Fond du Lac band gifts Indigenous recognition flag to Duluth East High

A Fond du Lac Band flag now greets students at Duluth East High School after a Monday night dedication in the cafeteria, turning a symbolic gift into a daily marker of Indigenous presence in one of Duluth Public Schools’ largest buildings.

The flag was presented by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and dedicated in front of representatives from the Fond du Lac Tribal Council and the school district. Bruce Savage, a Fond du Lac Tribal Council member and Duluth East alumnus, was among those present, giving the ceremony an especially local connection between the school and the tribal community that has long shaped the region.

Duluth East serves about 1,486 students in grades 9 through 12, so the banner will be visible to a large student body every day. In a district where American Indian students and families have pushed for stronger representation, the flag is more than hallway decoration. It functions as a public acknowledgment that Indigenous students are part of the school community and that their history belongs in the same spaces where academic life unfolds.

The gesture also fits within a broader district framework already in place around Native student support. Duluth Public Schools says its American Indian Education Department is committed to supporting the academic achievement, cultural identity and personal well-being of American Indian students, including work with families and tribal nations. The district also says its core values include learning, excellence, equity, collaboration and belonging, and it maintains an Office of Education Equity and an American Indian Parent Advisory Committee.

Those structures matter because the question is not simply whether a flag was raised, but whether schools are pairing recognition with concrete support. Duluth Public Schools lists an American Indian graduation banquet on its public calendar, and its Misaabekong Ojibwe Immersion program is offered at Lowell Elementary for kindergarten through grade 5. State education policy also treats Native student support as a measurable issue, with districts, charter schools and tribal schools that report at least 20 American Indian students eligible for Minnesota’s American Indian Education Aid program.

The Fond du Lac Band itself carries deep local history. It is a federally recognized, sovereign Ojibwe tribal government based near Cloquet, about 15 to 20 miles west of Duluth, and its reservation was established by the 1854 LaPointe Treaty. Duluth has previously displayed the Fond du Lac Band flag in civic space, including at City Hall, as part of broader reconciliation and recognition efforts.

At East, the new flag now ties that wider history to the daily life of a public school. It marks a visible step, but the lasting measure will be whether the district’s existing equity work, Native programming and tribal partnerships continue to reach students beyond the ceremony itself.