Indigenous Approaches to Manoomin Restoration Workshop
In October, 2025, the USACE Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise (TNTCX), in collaboration with the USACE Saint Paul District (MVP), plans to host two workshops on water management considerations for Manoomin at the Mississippi Headwaters and Red Lake Projects. The USACE projects being studied include the six headwater lakes in the Mississippi River Basin: Leech Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, Pokegama Lake, Sandy Lake, Cross Lake, Gull Lake and a headwater lake in the Red River Basin: Red Lake (7 lakes total). The headwaters of the Red River of the North are located near Wahpeton, ND, where the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers converge.
These workshops are an outgrowth of a previously funded Sustainable Rivers Program (SRP) project that considered opportunities for improving operations at the Saint Paul District (MVP) headwaters reservoirs and Red Lake. The previous project consisted of a series of internal SRP workshops for USACE staff. Though no participants in these workshops, other agencies and Tribes provided input into the operational considerations through pre-workshop coordination and solicitation. Improving operations for the benefit of wild rice (manoomin) was identified as an opportunity at many of these reservoirs, but no specific operational changes were identified. Recommendations from these workshops have since been used to propose additional SRP projects for MVP, including this one to specifically focus on opportunities for enhancing manoomin.
The goal of these workshop(s) is to acknowledge and adopt a collaborative science-based approach with our Tribal partners on assessing opportunities during normal operations (i.e., not flood or drought conditions) for water management considerations that enhance Manoomin health and productivity specifically in the six Mississippi River Headwaters and one Red River Headwaters projects. The workshop will also provide an opportunity to share Manoomin Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Increasingly we are learning that conservation and restoration work performed under indigenous guidance is more successful than western engineered only solutions—especially given Indigenous people’s intimate and historical ties to the land. Through the application of TEK and scientific ecological knowledge we hope to identify potential opportunities for Manoomin enhancement at one or more of the lakes. A workshop summary report (similar to what was done for the recent SRP Rivercane Restoration Workshop and SRP Tule Restoration Workshop) will be prepared and serve as a catalyst for future outreach, science, and implementation projects. These future projects may focus on implementing and monitoring potential opportunities identified. Other beneficial outcomes include creating sustainable Federal/Tribal partnerships which promote innovative approaches to watershed management and stewardship on USACE projects