Where the Food Grows on Water: Continuance of Scientific Racism and Colonialism

Prepared in partnership with the White Earth Reservation Tribal Archives by the Community Assistantship Program (CAP) administered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota

Wild Rice: The Minnesota Legislature, a Distinctive Crop, GMOs, and Ojibwe Perspectives

Hamline Law Review 32(499).This 26 page legal brief summarizes the history of treaty law, political debate, legislation in Minnesota related to wild rice, as well as the industry position (especially for Monsanto). The LEXISNEXIS Summary is reproduced below: “ ... Monsanto has never thought about engineering wild rice. ... History of Wild Rice Legislation in Minnesota In the 2005 legislative session, the Minnesota Senate tabled S.F. 1566, a version of the "wild rice bill" that prohibited the release and sale of genetically engineered wild rice in Minnesota. ... These explanations discount the legal realities of American Indian sovereignty and treaty-secured resource management, as well as the significance of the rights of sovereign nations to preserve Ojibwe identity and livelihood. ... From approximately the 1950s, with the introduction of cultivated wild rice and an increase in national and international market sales, some non-Indians grew increasingly interested in participating in wild rice cultivation and harvest. ... The following quotations from legislators during legislative hearings in 2006 and 2007 and from cultivated wild rice marketing companies capture some of the sentiments that non-Indian Minnesotans have with respect to both cultivating and eating wild rice: I am supporting this legislation because it is about wild rice and wild rice alone. ... At this point, we look briefly at the political and economic context of crop biotechnology in 2007 as it relates to this legislation. ... On March 31, 2007, the United States rice industry declared it wanted the federal government to reject a plan to grow genetically modified rice in Kansas, saying the country's growers would suffer "financial devastation" if modified crops contaminate the commercial supply.

The White Earth Nation

The White Earth Nation of Anishinaabeg Natives ratified a new constitution in 2009, the first indigenous democratic constitution, on a reservation in Minnesota. Many Native constitutions were written by the federal government, and with little knowledge of the people and cultures. The White Earth Nation set out to create a constitution that reflected its own culture. The resulting document provides a clear Native perspective on sovereignty, independent governance, traditional leadership values, and the importance of individual and human rights. This volume includes the text of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; an introduction by David E. Wilkins, a legal and political scholar who was a special consultant to the White Earth Constitutional Convention; an essay by Gerald Vizenor, the delegate and principal writer of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; and articles first published in Anishinaabeg Today by Jill Doerfler, who coordinated and participated in the deliberations and ratification of the Constitution. Together these essays and the text of the Constitution provide direct insight into the process of the delegate deliberations, the writing and ratification of this groundbreaking document, and the current constitutional, legal, and political debates about new constitutions

Stoking the Fire: Nationhood in Cherokee Writing, 1907-1970 (Kirby Brown)

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Jill Doerfler Interview

Jill Doerfler \u2701 was interviewed for the University of Minnesota Morris documentary Promise of the Prairie: Education in Three Parts.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/stories/1005/thumbnail.jp

Those Who Belong: Identity, Family Blood, and Citizenship among the White Earth Anishinaabeg (2015-10-19)

Faculty Showcase Series: At Home in the World - UMD & Beyond presents Those Who Belong. Join Dr. Jill Doerfler and the American Indian Studies Department in celebrating the release of Those Who Belong. Reading, question and answer, and book signing.Department of American Indian Studies, The Office of Intercultural Initiative

Perspectives and Parallels Symposium (2014-03-04)

Exciting discourse around Native American identity, voice, and historical representation