2026-10-09 · Brookston Public Water Access, St. Louis River (Fond du Lac Reservation)
Buckets Down to the River — Fond du Lac Marked Treaty Day With 700 Little Sturgeon
On Sept. 30, the 172nd anniversary of the 1854 Treaty of LaPointe, elders and kids from the Fond du Lac Band walked buckets of young lake sturgeon down to the St. Louis River at Brookston. Some of the fish went home with the Grand Portage Band to try the same thing on the Pigeon River.
Most of us celebrate an anniversary with a card and a restaurant that’s too loud. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa celebrated one by carrying fish to a river in plastic buckets. One of those is a better idea, and it isn’t mine.
The date matters
Sept. 30 was the 172nd anniversary of the 1854 Treaty of LaPointe. That’s the treaty that ceded Ojibwe land across the Arrowhead and, per the Pine Journal, guaranteed the bands’ rights to manage, hunt and fish their lands for good. The Band calls it Treaty Day.
This year, the Band’s Resource Management Division brought elders, kids and neighbors to the Brookston Public Water Access on the St. Louis River. They brought fingerling lake sturgeon too. The Pine Journal put it at around 700 fish. WDIO reported more than 600 tagged sturgeon. Either way, that’s a lot of buckets.
The Band’s communications director told the Pine Journal it was a chance to take what could’ve been an ordinary release and use it to honor Treaty Day. Picture a line of people, little kids up front, each carrying one small, very old-looking fish down to the water.
Why sturgeon, and why here
Lake sturgeon are the biggest fish in the Lake Superior watershed. They can live well past 100 years and top 100 pounds. They’re also the fish that look like they swam here straight from a museum diorama and are mildly annoyed about it.
They used to be thick in this river. Then came the logging era, pollution, overfishing, the caviar trade and a string of hydroelectric dams in the early 1900s. The Band’s program history says sturgeon in the upper St. Louis were considered wiped out. Elders remember anglers still seeing one now and then into the mid-1970s, but surveys after that found none. The Pine Journal, citing DNR estimates, says Minnesota’s sturgeon numbers have fallen about 99% since the 1890s.
Brookston was picked on purpose. A Band technician told the paper it gives the fish a long stretch of river with no dams in the way. “These fish got a huge area to go in,” he said. Which is more than I can say for my garage.
The young fish carry radio transmitters, so the Band can track where they go. The big open question is spawning. Nobody has pinned down yet where these fish spawn, and the Band’s restoration page says finding that out is a top goal.
This didn’t start last week
The Band started bringing sturgeon back to the upper St. Louis in 1994. They began with eggs from Wisconsin and later switched to a Lake Superior strain, and they’re still at it. The technician quoted at Brookston has been releasing sturgeon into the St. Louis since the program began in the 1990s. That’s three decades of patience for a fish that takes its time growing up. You have to respect a crew that plays the long game with the long fish.
The handoff
This part got me. Part of the ceremony was a gift: 250 fingerlings went to the Grand Portage Band, which also signed the 1854 treaty. Grand Portage plans to release them in the Pigeon River on the Canadian border. Their lead fisheries biologist told the Pine Journal there’s no sturgeon population left there to speak of, and called this a first step toward kick-starting one.
Two bands that signed the same treaty, passing fish to each other on its anniversary. No joke goes there. It’s just a good thing.
What people said
Thomas Howes, who directs the Band’s Resource Management Division, told the Pine Journal, “The sturgeon is one of our relatives.” Three sisters in their 70s came to watch the kids work the buckets. One said she loved seeing the little ones do it. Another called it “our next generation, and what a memory for them.”
That’s the whole story, honestly. A fish that was nearly gone, a river with room to run, and a bunch of kids who’ll be old someday and able to say they were there when the sturgeon came back.
Anyway, if you hook one on the St. Louis someday, remember that sturgeon season is tightly regulated in Minnesota and needs a special tag. Check the DNR rules before you even think about keeping one, and maybe say thanks to whoever carried that bucket.
Sources: Cloquet Pine Journal, WDIO, Fond du Lac Resource Management sturgeon restoration.