IPR on Native America Calling: 'The Other Side of the Storm'

Interlochen Public Radio

Published November 14, 2025 at 10:33 AM EST

L. John Lufkins, a fisherman and member of the Bay Mills Indian Community. Lufkins rescued his cousin and uncle after their fishing boat capsized in the same storm that sank the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. (credit: Ellie Katz / Points North)

This week, the national call-in show Native America Calling featured our 'Points North' episode about Native fishermen caught in the same storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago.

Hear Native America Calling every weekday at 1 p.m. on IPR News Radio. How to listen.

IPR's Ellie Katz joined host Shawn Spruce to talk about the episode.

It tells the story of a few fishermen fighting for their lives 50 years ago, mere miles from where the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is going down in Lake Superior.

Listen to the conversation on "Native America Calling," starting at about the 37-minute mark of the program.

"Their stories are so powerful, and they remember the details so well," Katz told Native America Calling. "After this happened, they didn't really talk about it for years and years and years and years."

Hear the 'Points North' episode in its entirety, and sign up for the newsletter below: