Long before the arrival of white trappers, loggers and farmers, Ottawa Indians fished the waters of northern Michigan for abundant native species like the iridescent, high-finned Arctic grayling.

Overfishing and habitat destruction drove the grayling to extinction in the state decades ago.

But one band of Ottawa Indians has landed a $200,000 federal grant to work to bring it back.

The band has enlisted Michigan Technological University scientists for a two-year research effort to test the feasibility of reintroducing the grayling in the Big Manistee River watershed of the northern Lower Peninsula.

The study concentrates on a short and relatively pristine section of the 230-mile river in eastern Manistee County.

Restoration might happen soon, or perhaps only after many years.