Prairie Band crew cleans up lake Illinois pond

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas sent a crew to Illinois to clean up a fish-rearing pond in Shabbona Lake State Park.

The six-member crew will dredge the pond, which is adjacent to Shabbona Lake, this week. The tribe donated all the labor and equipment for the project.

“It's government-to-government relations,” Tim Ramirez, director of the tribe’s public works department, told The DeKalb Daily Chronicle. “We heard that the last governor cut the budget so bad, and went for the state parks first.”

The lake and the park are named for Chief Shabbona, who lived on a 1,280-acre reservation there. The tribe says the reservation still exists.

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Tribe helps rebuild Shabbona fish-rearing pond (The DeKalb Daily Chronicle 10/8)