Roger LaBine

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Roger LaBines Wild Rice Mini Camp September 2008

• With Michigan Technological University
• American Indian Science and Engineering (AISES)
  Chapter

Michigan Tech AISES Chapter students and advisors
were very fortunate to be able to attend Roger
LaBines Wild Rice Mini Camp Workshop at Lac
Vieux Desert on the weekend of September 26-28.
We are very grateful to Roger, Charlie and many
others from Lac Vieux Desert who so generously
shared their knowledge, humor, food, and campfire
with us. We had an absolutely unforgettable
weekend. We are also thankful for the
financial and organizational support of this camp
by the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa, Michigan State University Extension
(Barbara Barton, Zoologist), Great Lakes Indian
Fish Wildlife Commission, Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community and the U.S. Forest Service Ottawa
National Forest.
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Lac Vieux Desert Rice Camp Road
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Roger LaBine, Lac Vieux Desert Band, demonstrates
how to make cedar Ricing Stick - two are needed.
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Alex Wrobel makes one of her Rice Sticks.
Helene's are finished and she fills time beading.
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Push Pole making station at Lac Vieux Desert
October 2008 Wild Rice Camp. You can see a
tamarack pole laying off the work space to the
ground on right and a maple fork on the work
space. These will be joined to make the canoe
push pole.
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Roger is making a split on the maple forked end
for the Canoe Push Pole. Maple forks, which are
durable are attached to cedar or tamarack poles.
Cedar and Tamarack are lightweight so the pole is
easier to push for a longer time.
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Roger finishing a cut joint on a Push Pole fork.
The tamarack pole will have a matching joint so
the two pieces can be spliced together with
dowels and twine.
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Alex (r) learning how to make a push pole joint
from Charlie (l) as he holds the pole steady.
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Alex smoothes the push pole so that it doesn't
snag on the hand as the canoe is pushed.
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The maple fork is fastened with two wooden dowels
to the tamarack pole. If the fork wears out, the
dowels can be knocked out, the old fork removed,
and a new one can be put in its place using the
same pole.
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David and Charlie are binding the tamarack pole
to the maple fork after the dowels are in place.
This is a two person job in order to get the
binding very tight. The binding covers the
dowels and strengthens the join. The lightweight
tamarack pole with a sturdy maple fork combines
ease and strength to go on long ricing runs.
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Close up of Fork and Push Pole being bound.
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Lori and Alex are smoothing their push pole so
that it will not catch on their gloves as they
push their canoe through the rice bed.
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Alex and Lori preparing to Rice. PFDs are on,
Alex has her Rice Sticks and the canoe and Push
Pole are ready. They will paddle to the bed then
push gently through the rice with the pole, using
the rice sticks to bend and stroke the rice into
the canoe. Only the ripe rice will fall into the
canoe and the rest will be left to ripen.
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Lori and Alex racing to the rice beds. Note the
push pole resting across Alexs lap and over the
right end of the canoe.
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Michigan Tech and Ferris students on edge of one
of the rice beds. There was friendly competition
to see who would come back to camp with the
largest quantity of wild rice.
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Paddling to the rice beds Jess and Kelsey are in
the canoe in the foreground.
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Michigan Tech and Ferris discuss ricing at the
dock.
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Lori and Alex with their load of rice. It is so
full, they are lucky to have made it back without
sinking. )
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Lori and Alex showing their tools and rice. Lots
of work is ahead drying, parching, dancing on the
rice to remove hulls, winnowing, and cleaning and
sorting the rice before it can be cooked and
eaten.
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Fresh, raw, wild rice. It must now dry for about
3 days, be parched to loosen the chaff, be danced
on in a pit to further loosen the chaff, be
winnowed to remove the chaff, be picked clean and
sorted.
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Helene preparing a fire for the parching. Roger
has already set two forks into the ground on
either side of the fire. There is a metal rod to
brace the pot against. The pot will be on an
angle partly over the fire so the rice can be
stirred over and out of the heat. The rice
mustnt burn but the chaff must brown and loosen.
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David takes a turn parching the rice. Rice is
swirled with the paddle so that it hits the hot
side of the pot and then falls back to the side
off of the fire. This browns and dries the chaff
without burning the rice.
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Close up of parching rice.
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Helene dancing the rice. After parching, rice is
placed in a small tarp-lined pit (about 2 feet
around and 18 deep). Roger placed poles for the
dancer to brace themselves on while stepping and
twisting on top of the rice to loosen the chaff.
Moccasins are worn (not shoes) as they are soft
soled and will not break the rice kernels.
Moccasins get very dusty but when finished
dancing, the dust bangs loose easily.
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Rice after parching and dancing you can see the
browned rice kernels amongst the fluffy,
straw-like chaff. The chaff, at this point,
feels very silky.
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David tries his hand at winnowing. Much laughter
filled the camp as we all learned this is more
difficult than it looks!
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Winnowed, uncleaned and unsorted Wild Rice.
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The parched and winnowed rice is picked clean of
sand and debris. It is sieved with the broken
bits set aside for casseroles and soup and the
whole sieved rice packaged up.
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Days end Lac Vieux Desert Rice Camp.