I've had an idea for how wild rice cultivation could've taken hold in Northern Minnesota that I'd like to have reviewed by fthe more knowledgeable.
The Dakota and Ojibwe people already had the beginnings of protoagriculture before European colonization. They took seeds of wild rice mixed with clay and planted it into new lakes, with limited success. How old this practice is I do not know.
Wild rice cultivation is very similar to ordinary rice cultivation, except that it requires a colder, drier climate. It must be grown underwater, and its seeds require 90 days of submersion in cold water before they become viable. In the modern day, wild rice is either harvested by drying the rice paddy, or beating the stalk with a flail.
The seeds do not mature simultaneously, and are prone to shattering. Wild rice stands will reseed themselves because of this, but this makes planting new paddies difficult. However, these were also problems that the Chinese and Indians overcame when domesticating rice, so presumably it can be bred out.
Here is my hypothetical sequence of events that could lead to wild rice agriculture. (I'm not putting dates on this as I don't know how old wild rice harvesting is.)
-Dakota begin to clear out lake shores of other wetland plants in the spring before planting clay balls of rice
-Practice spreads across Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and further South. More efficient methods of weeding develop.
-Local diet grows increasingly dependant on wild rice compared to other gatherables as population grows.
-A gatherer out planting seeds plants them in a pond created by beavers, and the resulting stand of rice dies when the dam breaks down. They have the idea to recreate the beaver dam to keep the stand alive. It is thought crazy, but it works.
-Inspired by beaver dam guy, another cultivator on red lake dams a small stream and creates a highly succesful stand.
-The idea of using dams to create shallow ponds to plant rice in spreads. Population growth ensues. The first polities emerge, a particularily strong one headquartered on an island on leech lake. Wild rice is now traded frequently with the copper culture on isle royale. The influx of surplus food from the Dakota rice culture allows a much larger and more complex copper culture to develop.
-More advanced pilities dvelop organizing labor to created larger dams for expanded wild rice cultivation. The region's wealth begins to attract hunter-gather groups who want in on the fun, and frequently raid to acquire goods like copper and ceramics. Polities conscript the first militaries to defend. Building cities on islands in the middle of large lakes or promonotories becomes common practice. A decent urban culture has developed by now. Much of the wetlands North of red lake have been terraformed to wild rice cultivation, forming the most productive region of Dakota agriculture.
-Due to the expansion of human population, many huntables like deer, moose, and caribou have been nearly extipirated, now being only a delicacy for the wealthiest of the nascent nobility. They create small reserves for the few remaining moose (but not Caribou, due to their migratory habits) and protect these from wolves and poachers. Fences (known as "moose dams", as the Dakota do not have a concept of fences) are built around patches of woods to both protect and contain the managed moose. The moose are allowed to browse during the year and at the end of the year a small percentage are culled for meat. Some moose are traded down the mississippi as exotic animals.
-As the tradition of "moose damming" advances over the centuries, the moose population expands and is slowly tamed, with moose more willing to eat human foods like rice selected for. Moose dammers have started to deliberately breed moose to expand the population. Moose that are more human friendly are bred the most. Rice agriculture spreads west to the red river and south down the mississippi.
-After a couple more centuries, moose are fully tame. A prince of the now established nation of Leech lake, observes the endless toil of the laborers who spend their lives digging, be it trenches to drain the ponds or dams to create the ponds. He decides to play around with his pet moose, which are kept around the leech lake fortress for his entertainment, and ties them to a primitive stone plow used to dig drainage trenches through the wetlands, orderig the laborers assigned to dig said trench to cease. The prince pokes and kicks the moose forward, and gets a painful kick to the jaw for his efforts, but to everyone's amazement, the moose drag the plow faster than any human.
I'll stop here for now.
So, would this be plausible?
If so, when could wild rice cultivation start to develop?
Any criticism, suggestions? Is moose domestication ASB? Any commentary is welcome.