The Lore of Wild Rice Ojibway and Sioux Indians of Minnesota call it Mahnomen. In Minnesota, August is Manominikegississ, the rice-making moon. In the lakes and rivers harvesting is still done in the traditional Indian way. One person poles a canoe or wooden boat through the rice bed when another person knocks the rice kernels off the stocks with sticks and into the canoe. The green rice then must be processed to take off the hull and lower the moisture content so it can be stored almost indefinitely.