Stories that Nourish: Minnesota Anishinaabe Wild Rice Narratives

Anishinaabe manoomin (wild rice) narratives maintain core aspects of Anishinaabe identity and epistemology, constituting Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (knowledge). Ranging from aadizokaanag to more contemporary dibaajimowinan, these narratives describe the close historical, spiritual, ecological, and material relationships between Anishinaabe communities and manoomin and demonstrate the importance to Anishinaabe self-determination of maintaining such connection. Manoomin feeds the people, and stories by Jim Northrup, Heid Erdrich, Linda LaGarde Grover, Gerald Vizenor, and Winona LaDuke, among others, propagate manoomin gikendaasowin, which supports Anishinaabe food sovereignty activism that seeks to protect and maintain manoomin and provide the nourishment that helps Anishinaabe communities to thrive.