Expanding tribal partnerships to restore native wild rice
Collaboration includes DNR’s first manoomin camp
By ANDY HENION
Communications representative, Wildlife Division
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Building on a longstanding partnership with Indigenous nations, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is intensifying its commitment to sowing manoomin, a native aquatic rice and staple of the Anishinaabe people.
The DNR’s Wildlife Division, working with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, has seeded thousands of pounds of manoomin in the western Upper Peninsula over the past decade and, more recently, expanded these efforts to the eastern U.P.
 This year, the DNR finalized a manoomin-seeding agreement with the Brimley-based Bay Mills Indian Community and continues working toward a similar agreement with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
In addition, the Wildlife Division hosted its first-ever manoomin camp in mid-August to educate employees from the DNR and other state departments on the cultural, spiritual, ecological and economic significance of manoomin to Indigenous communities. Tribal nations have been working for decades to restore manoomin, which became Michigan’s official native grain in 2023.
Fifty-eight people attended the DNR’s two-day manoomin camp at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center in Roscommon, where tribal instructors led sessions focused on ceremony and traditional teachings that included harvesting tools, seed care and processing. The instructors represented the BMIC, KBIC, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Cree Nation and Gun Lake Tribe. |
 “The goal of the camp was to raise awareness of the ecological importance of manoomin on the landscape as well as the cultural and spiritual significance of wild rice,” said camp organizer Bill Scullon, a U.P.-based field operations manager for the DNR Wildlife Division.
“We want to work with our tribal partners whenever we can,” Scullon added. “It’s important to create these types of collaborative opportunities – to tear down barriers and open doors.”
‘The good berry’
Native to the Great Lakes region and parts of Canada, manoomin – which translates to “the good berry” in Ojibwe – is a grain-producing grass. It grows to 6-10 feet tall in the shallow, quiet waters of marshes, inland lakes and slowly moving streams.
Manoomin is a culturally significant plant to the Anishinaabe (Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi) and is directly linked to their migration from the northeastern U.S. coast to the Great Lakes region several hundred years ago, according to Native News Online, an American Indian news publication. In the Great Lakes region, manoomin plays a major role in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement.
Kathleen Smith is with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, where she serves as Genawendang Manoomin – or “She who takes care of the wild rice” – for tribes across Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. |
 Smith, a member of the KBIC, gave several presentations at the DNR wild rice camp on manoomin harvesting, storage and cultural awareness and respect.
“With the continued decline of wild rice across many of our lakes and rivers, I often reflect on the teaching, ‘If we don’t use it, we lose it,’” Smith said. “That truth echoes louder each year. Our wetlands and the manoomin that grows within them are truly important to our people.”
Power of partnerships
In 2025, the Wildlife Division sowed about 2,200 pounds of manoomin seed, continuing its annual efforts to help restore or establish wild rice within state-managed rivers, creeks and wetlands in the U.P. Once manoomin matures in early fall, the rice grains provide energy-rich food for migrating waterfowl and are harvested by Anishinaabe communities.
The DNR obtains wild rice through formal agreements with tribal communities. Through these collaborations, tribal partners request manoomin seed from their network of vendors in Wisconsin and Minnesota, ensuring the wild rice is sourced responsibly, aligning with cultural teachings and ethics. |
 Scullon and John DePue, a U.P.-based wildlife biologist for the DNR, were instrumental in the department’s initial efforts to partner with KBIC to help restore manoomin.
“We recognized early in the partnership that KBIC has the cultural expertise, historic knowledge and resources to be a guiding partner in this process,” Scullon said. “KBIC, working in conjunction with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, has the technical knowledge on where, when and how to restore manoomin. They have helped us to select, evaluate, seed and monitor sites for rice restoration.”
DNR wildlife biologists Kristie Sitar, Brian Roell and David Jentoft have played key roles in expanding the partnerships with other tribal nations in the eastern U.P. Sitar helped develop a memorandum of agreement between the DNR and the Bay Mills Indian Community.
“These partnerships are critical in maintaining the quality of rice used and are helpful to us working together to select the most appropriate places and desired efforts,” Sitar said.
Sitar and Roell received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant in 2021 to reestablish wild rice in northern floodings along Lake Superior. The goal was to seed manoomin for three consecutive years at four locations – three in Marquette County and one in Luce County – at a rate of at least 50 pounds per acre in suitable flooding habitats. |
 From 2022 to 2024, project staff seeded more than 2,600 pounds of rice in northern Luce County and more than 2,800 pounds in three northern floodings in Marquette County.
“We started to see success as rice seed germinated and grew and then began to self-seed in successive years,” Sitar said. “We had to adapt by dealing with some wildlife browse issues that commonly occur during this process. Wild rice can take many years to become established, and we are on our way to hopefully long-term success. “
Scullon noted that in Michigan, anyone can harvest manoomin, while in Wisconsin the practice is illegal for the general public without a permit. The Michigan Wild Rice Initiative – which consists of tribal nations, the DNR and other agencies and groups – is working to develop a cooperative framework to regulate the responsible and ethical harvest of manoomin in Michigan.
Learn more about the history of manoomin in a brochure from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. |
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Note to editors: Contact: John Pepin, Showcasing the DNR series editor, 906-226-1352. Accompanying photos and a text-only version of this story are available below for download. Caption information follows. Credit Michigan Department of Natural Resources, unless otherwise noted.
Text-only version of this story.
Canoe: Participants paddle out to check out the manoomin.
Classroom: Participants learn more about manoomin during a classroom session.
Cleaning rice: Tribal mentor Kathleen Smith (standing, left) discusses the process of cleaning manoomin to Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Kristie Sitar (standing, right) and other State of Michigan employees.
Heading out: Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician Rachel Leggett, left, and wildlife biologist Morgan Lucot head out to look at wild rice on the Muskegon River as part of the DNR’s manoomin camp in mid-August.
Manoomin Close-up: Manoomin held in the hand of one of the participants of the wild rice camp.
Manoomin dancing: Manoomin dancing or jigging refers to the process of threshing wild rice to remove the outer husk by dancing or treading on it. Here, Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician Rachel Kanaziz takes a turn dancing on manoomin wearing clean moccasins.
Manoomin introduction: Employees from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and other state departments get their first look at manoomin, a wild aquatic grain, at the DNR’s first manoomin camp in Roscommon on Aug. 19.
Manoomin: Manoomin grows in the Muskegon River in Roscommon County. Manoomin (species Zizania palustris) is a grain-producing, wild grass native to the Great Lakes region and portions of Canada.
Recognition: Bill Scullon, Michigan Department of Natural Resources field operations manager and organizer of the Aug. 19-20 manoomin camp in Roscommon, honors Daisy Kostas of Cree Nation as part of a ceremony to recognize tribal elders.
Roasting rice: Roger LaBine, a member of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, demonstrates wild rice roasting at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ mid-August manoomin camp. LaBine is the tribal delegate of the Michigan Wild Rice Initiative.
Tool making: Sherry MacKinnon, a U.P.-based wildlife ecologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, makes a push pole used during the harvesting of manoomin from a canoe.
Treat: Tribal instructors prepare popped rice from manoomin as a treat for participants at the DNR’s first wild rice camp Aug. 19-20 in Roscommon.
Tribal instructors: Tribal leaders were honored at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ first-ever manoomin camp at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center in Roscommon. |
State Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, a co-chairman of the Legislature’s transit caucus, touted it as an unprecedented investment.
Earlier this year, nearly a hundred Round 1 applicant proposals sought more than $2.2 million in funding; in June, the program 
Round 2 opens Nov. 1 and closes Jan. 15, 2026. Winners will be announced in March 2026.
