A 100-Year Bloom of Indigenous Limnology and Reconnection to Land through Field Stations

The impact and importance of place-based teaching and research with Indigenous communities globally is making a resurgence, and dominant Western institutions commit to but struggle with implementing these practices. This article outlines an Anishinaabe-based initiative to reoccupy space and create a network for Indigenous peoples interested in or participating in water research in the Great Lakes region by reimagining relationships around a university field station. The University of Wisconsin-Madison owns Trout Lake Station, a field station about 220 miles north of the main campus that is world-renowned for its work in limnology. The (Ph)enological Initiatives for (IN)digenous Peoples in Limnology is a project housed at Trout Lake Station aimed at reconnecting Tribal citizens to their homelands and with fellow Indigenous peoples to assess and strengthen relationships with freshwater. The project, a collaboration between the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and UW Madison Trout Lake Station, has hosted four seasonal workshops and is expanding to include seasonal internships for program alumni. We discuss the past and current versions of our workshop, synergistic relationships from in-house programs and research projects with the Lac du Flambeau Tribe, engagement and feedback from program alumni, and future plans for the projects and leadership. We conclude by providing suggestions and templates for similar place-based initiatives in other Indigenous lands and encourage field stations to be a place where reconnection and regeneration of land-based pedagogies for Indigenous communities are cultivated.