All-Stars Profile: Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program | Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians

View Report (PDF) | 2006 Award Profile

The waters and fish of the Red Lake are culturally, historically, and economically central to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. But by the mid-1990s, the walleye population had collapsed from over-fishing. Taking drastic but necessary action, the Band negotiated a consensus arrangement with local fishermen and state and federal officials to ban fishing in the lake. Over a ten-year period, the fish recovered at an astonishing rate. The tribally led Red Lake Recovery Project now determines when, how, and who can fish the historic waters from which the Band claims its name.