The inspiration for this image is the hope that sturgeon will return to the Fox River in Wisconsin. A treaty signed by the Oneida resulted in the damming of the Fox River, which stopped the migration of the sturgeon to their spawning grounds. —Gordon Coons

Gordon Coons is an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Northern Wisconsin and a descendant of the Ottawa tribe in Michigan. Now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gordon is a self taught artist, creating and experimenting with a variety of media including linoleum block prints, paintings, pen and ink drawings, and creations in stone, wood, and assembled sculptures. Although his artwork is more contemporary, each piece portrays a unique view of traditional Native stories or is a record or impression of Indigenous history in North America.