“Biologists are trying a new experiment in Cherokee with a rare
fish that science is just now starting to study,” Ostendorff
noted. “Wildlife and environmental officials with the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians and the federal government have
released 800 young sicklefin redhorse fish into the Oconaluftee
River on the Qualla Boundary with the hopes that they will grow
and spawn in the river’s rocky bottom. “The fish was once a
mainstay in the diet of the Cherokee. They caught the fish with
stone weirs and baskets. It was typically smoked and dried and
used in soups. “The fish is named for its sickle-shaped dorsal
fin and because it was once believed to be a redhorse sucker. It
grows to about three feet long and can weight up to seven
pounds. “The sicklefin lives only in the Little Tennessee and
Hiawasse river basins. Robert Jenkins, professor of biology at
Roanoke College in Virginia, discovered the fish in 1992. He is
in the process of formally describing it. “Historically and
culturally, it is a very signi