The Fish Between The Falls

Ten thousand years ago Kootenai people painted pictures of white sturgeon on the rocks above the lake where they lived. These impressive fish, the largest and one of the oldest in North America, were an important part of the tribe's diet and the inspiration for their elegant sturgeon-nosed canoes. Now, dikes and dams have changed the river system so much that sturgeon no longer successfully reproduce. But the people whose culture is bound up with these fish and the people who control the river today are working together to restore the Kootenai River White Sturgeon to their ancestral home.