What 'living off the land' looks like for Minnesota tribes

Bill Paulson
Bill Paulson demonstrates how he harvests wild rice in Waubun, Minn., on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011. Paulson advocates returning to traditional Ojibwe food. For his own family, he hunts, fishes, harvests wild rice and grows produce in his garden at home. Paulson says it is a struggle for some families to access healthy food on the reservation. There are very few grocery stores, and getting to a grocery store requires gas money and a vehicle -- things that not everyone can afford.
MPR Photo/Caroline Yang

The idea of living off the land is often romanticized in modern American culture: People pride themselves on urban gardening, organic produce and caring for chicken, ducks and other livestock in their backyard.

But for some Americans, living off the land is a necessity and many have been living this lifestyle for generations. And it isn't as glamorous as we imagine.

David Treuer recently wrote about the idea in Harper's Magazine:

Hidden in this reorientation is the idea -- sometimes explicit and sometimes merely notional -- that perhaps American Indians had it right all along. The Indian way of life, and activities such as hunting and gathering that are coded as Indian, are healthier and more sustainable. What I hear in these narratives is the persistent notion that American Indians and our associated lifestyles are not just more authentic or noble but more practical.

Meanwhile, things at Leech Lake -- home to more than 9,000 Ojibwe Indians, including much of my family -- aren't so bucolic. While the rest of the world tries to starve itself back into shape, nearly half the reservation lives below the poverty line, with unemployment as high as 60 percent, little to no infrastructure, few entitlements, a safety net that never was, no industry to speak of, and a housing crisis that has been dire not for five years but since the reservation's founding in 1855. On Leech Lake, subsistence -- living off the land -- is a way of life for many, though it doesn't look the way it does in the popular imagination.

Treuer and Dennis Jones, former Ojibwe language professor at the University of Minnesota, join The Daily Circuit to talk about the modern way of living off the land.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.