Early Ojibwe by: Alming Siv
Fall/Dagwaagin
Wild Rice
Wild rice grows on water so you have they have to collect rice by canoes. There is two people in a canoe. The person in the back pushed the canoe through the rice fields using a long pole.The person in the front bent the grain heads and tapped the grin head with the stick and let the rice fall in the canoe. After hours of work the grain heads heaped up in the bottom. The children often help harvest, learning fro the elders how to gather rice properly. Once the rice was harvested it was time to head back to shore and prepare the rice for storage. First the rice was spread across a big sheet of bark so i could be dried in the sun. Then it was roasted over a fire and poured into the pit lined with a hide. Then men a children wearing clean moccasins would step on them lightly. Finally the rice was poured into trays and tossed into the air so the wind could blow away the chaff, or outer skin that covered the grain. This last step is called winnowing.
Collecting Wild Rice
Two people are canoeing in the rice fields the person in the back guides the canoe through the rice fields. The person in the front is bending the grain heads and lightly tapping the grain heads.
Wild Rice
Wild rice has a lot of steps. first you have to spread the wild rice on a big sheets of bark so it could dry in the sun. Second roast it over a fire witch is lined with a hide. Third men and children wearing clean moccasins would grind the husks off the grains by stepping on them lightly. Last the rice was poured into trays and tossed lightly in air so the wind could blow away the chaff, or outer skin that covered the grain.
Winnowing
It's a simple process all you have to do is pour the rice into trays and toss them lightly in the air so that the wind could blow away the chaff, or outer skin that covered the grain. This last step is called Winnowing.
Collecting food
The children collected late-season berries and dried them for the use of the use during winter. Men hunted the ducks and geese that flocked to the rice marshes during the fall. Men and women caught fish and preserved them for the coming winter.