Dirty Water and Dead Rice: The Cost of the Clean Energy Transition in Rural Minnesota

Native Americans Harvey Goodsky Jr. and his wife Morningstar harvest wild rice on Rice Lake in north central Minnesota. The Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Aitkin County, in north central Minnesota, is home to pristine a 4,500-acre body of water that provides the wild rice harvest that the Ojibwe have depended on for countless generations.

More than 250 years ago, the Ojibwe people, one of the largest Indigenous populations in North America, received a prophecy to migrate westward until they reached the land where food grows on water. When the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe encountered wild rice in north-central Minnesota, they knew they found their new home. Rice harvesting … Continue reading Dirty Water and Dead Rice: The Cost of the Clean Energy Transition in Rural Minnesota