Wisconsin First Nations

Wild rice in Wisconsin centers on the Kakagon Sloughs near Lake Superior, a wetland the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe still manages today and calls, without exaggeration, one of the richest wild rice beds anywhere in the region. The Ojibwe name for wild rice is manoomin, meaning good berry, and its story in Wisconsin is tied directly to how the Ojibwe, who call themselves Anishinaabe, ended up here in the first place.

According to Ojibwe teaching, their ancestors originally lived along the East Coast and were instructed by prophecy to migrate west until they reached the place where food grows on water. That journey eventually brought them into the Lake Superior region, where they found exactly that, wild rice growing thick in the shallow rivers and lake inlets of northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Archaeological evidence shows people harvesting wild rice in this region going back roughly two thousand years, well before the Ojibwe themselves arrived and adopted the same practice as central to their own way of life.

The harvest itself, still done largely by hand today, follows a method that hasn't changed much in generations. Two people work together in a canoe, one standing and using a long pole to push through the rice beds without damaging the plants, since motorboats are never allowed through them. The other sits and uses a pair of cedar sticks called knockers, gently bending the ripe stalks over the canoe and tapping loose kernels of wet green rice, which fall directly into the bottom of the boat. It's slow, physical work, and it's meant to be, since ricing has always doubled as a way of bringing families and communities together each late summer.

Wild rice mattered enough to the Ojibwe that it was written directly into treaty language with the U.S. government, including the 1837 treaty, sometimes called the Pine Tree Treaty, formally recognizing rice harvesting rights on the land. Today six Lake Superior Chippewa Ojibwe communities in Wisconsin, Bad River, Red Cliff, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, St. Croix, and Sokaogon, all continue the tradition on and off reservation land.

That tradition faces real pressure now. Wisconsin and Minnesota scientists estimate that roughly half the wild rice that once grew across the region has disappeared over the past century, and Bad River tribal members have raised specific concerns about mining activity near the Kakagon Sloughs threatening what remains of one of the last truly healthy wild rice ecosystems in the state. For the Ojibwe, that isn't just an environmental statistic. It's a direct threat to a food source, and a practice, that their own origin story says brought them to this exact stretch of Wisconsin in the first place.

Lac Du Flambeau tribal members celebrate culture and community at Wild Rice Festival It was an eventful weekend with annual festivals and events happening across the Northwoods. One event was the Wild Rice Festival in Lac Du Flambeau and its celebration of tribal

For the first time since 2019, the Gathering of the Waters Powwow returned to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Saturday, filling the university’s new Sonnentag Center with traditional dancing, drumming, and community connection. Story below 🔽

Photos: Many items repatriated by the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation from museums in the United States and abroad. See link below ⬇️

📸 Bonney Hartley / Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation

The Wisconsin Historical Society and the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at University of Wisconsin-Madison invite you to the 2026 James Madison Lecture Series featuring Michael Witgen.

The early American republic adopted imperial Europe's playbook: treat the "New World" as empty wilderness and frame conquest as peaceful civilization. Michael Witgen, citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and Pulitzer finalist, unpacks that story and what lies beneath it.

FREE events & open to the public

🎤 Green Bay – September 16
Brown County Library - 515 Pine Street, Green Bay

🎤 Madison – September 17
Wisconsin Historical Society headquarters building

Reception starts at 5 p.m. followed by lecture at 6 p.m.

Reserve your spot: https://wihist.org/45VRZn0

The James Madison Lecture is an annual lecture series on early American history co-presented by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Read more https://socwork.wisc.edu/2026/09/10/mmsd-board-of-education-renames-school-to-ada-deer-elementary/

Wisconsin’s first Wild Rice Week is Aug. 30 to Sept. 6! Wild rice, or "manoomin,” is found only in the upper Midwest and parts of Canada and was once abundant in northern Wisconsin. The plant serves a vital role in Indigenous culture and spirituality, but its presence in state waters has declined significantly over the past several decades.

This year’s wild rice harvesting season is beginning and will continue through the month of September. You can help wild rice by not driving boats through the wild rice beds and, if you're harvesting wild rice this year, making sure the rice is ripe before you begin and harvesting gently.