 Rice was born into a Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) family on the Kahnawake reserve in Quebec, and she is proud of her First Nations heritage.Through her father she is a member of the Rice family of Kahnawake, having descended from Edmund Rice, an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.Two Rice boys were taken captive as children in 1704 from Massachusetts, and taken to Kahnawake, Quebec where they were adopted by Mohawk families and became assimilated.