Cool Tools from Nature

For thousands of years, Native Americans have made tools from nature to harvest wild rice, a special food called Manoomin in the Ojibwe language. Just like you use wax crayons to create art, ricers use tools made from trees to harvest rice. Thomas Howes, a ricer from the Fond Du Lac Reservation, collects wild rice like his ancestors did. He uses a ricing stick, made from light cedar wood, to knock rice grains off plants. He also uses birch bark baskets to hold the rice. Birch bark is strong, light, and waterproof.