then they can ever eat. They sell the high-quality wild rice to small health-food stores and individuals across the country via their website.
Proceeds from rice sales constitute a major source of income for the people of the reservation. They are able to continue their ancient practice of harvesting and share their gift with the world. This gift, however is being threatened by industrial agribusiness. In an attempt to streamline the production of the highly-valued rice, the University of Minnesota is attempting to grow genetically modify "wild rice" to make it easier to harvest and process. There, of course, would be no control of genetic contamination, which could cross-pollinate with and effectively take the "wild" out of the rice.
Wild rice sales (and other Wild Harvest products) help to fund the White Earth Land Recovery Project, which has been fighting agribusiness corporations to keep the rice GMO free. The Project is set up as a land trust, buying up land previously inhabited by the Anishinaabeg tribes.
The Project is also working to address issues of environmental and energy justice. Like the people of Southern Appalachia, Native populations have been continuously oppressed by the energy industry. Native reservations are disproportionately affected by uranium and coal mining, processing, and waste.
Recognizing the true cost of coal, the White Earth Land Recovery Project and members of the reservation have worked to make their homes more efficient, install solar water heaters, and will soon be getting more of their electricity of locally produced wind power.
In order to prepare the land for a new 20kW wind turbine, a ritual was performed which, according to an elder, had not been performed for over 100 years on that land. Our crew was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the ritual. I will close this post with my previous recollection of that event.
"Thirty-three living beings stood in a circle, meditating, blessing this piece of earth. Twenty-nine humans and four horses. These four special individuals stood facing the four directions, wearing the four colors of the four races of man, linking us all to our past and to the Creator. These strong and dependable creatures took part in the ritual with a solemn humility. We could all sense an enchanting connection with those great beings. It was as if they knew of our intent, and encouraged us with their blessing.
This horse ritual had not been performed on the land for more than 100 years, and its revival was as momentous as it was mesmerizing. It was performed in order to prepare the earth for a landmark of both purpose and function. On that spot will soon stand a new wind turbine."
