Three Way News

Your Source. For everything. Really.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Equal opportunity religion bashing?

This story in yesterday's Strib is something I've been hearing about for a year or two now.

A half-century-old clash of spirituality and science between Minnesota Indian tribes that consider wild rice sacred and University of Minnesota scientists who continue to study its genetic make-up is again boiling over.
...
As research at the university continues, fear on the reservations escalates. "We're not scientific Frankensteins," said Charles Muscoplat, dean of the university's College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. "Ron Phillips has said for years he would not create a genetically engineered wild rice. We know wild rice, to the Indians, is sacred, given to them by the Creator, that it's central to their traditional rituals, feasts and ceremonies.

There is no debate that Native Americans have been given the rawest of raw deals in America and with the possible exception of those brought here as slaves no one has suffered more at the hands of North American colonists, settlers, and citizens. But just to show that I can be equally dismissive of religions other than fundamentalist Christianity I'm siding with the state on this one.

It's certainly valid to worry about the genetic modification of crops (tho not in a knee-jerk manner) and the possibility of the cross pollination of wild strains is something to be avoided. But Native Americans do not "own" wild rice and it was not REALLY given to them by a creator any more than a creator gave all the world's cattle to the Massai. It is a naturally occurring plant that everyone is equally entitled to use. I am happy for people to enjoy whatever spirituality fits their needs and more than willing to have them harvest and use rice on their property in any way they see fit. If there were in the future some modified strain of rice that threatened to contaminate their crops I would support legal action in their defense. But as it stands now all the U of M is doing is researching the rice genome and native communities have no more right to prevent that than I do. Regardless of what spiritual significance they have attached to wild rice the fact is that it was here tens of thousands of years before any human set foot on the continent. It was not given TO anyone nor is it owned BY anyone.