TRIBES
Teaching Relevant Inquiry-Based Environmental Science

By Michael Wassegijig Price

Traditional method of harvesting wild rice

The TRIBES Project, funded by the Minnesota Department of Education’s Math and Science Partnership, was designed to bring tribal perspectives to science education in order to attract and increase the numbers of Native students pursuing math and science disciplines. TRIBES brings science teachers to a two-week workshop in the summer followed by three one-day academic sessions throughout the year. The medium for this inquiry-based education project is the natural landscape of Northern Minnesota, for centuries the home of the Anishinaabe people (also known as the Chippewa or Ojibway). The area is a mix of coniferous and deciduous forests with abundant lakes, streams, and wetlands. Wild rice, maple sugar, raspberries, blueberries, wild strawberries, game animals, and a variety of fish species are the traditional staples of the Anishinaabe. Many traditions, stories and ceremonies evolved as a result of the relationship between the people and their foods. That ecological knowledge still exists today among tribal Elders, storytellers, and traditional harvesters.
The blending of Native perspectives into science involves an analysis of tribal stories and legends connecting human beings to the surrounding landscape. It includes an inquiry into tribal ethics and values that relate to spirituality and subsistence. By integrating tribal perspectives with the natural world, science education becomes culturally relevant to Native students and educates non-Native students about the rich, cultural heritage of their aboriginal neighbors.

The 2004 TRIBES Project Experience
Bemidji, Minnesota is a small college town surrounded by three large reservations: Leech Lake, Red Lake, and White Earth. During the Summer of 2004, 19 science instructors came together from the surrounding area schools, both on and off reservation, that serve large numbers of Native American students in northern Minnesota. Their participation in the TRIBES Project earned each of them four graduate credits from Bemidji State University.

Parching wild rice on the Leech Lake Reservation

Field Trips
TRIBES participants spent as much time learning in the field as they did in classroom lectures. Under the auspices of Dr. Debbie Guelda, they conducted water quality assessments by cataloging existing invertebrates in the upper Mississippi River. Invertebrate populations are sensitive to specifi c pollutants, and their presence in a particular body of water helps scientists estimate the water quality. In collecting and identifying invertebrates living under rocks and within the sediments of the river, TRIBES participants found the water quality of the upper Mississippi to be very good.
TRIBES participants learned about the cultural importance and vast richness of swamps and bogs as part of their training. A bog is a low lying, water-logged area of land that accumulates peat and is inhabited by plants adapted to terrain of high acidity and low productivity. For the Anishinaabe, bogs are considered to be the “Indian pharmacy” because of the rich abundance of traditional medicinal plants. Dr. Rick Koch led TRIBES participants on a wetland classification field trip, where they hiked to a neighboring bog to analyze the sediment and vegetation composition. Using a shovel, Dr. Koch displayed the layers of black peat sediment, estimated to be thousands of years old. Michael Wassegijig Price, Anishinaabe, identified for participants several medicinal plants used by the Anishinaabe such as Zhaabozigan (common milkweed) and Oshkinigiikwe-Aaniibiish (tansy).
Other field trips focused on bird watching, analyzing phytoplankton, surveying aquatic plants, and studying ants. Participants also had the opportunity to visit local organizations such as the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Water Research Laboratory located in Cass Lake, Minnesota, and the handson Headwaters Science Center in Bemidji.

TRIBES participants

For the Anishinaabe, bogs are considered to be the “Indian pharmacy” because of the rich abundance of traditional medicinal plants.

Bugonaygeshig School
In the Ojibwe language, “Bugonaygeshig” means “Hole in the Sky”—a term which has profound spiritual meaning within Anishinaabe spiritual beliefs. The Bugonaygeshig School is a tribally controlled elementary, middle and high school located on the Leech Lake Reservation. TRIBES participants traveled to the Bugonaygeshig School to attend an outdoor presentation on the traditional methods of preserving wild rice. John Parmeter, curriculum coordinator, and Gilbert Moose, Ojibway resident Elder at the Bugonaygeshig School, demonstrated the parching, “dancing” and winnowing of the wild rice kernels. One TRIBES participant, David Hinsch, put on traditional moccasins for a “dancing the rice” demonstration, where the husks are separated from the parched rice kernels by dancing on them. Once processed this way, wild rice can be stored up to five years.
Parmeter also shared his integrated classroom curricula, which incorporates Native American cultural traditions into science lesson plans. Included are the Anishinaabe wild rice harvesting, maple sugaring, and birchbark harvesting. Parmeter discussed the measurable outcomes he has developed within the curricula, which meet both national and Minnesota state standards for education.

Wild Rice Visit
The TRIBES participants boarded two pontoon boats and ventured to a maturing wild rice bed on Lake Irving, led by Dr. Rick Koch and Gilbert Moose. The Ojibwe name for wild rice is “manoomin,” which means “the good seed” or “good fruit.” It is an aquatic grass that grows in one to three feet of water. The traditional method of harvesting wild rice takes place in a canoe, where two people ride in the canoe with one using a long pole called “waazakonenjiganaatig” to move through the rice bed, and the other using two sticks called “bawa’iganaakoog” (rice knockers) to knock the rice off the stalks into the floor of the canoe. The group visited the wild rice bed just when the leaf stalks were rising about a foot out of the water. By harvest time in early September, those stalks would quadruple in size.
While on the field trips, TRIBES participants observed an abundant variety of wildlife. Two bald eagles were observed perched on a dead tree fishing the shallow waters of Lake Irving during the wild rice field trip; a pair of loons were observed floating on the small bog lake; and a fisher, close cousin to the weasel, was seen scurrying through the bog forest.

Instructing students in the art of harvesting wild rice

Next Steps
The TRIBES Project convened again on September 11 for a one-day followup session. With permission from the Leech Lake Tribal Council, TRIBES participants had the opportunity to harvest wild rice in the traditional way on Rabbit Bay of Leech Lake. Riding in eight canoes, the 19 participants were led out onto the rice beds by John Parmeter and Gilbert Moose. Parmeter and Moose first demonstrated the technique using the canoe, pole and rice knockers, then, students paired up and commenced the ricing tradition. From this hands-on experience, TRIBES participants are better prepared to combine science with tradition as they teach their students about the science of wild rice.

Michael Wassegijig Price is Anishinaabe and a tribal member of Wikwemikong First Nations. He is the former president of Red Lake Nation College, and served as the chairman of the Science Department at Leech Lake Tribal College in Minnesota.