Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation

Welcome to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation.
The Reservation lies in Northeastern Minnesota adjacent to the city of Cloquet,
MN, approximately 20 miles west of Duluth, MN. The Fond du Lac Reservation,
established by the LaPointe Treaty of 1854, is one of six Reservations inhabited
by members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The Chippewa nation is the second
largest ethnic group of Indians in the United States. Archaeologists maintain
that ancestors of the present day Chippewa have resided in the Great Lakes area
since at least 800 A.D.

    FDL Website      American Indian Tribal Portal (EPA)

Fond du Lac Reservation Environment

• Fond du Lac Environmental Department (exit site)
• Fond du Lac Office of Water Protection (exit site)
• Water Quality Plan (680 KB pdf)
• Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College’s Environmental Institute (exit site)
• Geology (exit site)
• Recreation
• Mapping (exit site)

Stormwater Information

• 2006 Stormwater Permit (coming)
• A Landowners Guide to Conservation Management (1.8 MB pdf, new window)
• NEMO –Nonpoint Source Education for Municipal Officials (exit site)

Contact Local Decision Makers

• Elected Officials
• Agencies
• Regional Stormwater Protection Team

Fond du Lac Streams

• Reservation lake & stream data (exit)
• Fond du Lac Creek
• Otter Creek
• Simian Creek
• St. Louis River

Public Health and other Environmental Information

• Fond du Lac Band Natural Resources (exit site)
• Fond du Lac Band Water Protection Program (exit site)
•   Misc. Links
  • Air Quality Program -- Addresses the relationship between acid, mercury and dioxin deposition into regional bodies of water.
  • News report on Fond du Lac Reservations involvement in regional Air Pollution management

  • More about mercury deposition on the reservation, transport through aquatic systems and its impact on cultural foods harvested from streams and lakes can be found at the following:

    • Hg Fate and Transport (Costa et al. 2004) [1.3 MB pdf]
    • MercuryMonitoring on the Fond du Lac Reservation (Wiecks 2005) [3.1 MB pdf]
    • Environmental contaminants and Native American traditional foods (Renwick et al. 2003) [105 KB pdf]
    • Mercury in Minnesota
      
  • A State Government legal interpretation of whether or not state environmental laws apply on American Indian reservations
  • Assessing Wetlands using Ecological Indicators -Stream and Small River Floodplain Wetlands - a product of University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science. Otter Creek in Carlton County is one of the streams surveyed. Report includes Site Record for Stream & Small River Floodplain Wetlands with mapped land use information; find at
    • http://horticulture.coafes.umn.edu/vd/mnwet/2_11sr.htm (OO) and
    • http://horticulture.coafes.umn.edu/vd/mnwet/2_12sr.htm (OT).
    • Also data on biological surveys conducted in Otter Creek ( sample sites OO, OT) can be found at http://horticulture.coafes.umn.edu/vd/mnwet/series2b.htm
  • This MPCA report entitled Lake Superior Watershed Assessment [8.2 MB pdf, new window] identifies and discusses water quality issues of major and minor watersheds draining into Lake Superior. Simian and Otter Creek are noted in several tables.
  • Water Quality Standards for the Fond du Lac Reservation [5.3 MB pdf, new window]
    Drafted in 1998 and as amended in September 2001 [Note: takes a long time to load document ]
  • FDL Wetland Protection and Conservation Plan