- Fred Ackley Jr.: There's an old Indian saying
that to live here and understand the world,
you've got to love it.
Some people love money, some people love material things.
[speaking Ojibwe]
[high-pitched whistle]
I love that rice, I do.
I love that rice and that lake out there.
I've loved it all my life.
[speaking Ojibwe]
I'm 65 now,
so that's 55 years that I've actually been out there
somewhere doing rice.
My mom made us go pick it and buy our own school clothes.
So I learned the different things
of that Manoomin (wild rice), what it does for me.
These two little bony arms, once I get going out there,
I don't want to quit.
I've got this rhythm.
They call it out, "Wham, wham, wham, wham!"
Chush, chush, chush, chush.
That's the rhythm.
Now a poler, he keeps up with that rice.
He goes into the rice stuff
and tries to get the best heads he sees.
So that guy's rhythm gets all them plants on both sides,
as much as we can get in, every two hits.
He's poling,
I'm keeping that tap, chush, chush, chush, chush.
In my mind, every time I hit a new plant,
I'm saying miigwech, thank you.
At every chush, chush, miigwech,
chush, chush, miigwech in my mind,
and then the rice comes in for me,
because I'm honoring and praying to that rice,
giving it that respect
that's gonna keep me and my partner going,
no matter if I'm poling or the guy tapping the rhythm.
When I touch them cedar sticks
on that rice and it comes off,
I know them babies are gonna eat,
my drum's gonna be fed.
Life's gonna go on for another year.
That's gratitude.
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
My grandma used to call it roasting and parching.
She liked to use the word roasting better
because of the aroma and what she did with her hands
and fire and tools she used
to make that come out dehydrated enough
to last all winter,
for five years maybe even.
If you don't get it wet
or if you store it right, it'll be good for ya,
that medicine.
[speaking Ojibwe]
Miigwech.
In my growing up, in my traditions,
the older people told me
that the Creator gave us this manoomin
to help us survive for our time
that we spend here with 'em.
It's the Creator's food.
And that Mother Earth, she gives it to us to use.
That's why they call it "food that grows on the water."
So I'm trying to keep that for all the Anishinaabe people,
them prayers going,
and of eating that food every year.
Because we believe if we stop that tradition,
that the world's going to stop.
That's why it's important for the Indian people
to keep on with our traditions and our spiritual thinking.
Because if we stop,
what if the world does stop?
[gentle acoustic guitar music]