CNH2-L: Wild Rice: A Flagship for Co-Creating Socio-Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous Resource Management

Northern wild rice (manoomin) grows in the lakes and rivers of the North American Great Lakes region and is a culturally important food for indigenous and non-native people, while also serving as an indicator of ecosystem health. A decline in ecosystem health has been observed across the region, a result of a mix of environmental stressors, cultural values, public policies, and human practices. This project seeks to understand the social and environmental causes of manoomin decline using an interdisciplinary approach and by co-producing knowledge. The investigators plan to use an integration of science and indigenous knowledge to overcome obstacles to understanding the complex interactions. The study will specifically target the influence of interactions among the environment and diverse cultural values, policies, and practices. The project is a partnership between tribes and university scientists and includes an indigenous worldview in social ecosystems by incorporating indigenous knowledge in the research. Ultimately this project will produce scientific understanding needed to restore these culturally and economically important ecosystems while incorporating native voices in ecosystem management. Understanding manoomin as a social-environmental system will generate broader impacts that include restoration of this important resource in the Great Lakes region and a framework for collaborative research and management applicable to Indigenous resource issues globally.

This interdisciplinary collaborative research project has three interdependent components: environmental, social, and integrative. The goal of the social component is to understand the influences of human values, policies, and practices on manoomin ecosystems through surveys, in-depth interviews, oral histories, and focus groups with tribal and non-tribal harvesters, natural resource managers, and manoomin processors in the region. The goal of the environmental component is to develop integrative ecosystem models using a synthesis of regional data and new data collected through fieldwork at four study sites spanning from impaired to productive manoomin waters. These ecosystem models will show how feedback among water levels, nutrients, sediments, and vegetation influence manoomin growth. The goal of the integrative component is to establish theories and methods for integrating indigenous knowledge and science into natural resource management. The project team will work iteratively with tribal community members to co-develop social-ecological models that examine the influence of land-use, water, and vegetation management practices on manoomin health. They will also conduct interviews and focus groups within their own research partnership, comprising tribal and non-tribal researchers and natural resource managers. This will provide insight to other researchers and tribal communities seeking to develop their own collaborative research partnerships. It will further generate insights into whole-ecosystem function and multi-jurisdictional/cultural interactions that will advance knowledge across disciplines.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.