A Victory at Bad River

At the northern tip of Wisconsin, a river meanders northward to the world’s second-largest freshwater lake. As it flows, the river gives life to walleye as well as wolves and medicinal plants. Where the waters reach Lake Superior, abundant—but vulnerable—wild rice grows.

This land and this river have been home to the Mashkiigong-ziibiing and their ancestors, the Chippewa, Ojibwe, and Anishinabe, for more than 500 years. The wild rice (manoomin in Ojibwe) that grows near where Lake Superior meets the land is a sacred dietary staple. And it’s why the Chippewa settled near Lake Superior; their ancestors foretold to go west until they found food that grows on water.

Today, the Mashkiigong-ziibiing, or the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is up against the odds to defend its land rights, sovereignty, and healthy water.