After 10 years, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa will be able to reopen a commercial walleye fishery with a $1 million economic development grant from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community in Prior Lake. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa plan to reopen the fishery this summer.

 The band opened the commercial fishery on Red Lake, the sixth-largest natural freshwater lake in the United States, in 1917 to help with the World War I effort to provide fresh  meat for Minnesota citizens.

Eighty-five percent of Red Lake lies within the boundaries of the Red Lake Indian Reservation and is entirely under the jurisdiction of the Red Lake Band. The other 15 percent is controlled by the state of Minnesota.

The Red Lake fishery is the only commercial walleye fishery and one of the largest freshwater commercial fisheries in the United States. Through the years, the fishery supported several hundred commercial fishers and their families on the reservation and has been important to the off-reservation economy as well.

Populations of walleye in Red Lake collapsed in the mid-1990s, forcing the closure of the commercial fishery for the first time. The Red Lake Band led an effort to bring walleye back, which commenced in 1999 with the signing of an historic 10-year agreement among the band, the state of Minnesota, and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other partners included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Minnesota, and the Red Lake Fisheries Association.

The recovery process included a complete moratorium on walleye harvest and a large-scale stocking effort. It was uncertain if the walleye stocks could actually be recovered. The success the Red Lake walleye recovery team has had has brought the walleye population back from virtual extinction to an optimal level in just seven years.

Fishing for Red Lake walleye resumed in 2006 under a sustainable-management plan guided by a technical committee of fishery experts. To ensure future sustainability of the walleye population, regulation of the fishery will be by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.

“We appreciate that the Red Lake Tribal Council wants to make life better for its members. It is very important to us to help other Indian people help themselves. It is an important step for tribal sovereignty for Red Lake to reopen their fishery and provide jobs and resources for their members,” said SMDC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks.

The Red Lake Reservation, which consists of 1,259 square miles in northwestern Minnesota, has a population of more than 6,000. In 2006 the SMDC awarded a $1 million grant to the Red Lake Band for a Boys and Girls Club.