Tribal Highlight: Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Awarded Funds to Develop an Indigenous Conservation Crew Program
Utilizing funding awarded by the America the Beautiful Challenge competitive grant program for ecological restoration and cultural preservation, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa built a Maajii-akii-gikenjigewin crew (Indigenous Conservation Crew).
Minnesota – The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced the America the Beautiful Challenge (ATBC) in 2022, establishing five years of grant funding to support state, territory, and Tribally-led ecosystem restoration. One of fourteen Tribes awarded FY22 funding, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is engaging its membership in a (young) adult Maajii-akii-gikenjigewin crew (Indigenous Conservation Crew), supporting their existing on-the-ground projects and creating opportunities for young adults to pursue careers in the natural resource field.
On September 24, 2024, NAFWS America the Beautiful Challenge Field Liaisons Andy Edwards and Katie Schultz joined Anthony Mazzini, Environmental Outreach Coordinator from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, for a site visit to learn more about how ATBC funding has helped them expose young Tribal members to the potential options a Tribal natural resources career can provide.
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Resource Management Division (FDLRMD)
The FDLRMD is a large, multi-faceted division that has an equally large vision – management, conservation, and sustainability of the Band’s natural resources to protect the environment on both the nearly 100,000-acre Reservation and across millions of acres of the 1837, 1842, and 1854 Ceded Territories spanning modern day Minnesota and Wisconsin. Long a leader in conservation efforts for the Lake Superior region, the FDLRMD approaches their goal with a blend of cultural history and traditional practices, community engagement, and modern science approaches that result in conservation efforts that support and respect Tribal sovereignty and cultural knowledge.
One goal of the Band is to prepare younger generations to take care of the Fond du Lac community and their lands. This ATBC planning grant provided funds to jumpstart that effort. Building upon a previously successful relationship, the FDLRMD joined forces with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa (CCMI) to develop a (young) adult Indigenous Conservation Corps Crew on the FDL Reservation to help accomplish this goal. The crew, Maajii-akii-gikenjigewin; Starting out in Earth Conservation, focused on working with current FDL Resource Management professionals to gain valuable experience and skills, preparing them for future careers in the natural resources field. The 4-person crew was comprised of members from the FDL Tribal Community and together they worked to support the Resource Management Division’s on-the-ground management plans to conserve and restore rivers, wetlands, watersheds, forests, and other important ecosystems within the FDL reservation and the 1837, 1842, and 1854 Ceded Territories where the Band retains rights to hunt, fish, and gather.
One internal goal is that this Indigenous Conservation Crew program can provide an alternative route to the more traditional university focused, or western science-based, career pathway for Tribal members. They recognize that the college route isn’t the right choice for everyone and that meaningful contributions and successes as a natural resources professional don’t require a university degree. Another benefit of developing an in-house career training pathway is the ability to include knowledge and practices that would not be found in a traditional, western science education setting. For example, like many Ojibwe nations, Fond du Lac uses tobacco during spiritual and cultural practices. When it comes to the band’s wolf research program, tobacco is routinely used as a token of respect and reciprocity. Whenever a pup is weighed and measured, tobacco is placed near the den. When a necropsy is conducted in the field, tobacco is set on the ground near the body. These gestures reflect the band’s reverence for the wolf, an animal that Fond du Lac members consider a brother. In the Ojibwe creation story, a wolf accompanied the first person who walked the earth. Crew member Devin Lintgen got to learn more about honoring these cultural practices while assisting the wildlife program with their wolf pup monitoring program.

The crew got to experience the thrill of seeing wolf pups in the wild and learn about how the wildlife program incorporates Tribal culture and respectful practices when working with these revered animals. Photo credit: Russel Albert Daniels.

Here two of the crew spend some time in the woods learning about forestry practices, staking and fencing conifer seedlings to provide some extra protection from white tail deer and other animals while they get off to a good start. Note the CCMI motto on the shirts “Restoring Resources. Changing Lives”. Photo credit: David Minor.
The crew had the opportunity to work across many of the FDLRMD programs, assisting with wildlife, fisheries, forestry, environmental, and manoomin (wild rice) projects. They learned to work as a team and were rewarded with the appreciation and respect of the community they served. “We want to go work at the Fond du Lac garden and Fond du Lac farm. And one of the things that we did was help the Elders, like if they needed help, something done with their plot of land, or with their plants or some weeding, some special trellises that they had to build, we helped with that also. That was meaningful, because of the Elders, that it is nice to see appreciation, you know, that they were really thankful that we were there and it was nice to have that,”said crew leader Lyssa Lawrence.

The crew learned the value of working together and their efforts to help the community, like here at the Fond du Lac garden and farm, were greatly appreciated. Photo credit: David Minor.
The hope is that over time this program will lead to regular recruitment of Division employees from within the community, taking advantage of their innate knowledge of the area and issues and also help combat the challenges that many Tribal natural resources programs face of recruiting young professionals to areas that often face problems like housing. Happily, two of the original participants from 2023 have moved into other positions within the FDLRMD and there has been strong interest in the program which has already secured outside funding to continue in 2025.
When asked about his experience, Rax, crew member, said “It’s fun. We get to learn a lot about the environment and plants. The work seems very important because you’re helping around, hopping to different places. It feels like we’re just hopping everywhere. We’re planting things, we’re helping animals get over here to get over there. Yeah, I don’t know, just get some new skills out of it. And I did get some new skills out of it.” Lyssa added, “I joined the Corp because it looked like something that I might like. I like working outside, I like working with youth. It was something that I’ve always grown up thinking – this is something I want to do, like the Peace Corp or something. Something in service of something. And I think conservation, I’m all about that.”
Supporting Tribal Conservation
In 2022 and 2023, Tribal Nations requested about $500 million through the America the Beautiful Challenge. NFWF and the agencies have committed to providing at least 10% of annual funds to Tribes. Thus far the quality of Tribal proposals has been rewarded with over a third of funds going to Tribal Nations! In the first two years NFWF has awarded 35 projects, to Tribal Nations, totaling about $76 million. While this amount is significant, the disparity between requested and awarded funding demonstrates the need for long-term, sustainable funding for Tribal conservation and restoration.
Disclaimer: This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.