34th annual Sturgeon Feast and powwow brings Keshena together

A 10 a.m. walk to Keshena Falls opened the 34th annual Sturgeon Feast and Celebration Pow Wow at Menominee Nation High School, turning one Saturday in Keshena into a day of ceremony, recognition and food tied to a tradition that still carries weight in Menominee County.

The April 18 gathering ran from noon to 6 p.m., with grand entry at noon, a 3 p.m. honor ceremony for Dave “Nahwahquaw” Grignon and the Maec-Michehswan Big Feast from 5 to 6 p.m. The schedule also included historical displays, children’s crafts and activities, food and cake, a live raptor demonstration and a monarch butterfly presentation, making the event as much a family gathering and teaching day as a powwow. At Menominee Nation High School, one of the reservation’s main institutions, the celebration brought public ceremony into a place where community life already converges.

The sturgeon walk gave the event its strongest connection to place. By starting at Keshena Falls, the celebration linked the feast and powwow to the river system and to the Menominee relationship with sturgeon, an animal central to the tribe’s seasonal and ceremonial life. FOX 11 reported in 2024 that the feast celebrates the return of the sturgeon to the Menominee Reservation and that the tradition dates back centuries. David Grignon said the five clans’ first activity was fishing for sturgeon on the Menominee River, followed by a great feast and ceremony. That history was echoed by the tribe’s own sturgeon work, including a 2012 State of the Nation address that described a management plan with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to capture and release 115 adult sturgeon at Keshena Falls. In 2017, the department returned 59 sturgeon to the Keshena area, with 44 released into the Wolf River below Keshena Falls under an agreement that required at least 100 fish a year.

The honor ceremony for Dave “Nahwahquaw” Grignon added another layer of meaning. The event did not only celebrate a species or a spring tradition; it also recognized service and leadership in the community. Last year’s feast honored archaeologist David Overstreet, showing that the tribute has become a recurring part of the celebration’s structure. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin describes powwows as part of its culture and community life, and the Sturgeon Feast has long been framed as a drug- and alcohol-free gathering that draws families from Keshena, Neopit and Zoar. With the walk, grand entry, honor program and feast all in one day, the 34th annual event remained a living anchor for Menominee identity rather than a ceremonial backdrop.