Kinship Projects

Management and stewardship of lakes and other bodies of freshwater has been occurring in the areas surrounding the Great Lakes for time immemorial. Group and individuals controlling, managing, and researching these freshwater bodies has changed, along with multiple definitions of what is a “healthy” lake. In Northern Wisconsin, the number of individuals who visit the area and lakes seasonally has dramatically increased over the years, with a focus on seasonal recreational fishing and watercraft activities in the summer months.

The number, background, affiliation, and activities of individuals interacting with the lakes in Northern Wisconsin continues to change, and a one-size-fits-all definition of how to steward lakes, especially in a changing climate, won’t prepare the lakes and their non-human inhabitants for warming waters and atypical seasons from a changing climate.

We aim to find out historical and current relationships peoples in Northern Wisconsin have with bodies of freshwater in the area, how lakes and their inhabitants have influenced them, and how they define a healthy lake in current and future times.

ZaaGa’Iganan Kinship Project

As a group of researchers and scientists living full-time in the area, we want folks to remember that humans play a major role in influencing lakes and we ant to center a variety of voices that may or may not be at the table making decisions about lakes. We take a social-science research method to figure out peoples’ past and current relationship with lakes in the region with the aim to inform current and future research, education, and policy on lakes in Northern Wisconsin.

Walleye Kinship Subproject

Manoomin Kinship SubProject

project Affiliates

Gretchen Gerrish / Director of Trout Lake Station / Principle Investigator

Ray Allen / Postdoctoral Fellow / Project Leader

Sagen Quale / UW-Madison graduate student / Manoomin Kinship Subproject leader