The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is excited to announce the upcoming Sturgeon
transfer scheduled to take place on November 6, 2019. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(WDNR), working in collaboration with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service will release about Sturgeon from the Wolf River, near Keshena Falls, into Chickeney
Creek. The transfer is part of the ongoing effort to return the sacred Sturgeon to their ancestral spawning
grounds located on the Wolf River at Keshena Falls in Keshena, Wisconsin.
The 2019 November transfer is part of a 10 year MOU, which will return over 100 Sturgeon annually to
the Wolf River on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend the event. Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes
and DNR Secretary Preston Cole will be in attendance, along with Menominee Nation Chairman Douglas
Cox. Dave Grignon, Menominee Tribal Historic Preservation Officer will provide a prayer, and
Menominee Indian High School Drum will do an honor song.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
2:00 pm
Wolf River, Near Keshena Falls, Keshena, Wisconsin
The Sturgeon is an aboriginal source of sustenance and spirituality for the Menominee people and a clan
symbol of the Tribe. The annual spring return of the sturgeon symbolizes the return to abundance to the
Menominee, after the long hard winter. Historically, when the water is high from the ice thaw, the
sturgeon are called home by the sound of the drumbeat, which is made from a large circular underwater
rock formation near Keshena Falls. These essential elements of Menominee culture were halted for 100
years following the construction of the 1892 dam at Shawano, and later by the 1926 dam at Balsam Row.
Early 1990’s, the Menominee people revived the sturgeon ceremonies with the assistance of the Wisconsin
DNR. Every April, the Menominee Cultural Museum/Historic Preservation hold the Sturgeon Feast to
honor the return of the sturgeon.
