repairs and replacements . 



This lease was renewed July 1, 1933 for 

 a period of one year . At the insistence of the 

 State, which demanded a rental for the Red Lake 

 hatchery, the lease of July 1, 1934 also provided 

 that the Red Lake Fisheries Association pay one- 

 half of the annual salaries of two hatchery em- 

 ployees and assume one-third of the operating 

 expenses of the hatchery, the total of such ex- 

 penses not to exceed $4,000.00. Although 

 previous agreements made no reference to hatch- 

 ery expenses the Association had paid one -half 

 of the annual salaries of two employees since 

 1929. Again at the request of the State the 

 rental was increased and the lease of July 1, 1935 

 raised the Association's share of the operating 

 expenses from one-third to five-eighths. These 

 terms were not changed in subsequent leases . 



EVENTS THAT LED TO 

 THE 1938 INVESTIGATION 



The Red Lake Fisheries Association 

 felt that it was forced, by the terms of the 1935 

 contract with the Minnesota Conservation Com- 

 mission, to assume too great a share of the 

 operating expense of the hatchery. From 1929 

 to 1933, inclusive, the Association paid the 

 State a total of $7,080 or an average of $1,416 

 per year. From July 1, 1934 to December 31, 

 1938 it paid a total of $15,994 or an average of 

 $3, 199 per year . During the entire 10 -year 

 period the total amounted to $23,074 or an aver- 

 age of $2,307 per annum . It has been estimated 

 (by a state employee) that the actual average 

 cost to operate the hatchery from 1929 to 1933 

 was $4,895 per year. The second biennial re- 

 port of the Minnesota Department of Conserva- 

 tion for the fiscal years, 1933-1934, page 169, 

 states: "The cost to the State of operating the 

 hatchery and fisheries plant is approximately 

 $4,400 per year, a cost entirely out of propor- 

 tion to the benefit the state receives in return." 

 The third biennial report for the fiscal years, 

 1935-1936, page 154, lists the following expend- 

 itures for the Redby hatchery and field station: 

 1934-35, $3,189.81; 1935-36, $2,448.35. 



The contract between the State and the 

 Commissioner of Indian Affairs expired July 1, 



1938, and was not renewed because under the 

 proposed terms of the new contract the Minne- 

 sota Department of Conservation called for a 

 rental of $6,500 per year. 



Various controversies between the State, 

 political groups, anglers, and the Indians led to 

 a field investigation extending from August 23 

 to September 10 in 1938, and an analysis of 

 records by the authors . 



FISHES OF THE RED LAKES 



A complete list of fishes known or re- 

 ported to occur in the Red Lakes or in or near 

 the mouths of their tributaries in 1938 is given 

 in table 1. Species reported by Surber (1920) 

 or observed by us in the commercial catch or 

 recorded in the statistics are designated by Xs . 

 The actual number of individuals of each species 

 captured is given for the seining localities . 



The list of fishes occurring in the Red 

 Lakes or the tributary stream. Mud Creek, com- 

 prised 30 species (two species represented by 

 the hybrid. No. 26) distributed among 14 famil- 

 ies . As indicated in a footnote to the table, 

 there was good reason to doubt the actual pres- 

 ence of the mooneye; consequently the number 

 of known species at that time should be given as 

 29. Of this number only 10 were reported by 

 Surber (1920). The species for which first 

 records of occurrence in the Red Lakes were 

 made in 1938 are given in table 1 and are dis- 

 tributed according to family as follows: 

 Catostomidae, 1; Cyprinidae, 8; Esocidae, 1; 

 Percopsidae, 1; Gasterosteidae, 1; Percidae, 1; 

 Etheostomidae, 3; Centrarchidae, 3. 



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