Holding Our World Together by Brenda J. Child

Author:Brenda J. Child [Child, Brenda J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101560259
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

The Federal Writers’ Project—part of the Works Progress Administration, created during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration—published the state guide to Minnesota in 1938. Wisconsin’s WPA project employed a number of Indian writers, and though it is not clear whether any Ojibwe numbered among the 120 writers who participated in the statewide project in Minnesota, the guide incorporated a fair amount of information on Ojibwe communities. It described recent environmental changes on the Bois Forte Reservation and the informal economy that operated during the berry season. Perhaps most markedly, it noted a new arrangement of labor in the wild rice harvest, with men joining women on Nett Lake.

The heavy timber that once covered the district and attracted many settlers has been cut. During the berry season, the Indians from miles around gather in swamps near the village to pick blueberries to sell. The wild rice that grows plentifully in Nett Lake also is harvested by Indians. One man paddles a large canoe while a second threshes the rice heads into it. In camp, the rice is heated in large kettles over open fires to loosen the hulls. Stalks and foreign substances then are shaken or fanned out, and the rice goes into a wooden vat, where a boy wearing moccasins “jigs” the hulls from the grain with a peculiar tramping step. Once again the rice is fanned, then weighed. Wild rice, long a staple in the Indian diet, has become a luxury food throughout the country.5

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