University of Minnesota – Rice Knockers: An Important Tool for Harvesting Wild Rice

This lesson was to coincide with the ricing season. Using tools is part of ricing. We want the kids to see first hand how the rice knockers are constructed and to understand why the knockers are important to the Ojibwe culture. We will also introduce the ricing song to help students learn the basic process and words for wild ricing.

Vocabulary Words

• Bawa’am bawa’am (Knocking rice)
• Bawa’iganaakoog (Rice knockers)
• Biindaakoojige (Offer tobacco)
• Gaandakii’ige (Paddle canoe)
• Gidasige (Parching rice)
• Manoomin (Wild rice)
• Manoominike (Ricing)
• Mimigoshkam, mimigoshkam (Dancing on rice)
• Nooshkaachige, nooshkaachige (Fanning the rice)