Thursday, June 7, 2012

Lake Winnibigoshish History

We feel that history and tradition play a large role in communities.

Speaking to locals has been great, but we have begun to realize how much the Indian tribes that resided here in the past have lost.

From our map:

The U.S. Congress authorized construction of the dam regulating the level of Lake Winnie in 1881 on lands it had already granted to the Ojibwe people of Minnesota.

"No white man knows of the damage that will be done to us," Sturgeon Man, a Lake Winnie resident, told a government commission appointed to address the problem.

"Every year what supports us grows in this place. If the dam is built, we will all be scattered, we will have nothing to live on."

The dam was built and compensation was provided to Sturgeon Man's ancestors 104 years later, in 1985.

The dam elevated water levels about eight feet, wiping out cemeteries, villages, shoreline crops and plants.

Today, the Leech Lake Indian
Reservation's fish hatchery is located near the dam site.

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