Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights, and Ojibwe Nationhood

1 From Berries to Orchards: The Transformation of Gathering

20 c h a p t e r o n e From Berries to Orchards The Transformation of Gathering During the Great Depression, Ojibwe families journeyed to the berry patches of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin to make a much needed income from the fruit they harvested. They picked berries for days and even weeks, occasionally pausing to enjoy the summer weather or to socialize in berry camps that consisted of makeshift shelters and tents. In 1938, Florina Denomie of Bad River described the economic importance of berry picking, or berrying. “One of the leading industries of the Chippewas of Lake Superior is blueberry picking,” she wrote. Indeed it became an important source of seasonal income. “This, of course, like other occupations which are the endowments of nature, is seasonal, and outside of the more substantial industries, such as farming and lumbering; blueberry picking ranks first in the point of dollars and cents,” wrote Denomie. Denomie’s statement speaks to the importance of berrying as both a form of subsistence and a substantial commercial industry that emerged in late nineteenth century and continued through the 1930s. The history of berrying illustrates how Ojibwes transformed traditional forms of subsistence into commercial activities as they experienced the pressures and constraints imparted by federal Indian policy and settler colonialism . Berrying was one of many forms of labor that constituted “gathering .” Ojibwe headmen reserved the rights to gather in the treaties of 1837 and 1842, recognizing the importance of these activities to the economies of their communities. During treaty negotiations, Ojibwe headmen emphasized the importance of these plant resources. In 1837, Flat Mouth, an important headman from Leech Lake, spoke for all the Ojibwe leaders present when he said: “My Father. Your children are willing to let you have their lands, but they The Transformation of Gathering / 21 wish to reserve the privilege of making sugar from the trees and getting their living from the Lakes and Rivers, as they have done heretofore, and of remaining in this Country. It is hard to give up the lands. They will remain, and cannot be destroyed—but you may cut down the Trees, and others will grow up. You know we cannot live, deprived Lakes and Rivers; there is some game on the lands yet; & for that reason also, we wish to remain upon them, to get a living. Sometimes we scrape the trees and eat of the bark. The Great Spirit above, made the Earth, and causes it to produce, which enables us to live.” By reserving the rights to continue to practice seasonal subsistence activities and granting the United States access to certain resources on their lands, such as pine timber, Ojibwe headmen believed that they had assured their people’s ability to continue to pursue their customary lifeways in their homelands. The right to gather was a crucial part of Ojibwe survival. Flat Mouth made specific reference to the harvest of maple sugar, and by employing the phrase “getting a living from the lakes and rivers,” he was quite likely referring to the harvest of wild rice and fishing. Ojibwe headmen also emphasized the importance of gathering rights alongside hunting and fishing rights in the negotiations leading up to the treaty of 1842. When Marten, the head leader of the La Court Oreilles Band of Ojibwe, signed the treaty, he did so under the condition that “we should remain on the land, as long as we are peaceable.” Elaborating on this point, he explained, “We have no objections to the white man’s working the mines, and the timber and making farms, but we reserve the birch bark and cedar for canoes, the rice and sugar tree and the privilege of hunting without being disturbed by the whites.” Just as Ojibwe leaders had done in 1837, Marten outlined the importance of having access to birch bark, cedar, maple trees, and wild rice. He made it clear that gathering was a key part of their survival, and by reserving it in the treaty, he designated it as a right to a specific form of livelihood. The emergence of a berry industry in Ojibwe communities began with their relocation to reservations in the 1870s and ended during World War II, when the market for berries changed drastically as the result of the expansion of mechanized agriculture on the West Coast and in some areas of the South. While northern Wisconsin and Minnesota never became agricultural centers due to the short growing season and soil quality, the opening...