BLM monitors cultural sites on BLM-managed islands in Minnesota

This summer, BLM Northeastern States District Archaeologist/Tribal Liaison Breelyn Van Fleet conducted site visits and monitored cultural sites on BLM-managed islands in Lake Vermilion, Black Duck and Elbow Lakes in Minnesota. The purpose of the visits was for the BLM to continue building relationships with the Bois Forte Band (A Band is a smaller group within a Tribe) and to protect cultural resources at the sites.

The participants at the site visits and island monitoring included Bill Latady, Bois Forte Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), and Ron "Moots" Geshick and Jim Mihelch, both Bois Forte Elders.

Left to right: Ron "Moots" Geshick, Bois Forte Elder, and Breelyn VanFleet, BLM Archaeologist/Tribal Liaison, on an island in Black Duck Lake.

Lake Vermilion covers about 40,000 acres and is one of the largest lakes in northeastern Minnesota. The lake has hundreds of bays and inlets, with 1,200 miles of shoreline and more than 365 islands. Of these, 86 islands in and around Lake Vermilion are public and managed by the BLM. The lake area is home to bald eagles, loons, ospreys, and a variety of other wildlife and fish including deer, moose, mink, otter, and wolves, walleye, bass, bluegill, and muskellunge.

An island in Lake Vermilion 

An island in Black Duck Lake

While recreational use is encouraged on some of these islands, others are managed for cultural resources, where recreational use can damage the archaeological sites. The BLM is working with the Bois Forte Band to protect these areas.

Left to right: Bill Latady, THPO; and Jim Mihelich, Bois Forte Elder, looking at the remnants of a historic root cellar on an island in Elbow Lake.

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and the 1854 Treaty Authority, an Inter-Tribal natural resource management agency, received a National Preservation Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2007. This award formalized the BLM's commitment to collaborative management and protection of archaeological and Tribal resources within the Lake Vermilion Recreation Area. In 2016, BLM Eastern States established a Bois Forte Chippewa Archaeological Site Stewardship challenge cost share agreement to continue partnership efforts to manage and preserve the archaeological stewardship at these sites.

Left to right: Bill Latady, THPO; Jim Mihelich, Bois Forte Elder; and Ron "Moots" Geshick, Bois Forte Elder discussing the use of birch bark on an island in Black Duck Lake

The sites on the islands include cultural resources from the Paleoindian Tradition, who were the first people to arrive in North America (hunter-gatherers), to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, whose members still use the sites today. In conducting the visits, BLM is meeting the challenge of the Secretarial Order 3356: Hunting, Fishing, Recreation Shooting, and Wildlife Conservation Opportunities and Coordination with States, Tribes, and Territories (September 15, 2017).

Story by Breelyn Van Fleet, Archaeologist/Tribal Liaison, and Martha Malik, Public Affairs Specialist. Photos by Breelyn Van Fleet.