First, we must consider Manoomin (Psiŋ, wild rice, Zizania palustris): Emergent understandings of meaningful research and relationships in tribal-university partnership centering Manoomin
Abstract
Manoomin, the Ojibwe word for wild rice (Psiŋ in Dakota, Zizania palustris in Latin), grows in shallow lakes and streams and provides physical, spiritual, and cultural sustenance as a sacred food and relative for Anishinaabe, Dakota, and other Indigenous peoples across the Great Lakes region of North America. Manoomin abundance across North America has unfortunately been declining due to multiple environmental stressors since the onset of Euro-American colonization. Yet when it comes to Manoomin stewardship, Indigenous voices have not been adequately involved in either university research or state decision-making. In 2018, an interdisciplinary group from the University of Minnesota came together with natural resource managers from tribes and inter-tribal organizations to study Manoomin within its socio-environmental context. The collaborative that formed was given the Ojibwe name: Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin—or First, We Must Consider Manoomin. Our deepening understanding of Manoomin across cultural worldviews is beginning to guide restoration efforts for both Manoomin and its socio-ecological environment, including the restoration of tribal, state, and university relationships. In this collaboration, we are learning how tribal knowledge and Western biophysical measurements can together inform the geochemical analysis and the ecohydrologic models of culturally significant Manoomin waterbodies. Additionally, through reflections on our two-years of university-tribal collaboration and through interviews and surveys of tribal agency staff, Minnesota state officials, non-tribal Manoomin harvesters, and researchers and students on our team, we are understanding a wide diversity of perspectives and relationships with Manoomin. We will share key questions, challenges, and insights that have emerged for us about how to protect Manoomin and engage in inter-cultural, interdisciplinary research that supports long-term resource protection and tribal sovereignty.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMSY0200011N
- Keywords:
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- 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION;
- 0230 Impacts of climate change: human health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 0232 Impacts of climate change: ecosystem health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE