Duluth, Minnesota four Catholic schools with coverage up to grades 6 or 8, two Protestant schools, two Montessori schools, and six other charter and private schools. Due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, Duluth is the location for the Large Lakes Observatory. The Large Lakes Observatory operates the largest university-owned research vessel in the Great Lakes, the R/V Blue Heron. Built in 1985 for fishing on the Grand Banks, the Blue Heron was purchased by the University of Minnesota in 1997, sailed from Portland, Maine, up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Duluth, and converted into a limnological research vessel during the
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (or "Wayekwaa-gichigamiing Gichigamiwininiwag" in the Ojibwe language, meaning "Lake Superior Men at the far end of the Great Lake") is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) band located near Cloquet, Minnesota. Their land-base is the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation (Ojibwe language: "Nagaajiwanaang"), located mainly in Carlton and Saint Louis County, Minnesota, 20 miles west of Duluth. They are one of six bands who comprise the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, which was organized in 1934 under a new constitution. In July 2007, their enrolled members numbered