Refineries, paper mills, wastewater plants, lumber companies, paint factories, steel furnaces, and meat-packing plants all lined the St. Louis River Estuary at one point, and, before it was illegal to do so, dumped their waste directly into the river.
But before all that, the estuary (a chunk of which you can see from the bridges between Duluth and Superior) was full of manoomin.
Manoomin ("the good berry") or wild rice is a key ingredient in the good physical and emotional health of the Ojibwe people, and tonight's installment in the River Talks series will explore its importance in detail.
