Partnering with several Tribes throughout Wisconsin (including the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, and the Oneida Nation), we are working to support producers to scale effectively, improve soil health, and grow multiple culturally important crops together with livestock. We are drawing upon Three Sisters production systems coupled with cover crops and forage crops for grazing livestock to promote ecologically based management strategies for corn, beans, squashes, and other traditional crops.

In addition, we are working with Tribal farms to research and demonstrate ways to mechanize Indigenous corn harvest and processing to scale up Indigenous corn production to support Tribal producers in meeting demand for Indigenous corn (such as for the Tribal Elder Food Box program). We are evaluating different ways to harvest, husk, shell, dry, and store Indigenous corn at different stages.

Through hands-on workshops at the research sites, we will engage with Tribal communities throughout the research process. The sharing of research results—both with Tribal communities and with the scientific community—will be Tribally led with appropriate cultural context.

Many Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes region have long traditions of tapping maple trees and boiling the sap to produce maple syrup and sugar. We are supporting shared learning and storytelling opportunities through the Extension-coordinated Tribal Maple Sugaring Network, in partnership with the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council. WTCAC is facilitating relationships among Tribal maple syrup producers by coordinating and hosting visits to Tribal sugarbushes that use different technologies at various scales. Participants will share traditional knowledge, experiences with different equipment and methods, technical expertise, and climate change vulnerability and adaptation strategies.

We are also developing videos and virtual events and working to identify Indigenous research priorities for maple production. All these efforts have the goal of increasing Tribal production of maple syrup and sugar for both cultural and economic benefits.

Manoomin is the word for wild rice in the Ojibwe language. It is a Wisconsin native plant that creates habitat for wildlife, provides nutritious food, and is essential to cultural lifeways for Indigenous peoples across the Great Lakes watershed. Once widespread in Wisconsin wetlands, wild rice beds have shrunk since the 1960s due to degradation of water quality and contamination from industrial development, pollution, and climate change. In recent years, communities on chi-gami ziibi (St. Louis River in the Ojibwe language) have expressed concerns that the wild rice growing there may not be safe to eat. Partnering with the Manoomin Restoration Partnership, which has been conducting restoration on wild rice in this region since 2013, we are seeking to answer the question, “Is wild rice in the St. Louis River safe to eat?” This work is guided by longstanding members of the partnership, with leadership from the 1854 Treaty Authority, the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

We are also working to extend existing wild rice outreach and education programs such as rice camps by partnering with the Green Bay West Shore education and restoration collaboration. We are helping broaden the geographic range of their K-12 education efforts, which are strengthening relationships with Tribal schools, including Menominee Indian School District, and getting students involved in wild rice restoration.