First We Must Consider Manoomin/Psiŋ: Impacts of Climate and Land Cover Change on Wild Rice

Abstract

In the upper Laurentian Great Lakes region, Indigenous communities have experienced declines of wild rice (Ojibwemowin: Manoomin; Dakodiapi: Psiŋ; Latin: Zizania palustris), a sacred aquatic plant and food central to their culture. Through tribal-university collaboration, we analyzed Manoomin/Psiŋ density and harvest data along with case studies to show Manoomin/Psiŋ available for tribal harvest has declined regionally by 6±4% to 7±2% per year, complicated by local multi-year cycles and relationships. Our analysis of this data in relation to key environmental conditions reveals both climate and land cover change as drivers of this decline. Increasing precipitation during early summer, as well as decreasing winter temperatures, snowfall, and lake ice, with the changing climate all negatively impact Manoomin/Psiŋ density. Land cover change with U.S. colonization causes harm as well: the resulting increased croplands, pastures, and urban areas, as well as the shifting forest types, all negatively impact Manoomin/Psiŋ. This decline has infringed on Indigenous lifeways by reducing off-reservation harvest by Indigenous people, a right guaranteed by treaties with the US government. Since time immemorial, Indigenous nations have been taking care of Manoomin/Psiŋ, charting a course of Manoomin/Psiŋ stewardship that can be followed to protect this important being in the face of threats from climate and land cover change.