What a sad story, and an instructive one. Thank you for your explication of the history of your area, and your thoughtful look at the changes. Has the state thought of reintroducing sturgeon into Lake of the Woods? Or are there introduced predator fish that would make that impossible? I know that sturgeon fisheries in other places have been helped to stabilize with reintroducing human-raised fish.
Today there is a 40 mile stretch where you can find sturgeon at the place where the Rainy River empties into Lake of the Woods at its southwest shores because of improved water quality and habitat restoration. Occasionally anglers will snag a sturgeon roaming the vast deep waters of Lake of the Woods, but they have not made a significant comeback and could never be farmed commercially again on this lake.
Just to know that these ancient beings are there, part of the community, is enough. Commercial fishing is one thing, and can be important, but I think with sturgeon, the connection is what matters most. I hope that there were be more habitat restoration in time, and thus more sturgeon being themselves in that aquatic world, and tending the relationships they have with place and people and other species.
I have a special place in my heart for sturgeon. On Rainbow Lake (Chain, Waupaca) the Chief boat tour announced the largest sturgeon ever caught right in front of our dock — I remember
I agree a sad and instructive story--and those sturgeon don't come back unless stocked by humans which isn't the same. I don't even know if they can be stocked, but you can let us know. Yes beautifully written and heart-breaking how the invaders take what they (we) want with no thought for the future including the children and the culture.
In the past nine years the Red Lake Band has restocked 90,000 sturgeon and US Fish & Wildlife and the Minnesota DNR are involved in restocking efforts in collaboration with tribal fisheries. Sturgeon can live up to 150 years, and these are only babies when released as it can take 10 years to mature before laying eggs.
Wow, l had no idea sturgeon were an endangered species - this essay is devastating and educational as well, certainly. Beautifully and so effectively written, Jill.
I had no idea either when I first started digging into the past. Worldwide, sturgeon are considered the most endangered of all species. In the Great Lakes region, most of the states have listed lake sturgeon as a "threatened" species. In Minnesota there are limited numbers of sturgeon in the lower Mississippi, St. Croix, Minnesota, Red, and Rainy rivers. They also inhabit Lake Superior, Lake of the Woods, and some lakes in the Boundary Water Canoe area. Thanks for reading and taking all of this in and sitting with it.
But the overfishing and now near extinct sturgeon population can be seen symbolically, too???? It’s near extinct population parallels how in less than 100 years the indigenous America's population is reduced to like 5 million. Settler colonialism was one part of a systematic extermination of an entire people. Isn't part of the lesson that with ignorance and arrogance there are never "single infractions.” You cannot take what isn’t yours (e.g., commercial fishing) without devastating and far-reaching consequences. You opened up this piece by mentioning the effects of the weak winter. And when an ecosystem or a people or anything has been nearly decimated it is extremely vulnerable to other changes. We can fatally set up a system or group by taking from it its resources and its connections and its health…rape is always of the soul. Taking away the right to exist from any group and not recognizing all the interconnected pieces will kill a lot more in your path; it sets in motion infinite paths of inhumane destruction, and quite possibly, it will even destroy what you had hoped to gain. Because it was/is part of a mindset of racist and unjust entitlement that endures, the danger (of us) remains.
Yes, the cumulative effects of what seem like single infractions are difficult to see in the moment; back then with regard to the impact of commercial fishing and today with the regard to the impact of our lifestyles on the carbon load of the planet. Thanks for reading and responding.
Oh my what a sad piece, Jill! All kinds of things I did not know including the history of Sturgeon, fishing, overfished, what sturgeon symbolize to the Ojibway culture, or that it is an endangered species! Awe, this is just another incredibly sad example of how we/white folks need no more than a blink to erase, distort thousands of years of tradition, of life, of a way and of a people and its land and wildlife. thank you for including the birth and death years as again we are reminded of this family's longevity!
Brady Swanson of the Warroad Heritage Center gave a fascinating presentation at Lake of the Woods Brewery for a "History of Tap" event. Depth of research is impressive on the history of fishing on LOW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph77BdZNrYI
Railway making it easier to overfish for supply, so sad. Thank you for the history lesson and in perspective of your family history. I'm curious who is who is the Mcpherson family pic. Lessons we seem to need to keep learning sadly. We need your stories to remind us how to conserve and respect the resources in this land my family immigrated to/colonized.
Thanks for your comments, Heidi. The photo of the George McPherson family at the Northwest Angle shows his daughter Margaret McPherson, his son George McPherson Jr, and his wife Sophia Morrisseau in the back row. In the front row is George McPherson Sr and Margaret Adhemar. Geroge Sr.'s brother John McPherson is not in the photo. John McPherson is the father of Verna (McPherson) Kakaygeesick.
What a sad story, and an instructive one. Thank you for your explication of the history of your area, and your thoughtful look at the changes. Has the state thought of reintroducing sturgeon into Lake of the Woods? Or are there introduced predator fish that would make that impossible? I know that sturgeon fisheries in other places have been helped to stabilize with reintroducing human-raised fish.
Today there is a 40 mile stretch where you can find sturgeon at the place where the Rainy River empties into Lake of the Woods at its southwest shores because of improved water quality and habitat restoration. Occasionally anglers will snag a sturgeon roaming the vast deep waters of Lake of the Woods, but they have not made a significant comeback and could never be farmed commercially again on this lake.
Just to know that these ancient beings are there, part of the community, is enough. Commercial fishing is one thing, and can be important, but I think with sturgeon, the connection is what matters most. I hope that there were be more habitat restoration in time, and thus more sturgeon being themselves in that aquatic world, and tending the relationships they have with place and people and other species.
it being some 8 feet long, a couple hundred pounds. I grew up dreaming of that fish & whatever spawned from the eggs she left behind!
That's a big sturgeon! The legend lives
I have a special place in my heart for sturgeon. On Rainbow Lake (Chain, Waupaca) the Chief boat tour announced the largest sturgeon ever caught right in front of our dock — I remember
I agree a sad and instructive story--and those sturgeon don't come back unless stocked by humans which isn't the same. I don't even know if they can be stocked, but you can let us know. Yes beautifully written and heart-breaking how the invaders take what they (we) want with no thought for the future including the children and the culture.
In the past nine years the Red Lake Band has restocked 90,000 sturgeon and US Fish & Wildlife and the Minnesota DNR are involved in restocking efforts in collaboration with tribal fisheries. Sturgeon can live up to 150 years, and these are only babies when released as it can take 10 years to mature before laying eggs.
Wow, l had no idea sturgeon were an endangered species - this essay is devastating and educational as well, certainly. Beautifully and so effectively written, Jill.
I had no idea either when I first started digging into the past. Worldwide, sturgeon are considered the most endangered of all species. In the Great Lakes region, most of the states have listed lake sturgeon as a "threatened" species. In Minnesota there are limited numbers of sturgeon in the lower Mississippi, St. Croix, Minnesota, Red, and Rainy rivers. They also inhabit Lake Superior, Lake of the Woods, and some lakes in the Boundary Water Canoe area. Thanks for reading and taking all of this in and sitting with it.
But the overfishing and now near extinct sturgeon population can be seen symbolically, too???? It’s near extinct population parallels how in less than 100 years the indigenous America's population is reduced to like 5 million. Settler colonialism was one part of a systematic extermination of an entire people. Isn't part of the lesson that with ignorance and arrogance there are never "single infractions.” You cannot take what isn’t yours (e.g., commercial fishing) without devastating and far-reaching consequences. You opened up this piece by mentioning the effects of the weak winter. And when an ecosystem or a people or anything has been nearly decimated it is extremely vulnerable to other changes. We can fatally set up a system or group by taking from it its resources and its connections and its health…rape is always of the soul. Taking away the right to exist from any group and not recognizing all the interconnected pieces will kill a lot more in your path; it sets in motion infinite paths of inhumane destruction, and quite possibly, it will even destroy what you had hoped to gain. Because it was/is part of a mindset of racist and unjust entitlement that endures, the danger (of us) remains.
Yes, the cumulative effects of what seem like single infractions are difficult to see in the moment; back then with regard to the impact of commercial fishing and today with the regard to the impact of our lifestyles on the carbon load of the planet. Thanks for reading and responding.
Oh my what a sad piece, Jill! All kinds of things I did not know including the history of Sturgeon, fishing, overfished, what sturgeon symbolize to the Ojibway culture, or that it is an endangered species! Awe, this is just another incredibly sad example of how we/white folks need no more than a blink to erase, distort thousands of years of tradition, of life, of a way and of a people and its land and wildlife. thank you for including the birth and death years as again we are reminded of this family's longevity!
The losses need to be acknowledged, but also the lessons.
And yet what was important to me was learning what little I knew; and how quickly, I mean lightning quick, the damage and loss.
Indeed
Brady Swanson of the Warroad Heritage Center gave a fascinating presentation at Lake of the Woods Brewery for a "History of Tap" event. Depth of research is impressive on the history of fishing on LOW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph77BdZNrYI
Are sturgeon on the endangered species list?
Oh yes. https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/freshwater_practice/freshwater_inititiaves/sturgeon_initiative/
Railway making it easier to overfish for supply, so sad. Thank you for the history lesson and in perspective of your family history. I'm curious who is who is the Mcpherson family pic. Lessons we seem to need to keep learning sadly. We need your stories to remind us how to conserve and respect the resources in this land my family immigrated to/colonized.
Thanks for your comments, Heidi. The photo of the George McPherson family at the Northwest Angle shows his daughter Margaret McPherson, his son George McPherson Jr, and his wife Sophia Morrisseau in the back row. In the front row is George McPherson Sr and Margaret Adhemar. Geroge Sr.'s brother John McPherson is not in the photo. John McPherson is the father of Verna (McPherson) Kakaygeesick.