By Lee Egerstrom
The U.S. Department of Commerce is providing a $3.6 million grant to help the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe develop a wild rice processing plant to strengthen and expand its food industry.
Leech Lake currently has wild rice available for people to order online and at regional stores. But during and after the annual fall harvest, green rice harvested by Leech Lake members is currently taken off reservation for other groups and companies to process.
“We’ve wanted to develop processing for ourselves,” said Joe Fowler, a wild rice harvest coordinator at Leech Lake’s Division of Resource Management (DRM). “This (grant) really gets the ball rolling.”
The grant was announced Sept. 24 by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. It will be provided through the department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).
In her comments, Raimondo said the EDA investment “will create new jobs at the Leech Lake Reservation, boosting the Leech Lake Band’s rice production industry and strengthening its economic resilience.”
Funds for the grant are coming through the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023 following various natural disasters during 2021 and 2022. And that follows a regional planning effort by Regional 5 Development Commission (R5DC) that is funded by the EDA.
The announcement said the Region 5 group brings public and private groups together to create “an economic development roadmap to strengthen the regional economy, support private investment and create jobs.”
The grant and the regional development commission’s work is doing that, said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
“Wild rice is a sacred part of Leech Lake’s culture and a key resource for tribal members and the tribal economy,” she said in the Commerce Department’s announcement. “This grant will help the Leech Lake Band promote the welfare of its members.”
The grant envisions 15 jobs in rice processing will be created at the plant. Plans call for a 6,100 square foot factory that will be built on tribal land.
That may be just for starters. The project will empower the Leech Lake Band to open additional business opportunities through its wild rice operations, said Christina Killingsworth, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and External Affairs at Commerce.
The EDA, she said, “is proud to partner with Tribal Nations as they work to strengthen their economies.”
Leech Lake currently has a map showing members and the general public where local foods can be found. It is available from the Division of Resource Management online at https://www.llojibwe.org/drm/maps/localfoods.html.
