This cemetery should not be confused with Mission Creek Cemetery

This is a burial site for members of the Fond Du Lac Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa. This site was disturbed in June of 2017, in the course of a MNDot project, and there was a struggle for a couple years, afterward, to make this right as discussed in these two press releases:

Burial recovery completed at Mission Creek in Duluth
DULUTH, Minn. — The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) and the Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA), in consultation with the Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, have notified MnDOT that burial recovery efforts at the historic Mission Creek cemetery located in the Fond du Lac neighborhood of Duluth have been completed.

In May 2017, MnDOT uncovered burial remains in the historic cemetery while excavating to replace the Mission Creek Bridge. Since that time, project partners and contractors have worked together to respectfully complete burial recovery efforts. In May 2019, the Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa took the lead on recovery efforts, executing an aggressive work plan and doubling crew size from that of previous contractors.

As the work crew neared completion of recovery efforts, concerns were raised about the possibility of negatively impacting areas of the cemetery that were not part of the original disturbance. As a result, work was halted so that MIAC and OSA in consultation with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, could reassess the remaining workload and determine how to best move forward. Protecting the cemetery is important to all parties and after careful consideration it has been determined there is no need to conduct further burial recovery.

The next steps will be to return soils to the central cemetery slope, officially define the cemetery boundaries, and repatriate remains and burial related items. The agencies are also working with a landscape architect who will aid in development of the cemetery's final design. Upon delineation of the final cemetery boundaries, MnDOT will restart the project development process to address the Mission Creek Bridge.

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Cemetery site status

Pedestrians and bicyclists are not permitted in the closed lanes or fenced areas. Please be respectful of the cemetery and use alternate routes.

In mid-May 2017, the Minnesota Department of Transportation began work on a project to replace the highway 23 Bridge over Mission Creek to allow for a larger waterway. Due to the inadvertent disturbance of a Native American burial site in June 2017, the Mission Creek Bridge Replacement project was placed on hold.

In collaboration with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, and the Office of the State Archeologist, MnDOT has since worked to help respectfully complete burial recovery and restore the cemetery site. In early October 2019, it was announced that the burial recovery process had been completed and processed soils could begin being returned to the cemetery. In November 2019, processed soils were returned and the central cemetery slope was stabilized.

MnDOT has contracted with landscape architect Urban Ecosystems to develop a final design for restoring the historic cemetery site. Outreach for input on the final cemetery design is ongoing and restoration efforts will begin in the summer of 2020.

Bridge Project

The project development process to address the Mission Creek Bridge will begin again upon delineation of the final cemetery boundaries.