Mary Pember: Foraging for food on White Earth Reservation

When I was a kid we described plants like burdock with its tenacious burrs and stinging nettles with its distinctive sting as “pickers.” At the Wild Food Summit, however, they call these plants dinner.

On the first night of the Wild Food Summit on the White Earth Reservation in June, attendees feasted on burdock, stinging nettles, bass wood leaf wraps, cattails, wild onions, black locust flower gnocchi, deer sausage, manomin (wild rice) and lefse. Lefse is made from potatoes and is a Norwegian version of a tortilla. Like a cranky but tolerated relative, the bland flat bread somehow finds its way into most Northern Minnesota public meals.

Coordinated by the White Earth Tribal and Community College USDA Extension Service, the Summit is wildly popular among Native and non-Natives alike. In fact, the event, now in its eighth year, usually fills up within weeks of the announced enrollment. More than 50 people had to be turned away according to Rebecca Dallinger, extension special projects coordinator.