Name of Project: Red Lake Fish Passage
Location: Beltrami County, MN
Scope of Work: Fish Passage

The Red Lake Reservation is located in the northern Minnesota almost totally within Beltrami County with a small portion in Clearwater County. The reservation is 636,954 acres. Other holdings including the Northwest Angle at 156,900 acres total 825,654 acres, larger than the state of Rhode Island. Red Lake is the largest fresh water lake in the country wholly contained within one state. The lake, Mis-qua-ga-me-we-saga-eh-ganing to the Red Lake Ojibwe, is held sacred. Red Lake has a history of leadership among Indian Tribes and has been at the vanguard of many initiatives in Indian Country. These include the first tribe in the Country to have tribal auto license plates; Red Lake elected the first Indian County Commissioner in the State, and a Red Lake Spiritual Leader became the first non-Judeo-Christian chaplain of the State Senate.

The Red Lake Indian Reservation, together with the St Paul Army Corp of Engineers, are building a native fish passage structure to accommodate native species the ability to go back into the lake after spawning. Currently, the fish attempt to go through a concrete spillway structure that does not allow for fish to come back into Red Lake. The project will consist of miscellaneous grading, box culvert installation, riprap placement, outlet control structure, and fish passage structure.