About Us

The collective builds upon and coordinates extensive prior interdisciplinary collaborations, regional partnerships, large-scale federal investments in cyberinfrastructure, and regional data collection on manoomin and other coastal wetlands. The academic team is comprised of researchers from Northwestern University, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Purdue University, Argonne National Lab, Georgia Tech, the University of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. Together we work directly with tribal nations, non-profits, and government agencies to further project goals. 

Together, the Collective is:

Building new sensing capabilities and data science tools, including deployment of Wild Sage Nodes, advanced cyberinfrastructure with edge capabilities to collect and analyze environmental and ecological data that support research and management related to manoomin and coastal ecosystems.

Innovating environmental science through an Indigenous knowledge framework to uncover fundamental processes that organize coastal wetland ecosystems, including interrelationships between climate, land use, habitat conditions, and feedback from plant growth at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Investigating socio-ecological resilience to climate change by exploring how the political, social, and cultural dynamics of manoomin governance and management shape tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and well-being in Great Lakes Native Nations. 

Broadening participation in STEM through co-developed science engagement and curricular opportunities with tribal colleges and K-12 educators in the Upper Great Lakes. 

Project Context: Threats to Wellbeing and Resilience from Cultural, Food, and Water (in)Security

Manoomin (wild rice, Zizania palustris) is a keystone indicator of Ojibwe resilience that reflects Ojibwe Nations’ abilities to anticipate, respond to, and mitigate environmental change and disasters. Manoomin is an annual aquatic grass whose abundance, health, and distribution rely on its relationships with the Four Orders. 

Manoomin requires weather and water conditions conducive to reseeding (physical world), balance with submergent and emergent perennials that can easily outcompete manoomin (plant world), stewardship by rail birds that frequent rice beds and feed on plant-damaging insects (animal world), and seasonal harvesting that facilitates reseeding (human world) (Loew 2013; Meeker 1993; Pillsbury and McGuire 2009). 

Similarly, Ojibwe Nations rely on Manidoo Gitiganning, spirit gardens or wild rice beds, to provide sustenance, maintain cultural practices, and connect Ojibwe communities through spiritual relationships. Manoomin is present as a food at every Ojibwe ceremony; it is offered to the people and to the spirits as part of a spirit dish. The significance of manoomin for Ojibwe health, culture, and spirituality cannot be overstated: as manoomin declines, so too can the core relationships that maintain the Four Orders.

COPE Project:

• Josiah Hester (Principal Investigator)

• Peter Beckman (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Keith Cherkauer (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Kimberly Marion Suiseeya (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Gene-Hua Ng (Co-Principal Investigator)

STRONG Project:

• Kimberly Marion Suiseeya (Principal Investigator)

• Josiah Hester (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Aaron Packman (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Jonathan Gilbert (Co-Principal Investigator)

The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be a partner tribe for this project.