St. Paul, MN — With only 24 hours notice, advocates mostly associated with Rise and Repair Alliance packed the hearing room for the fourth time at the Minnesota Senate Building on May 1, 2025. Activists have been showing up to meetings since the start of the 2025 legislative session in an attempt to create legal protections for wild rice. 

Wild rice, often known by its Objiwe name, manoomin, has been a means of sustenance for Dakota/Lakota and Ojibwe peoples since time immemorial. It is the reason that Ojibwe people migrated to this region, “the land where food grows on water” – without it, people’s health and wellbeing would suffer from not being able to live their way of life and not getting essential nutrients from the rice. (More on the importance of wild rice in UR’s 2017 report, Resistance to Line 3 Pipeline Seeks to Save Sacred Manoomin.)

Early that Thursday morning, advocates gathered outside the meeting room, holding signs demonstrating their support for wild rice, as legislators arrived for the Senate Environment, Climate & Legacy Committee meeting. Activist Eoin Small, from Rise and Repair, was hosting this event, providing donuts and coffee.  

Activists first introduced SF 1247, a bill to protect wild rice, at the start of session with Senator Mary Kunesh (DFL-39). The bill would require risk justification before issuing permits, restrict watercraft usage in wild rice waters, and modify pesticide provisions. 

The bill has not moved forward but activists are still determined to protect manoomin. Activists from Rise and Repair plan on continuing to show up to relevant hearings in order to make their presence known and gain further protections for wild rice. 

Small said, “laws aren’t always enough. We’re seeing a loss of wild rice all over Minnesota. Threats from climate change, threats from pollution, threats from landowners that are ripping out wild rice stocks.” 

Activists fear that legislators will use this time to review policies as an opportunity to take back provisions on the wild rice sulfate standard, a law put in place in 1973 limiting the amount of sulfate that mining companies pollute into wild rice waters.

“Unfortunately, things are going to continue as they have been, which isn’t good for manoomin,” said Small.

Mining continues to be a major threat to wild rice. A copper-sulfide mine from Talon Metals has been planned in Tamarack, MN, near Mille Lacs tribal land where lakes and rivers have been riced for generations. Byproducts from mining create runoff that contaminates the water and wild rice. Most of the nickel from this mine would be used to supply electric vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla, who have already signed agreements with Talon. 

Contentious Copper-Nickel Mine Gets Permit Approval from MN Appeals Court [Jan. 2024]

Polymet is proposing a huge open pit mine in Northern Minnesota that would impact wetlands and waterways. Tribes have been commenting and reviewing the mine for almost 20 years. Various court cases on wetland and water quality permits and tailings disposal at a nearby iron mine are holding up the proposal. Review of the company’s Permit to Mine has been delayed till late 2025 but is on the White House’s list for fast tracking. 

Small says that “legislation is just one tool we have in our arsenal of ways.”

With climate change, habitat destruction, and these infrastructure projects all looming large, protecting wild rice is more important than ever.

Small urges people to follow the Rise and Repair newsletter for updates on the issue and to learn more about protecting wild rice.

Rise and Repair Alliance Advocates for Wild Rice Protection Act [Feb. 2025]

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