Discovery of the Wild Rice
Ojibwa
Long ago, Wenibojó7 made his home with his grandmother, Nokomis. One day Nokomis said to her grandson, “Prove yourself a man. Take a long journey. Go through the great forests. Fast you. Prepare for the hardships of life.”
So Wenibojó took his bow and arrow from his wigwam. He wandered out into the forest. Many days he wandered. Then at last he reached a broad lake, covered thick with heavy-headed stalks. But Wenibojó knew not that the grain was food.
So Wenibojó went back to his grandmother, Nokomis. He told her of the broad, quiet lake, with the heavy-headed stalks. So Nokomis came, and in their canoe they gathered the wild rice and sowed it in another lake.
Again Wenibojó left Nokomis. With his bow and arrow he wandered far into the forest. Then some little bushes spoke as he walked. “Sometimes they eat us,” they said. Wenibojó made no answer. Again the bushes spoke, “Sometimes they eat us.”
“Who are you talking to?” he asked.
“To Wenibojó,” they said. So he bent down and dug up the bushes by the roots. The roots were long, like an arrow. They were good to eat, but Wenibojó had fasted too long.
After a while, Wenibojó wandered on. He was very hungry. Many bushes spoke to him. Many said, “Sometimes they eat us,” but he made no answer.
One day he followed the river trail, when the sun was high. Many little bunches of straw were growing out of the water. They spoke to him. They said, “Wenibojó, sometimes they eat us.”
So Wenibojó picked some of the grains from the heavy-headed stalks and ate.
“You are good to eat,” he said. “What do they call you?”
“They call us manomin,” answered the wild rice.
Then Wenibojó waded far out into the water. He beat out grains and ate many. They were good for food.
Then Wenibojó remembered the grain which Nokomis had sown, and he returned to his grandmother and the manomin lake.
Notes
7 Another form of the Ojibwa Manabozho, or the Menomini Manabush.