The public is encouraged to join in a celebration and release of juvenile sturgeon into the Kalamazoo River, Monday, Aug. 29, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the New Richmond Bridge County Park, 5700 Old Allegan Road, in Hamilton. A welcome to the ceremony will be provided by Chairperson Leah Sprague-Fodor and the tribal youth drum group ThunderBuddies will perform.
Tribal elders John Bush, Punkin and Dave Shananaquet and Miss Pottawatomi, Mary Bush will also take part. The event will include hatchery tours and light dinner for up to 200 people in attendance.
The eight-inch sturgeon set for release were reared in a streamside hatchery and will be hand-released back into the river. Sturgeon, or Nmé in Pottawatomi, is culturally important to the tribe as the fish represents an animal clan in traditional beliefs.
Sturgeon clan people have spiritual knowledge offered as guidance to others and they live to an old age, just like lake sturgeon. The rehabilitation of lake sturgeon is a reflection of the tribe’s present-day progression as a community and a tribal government.
The Gun Lake Tribe organized an annual release of lake sturgeon into the river with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, and the Kalamazoo River chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow.
