{"id":167064,"date":"2025-03-14T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=167064"},"modified":"2025-02-21T15:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T20:51:47","slug":"water-protector-indigenous-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2025\/03\/water-protector-indigenous-rice\/","title":{"rendered":"How Native Water Protectors Champion Water Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leanna Goose grew up ricing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">manoomin <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(wild rice) as a member of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.llojibwe.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWild rice is culturally significant to Aniishinabe people here in Minnesota. It&#8217;s our connection to the land, water and our ancestors\u2026I had a friend say that Aniishinabeg people, if we were to lose this plant, we would lose a huge chunk of ourselves,\u201d Goose says. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy sister and I this past fall were finishing our rice, and I had so much respect for my ancestors and how hard that work is \u2014to dry the rice, parch it, and winnow it\u2014is a whole process from start to finish.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Goose is also passing the sacred traditions on to future generations \u2013 as much as she can. Wild rice is under threat from<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> climate impacts, unchecked pollution and overdevelopment, causing contamination, sea level rise, disruptions of freshwater wetlands and more.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta take-action\">\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-flex\">\n<p><a class=\"full\" title=\"TAKE ACTION\" href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2022\/10\/indigenous-food-sovereignty-initiatives\/\">full_link<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex\">\n<p class=\"title mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-title h1\">TAKE ACTION<\/p>\n<div class=\"description\">\n<p>How to better support Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"svg mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-svg\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Native people have been the stewards of the waters in their territories for tens of thousands of years, just as we have been stewards of the land. In this second part of our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/12\/native-farmers-knowledge-climate\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two-part series<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we dive deeper into some challenges of water stewardship and how Indigenous voices in regions across the continental U.S. rise to the call of Mother \u00c0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">w\u0119\u02c0k\u0119ha\u02c0n\u0119\u02c0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Water, Skarure) to protect her and all life dependent on water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Saying no to pipelines<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Great Lakes Region and Midwest, Enbridge, a Canadian-based pipeline operator in the Great Lakes, has faced controversy for decades.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their 1960s Line 3 pipeline through the Great Lakes region caused one of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thecirclenews.org\/reservation-news\/the-largest-inland-oil-spill-in-u-s-happened-in-minnesota\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biggest inland oil\u00a0 spills in US history<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 1991. Occurring in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, it spilled 1.7 million gallons into Prairie River \u2013 a tributary of the Mississippi.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167066\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167066\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"6e6e6e\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6e6e6e;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167066 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-selfie-kayaking-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-selfie-kayaking-1.webp 1280w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-selfie-kayaking-1-461x346.webp 461w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-selfie-kayaking-1-1200x900.webp 1200w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-selfie-kayaking-1-768x576.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167066\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beth Roach. Photography submitted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The line weakened over time. The Minnesota Dept of Commerce reports <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mn.gov\/eera\/web\/project-file?legacyPath=\/opt\/documents\/34079\/Line3%20FEIS%20Ch%20002%20Executive%20Summary%20Complete.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15 failures since 1990<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, resulting in more than 50 barrels of oil per incident. Corrosion and cracking prompted over 950 excavations since 2000 alone, and 10 times as many \u201canomalies\u201d per mile than any other pipeline in the Mainline corridor. All told, Enbridge has since paid more than $11 million to address environmental damage from Line 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2010, they had the second largest inland oil spill, estimated at 843,000 gallons at Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River, a tributary to Lake Michigan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ogimaa Giniw Ikwe is a citizen of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mn.gov\/indian-affairs\/tribal-nations-in-minnesota\/miskwaagamiiwi-zaagaiganing-red-lake-nation.jsp\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miskwaagamiiwi-Zaagaiganing (Red Lake Nation)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0 where she\u2019s been \u201cdeeply involved with the work of water protection and conservation and those types of things throughout Minnesota for probably the last dozen years.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluestemprairie.com\/bluestemprairie\/2023\/07\/line-3-fourth-aquifer-rupture-confirmed-by-enbridge-dnr-45-other-suspicious-spots.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not convinced that Enbridge is doing all they can<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to preserve wetlands, like those in Minnesota where their Line 3 pipeline runs. \u201cIn places with shifty ground, they took steel panels and drove them in so the pipeline was stabilized, and fractured a number of underground aquifers, including artesian aquifers that are not easily replaceable,\u201d Giniw Ikwe says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An estimated 280 million gallons of groundwater spilled from the ruptures, largely tracked and reported by environmental and Indigenous groups. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/waadookawaadamikwag.org\/breaches\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thermal imaging showing 45 spots <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">along the pipeline where warmer groundwater appeared to surface. There were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/enbridge-oil-pipeline-breach-minnesota-3aec2792d9a6cae11be9c7ae8179cad2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">four major sites<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in or near tribal lands, treaty territories or wild rice lakes, from 2021 to 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water losses occurred while climate change is rapidly shifting weather patterns. Minnesota endured multi-year drought, even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drought.gov\/states\/minnesota\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">severe drought conditions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, increasing risk of wildfires.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the officials did not lay blame on these massive industrial leaks. There was controversy raised as officials <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/episode\/2023\/09\/07\/in-minnesota-thirsty-crops-put-ground-water-levels-at-risk\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">primarily blamed farmers, claiming over-pumping of aquifer water to crops<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Giniw Ikwe disagrees.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think that aquifer damage had a much stronger play in what&#8217;s happening,\u201d says Giniw Ikwe. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThen <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/minnesotareformer.com\/2021\/08\/16\/enbridge-line-3-drilling-fluid-spills-what-we-know-so-far\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this stuff (contaminants) sinks to the bottom<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, damaging delicate wetlands areas, which filters out clean water and ensures water in Minnesota can trickle down into aquifer systems, and that&#8217;s where they laid this pipeline. So it&#8217;s been really contentious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She refers to the resulting pooling mix of breached aquifer water, drilling fluid and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/healingmnstories.wordpress.com\/2023\/08\/08\/enbridges-aquifer-breaches-a-summary\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grout used to patch the breaches<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a potential hazard to the wetlands and groundwater, even after so-called repairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Looking to the future<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many people across the region were deeply opposed to the installation of a new\/reparative pipeline, questioning its need. And <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/michiganadvance.com\/2024\/07\/09\/judge-denies-request-to-dismiss-enbridges-case-against-whitmer-over-line-5-easement\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">states like Michigan are still fighting in court over a cease and desist <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">issued years prior to stop the flow entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But groups are pumping out solutions as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leanna Goose works as a co-facilitator and organizer for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/riseandrepair.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rise and Repair<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an alliance of organizations advancing legislative climate justice in Minnesota. She does research in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lltc.edu\/isci-research\/protecting-manoomin-for-the-next-seven-generations\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protecting Manoomin for the Next Seven Generations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> project, which studies wildlife and addresses challenges proactively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are more than 17 species of wild rice indigenous to her research area listed as a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/files.dnr.state.mn.us\/wildlife\/wildrice\/natural-wild-rice-in-minnesota.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Species of Greatest Conservation Need<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They are essential to biodiversity and support a thriving ecosystem, clean water, and human life. It\u2019s particularly sensitive during the \u201cfloating leaf\u201d stage, and water fluctuations can disrupt an entire rice bed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis past ricing season was a tough one for manoomin. A lot of the rice beds were washed out in the spring. There was a lot of precipitation, and then a drought the last part of summer,\u201d Goose says. With Rise and Repair, Goose is advancing legislation to hopefully make future ricing seasons easier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe&#8217;re trying to recognize the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">i<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/popularresistance.org\/rise-and-repair-alliance-advocates-for-wild-rice-protection-act\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nherent <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right of wild rice to exist and thrive<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 that all living beings have a right to be here just like we do. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/riseandrepair.org\/platform\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This legislation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> brings that culture of respect to all of Minnesota and creates systemic change, where we don&#8217;t just view the world around us as natural resources, but as living beings we share this earth with \u2013 as relatives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167067\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167067\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"5b5a57\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #5b5a57;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167067 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-group-river-cleanup-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-group-river-cleanup-1.webp 1280w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-group-river-cleanup-1-461x346.webp 461w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-group-river-cleanup-1-1200x900.webp 1200w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Beth-Roach-group-river-cleanup-1-768x576.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167067\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beth Roach leads a group river clean up. Photography submitted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beth Roach is a Nottoway tribal leader, seedkeeper, entrepreneur, and Water Protector. She\u2019s also national campaign manager for the Sierra Club, one of the most historic grassroots environmental organizations in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFor the last two years, I\u2019ve been building a new national water conservation campaign for the Sierra Club that advances water protection under the Clean Water Act,\u201d Roach says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The work she does is a personal imperative as much as a professional one. She talked about the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Protest\u00a0 slogan \u201cWater is Life\u201d, and how that moment of championing clean water rights lifted many tribal voices protecting our waters throughout Turtle Island (The Americas).<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta read-more\">\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-flex\">\n<p><a class=\"full\" title=\"READ MORE\" href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/06\/meet-the-farmer-training-indigenous-youth-and-revitalizing-a-culture-of-food-sovereignty\/\">full_link<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex\">\n<p class=\"title mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-title h1\">READ MORE<\/p>\n<div class=\"description\">\n<p>Meet the farmer training Indigenous youth<\/p>\n<div class=\"svg mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-svg\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe often see our ancestors, ourselves, and future generations of the earth itself, therefore we are instructed to nurture and steward these gifts as if all life depends on them,\u201d says Roach.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I\u2019m cleaning trash off shorelines and pulling tires out of the river, I have an embodied feeling that those items will not be doing harm to my waters anymore. When I\u2019m advocating for stronger policies, I know that I\u2019m demanding a future that we need to see. When I\u2019m planting seeds and tending to the soil, I know that I\u2019m doing my part to pass on this knowledge to the next generation. When I\u2019m learning about climate adaptation strategies, I know that I\u2019m giving the next generation a fighting chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leanna Goose grew up ricing manoomin (wild rice) as a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.\u00a0 &nbsp; \u201cWild rice is culturally significant to Aniishinabe people here in Minnesota. It&#8217;s our connection to the land, water and our ancestors\u2026I had a friend say that Aniishinabeg people, if we were to lose this plant, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2048,"featured_media":167065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33278],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33068],"tags":[33218,33079,33224],"article-theme":[33291],"class_list":["post-167064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-culture-heritage","tag-plants-crops","tag-water","format-article","article-theme-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Native Water Protectors Champion Water Quality - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Leanna Goose grew up ricing manoomin (wild rice) as a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.\u00a0 &nbsp; 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