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Fond Du Lac Band Buy Sacred Island

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) -- The Fond du Lac Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa has purchased a sacred Ojibwe island on the St. Louis River.

The band bought the nearly 6-acre Spirit Island from a Duluth resident for $150,000. Band chairwoman Karen Diver says the acquisition is a "significant reclamation" of land and culture and says it's much "like plugging a hole in our cultural spirit."

The island was a stopping place in the migration of the Anishinaabe people from the northeastern part of the continent. The ancestors of the Fond du Lac Band stayed in the area.

Diver tells the Duluth News Tribune that the purchase ensures the island will never be developed.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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