Superfund sites are investigated to determine the nature and extent of pollution. That has happened many times over the years at St. Regis, leading to the removal of some contaminated soil.

Some EPA studies and reports suggested the cleanup was done or nearing completion, but then the band’s own studies contradicted the EPA data. In the early 2000s, researchers with the University of Minnesota found evidence of a worsening situation that the EPA seemed to miss.

“It’s easy for a lot of people to say, ‘Well, they didn’t know any better when they were poisoning the water…when they were poisoning the land, they didn’t know any better.’ But they really did,” said Leo Anderson, who lived on a section of the Superfund site, as did his grandparents.

“One of the earliest memories I have of living on this site was that if you left a glass of water out overnight, in the morning there was an oil on top of it,” Anderson said.

“We had repeated stories of these companies putting freshly treated creosote wood right next to people’s homes,” he said. “They would pile it as close as they could to your home until you moved out and then they would continue working their way through the whole community. So this was not a mistake.”

A National Weather Service survey team will be in St. Louis County in northern Minnesota on Friday to assess damage and try to determine the strength of a twister that touched down Thursday afternoon.

“It was a confirmed tornado,” said Krystal Lynum, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s office in Duluth.

Numerous photos and videos posted online showed the tornado that felled trees near Bug Creek Road just east of Cotton, and as it crossed Hwy. 53 near Canyon, Minn. between 4:45 and 5:30 p.m., Lynum said.

Shingles were torn from a two-story home and debris was strewn near Cotton, the Weather Service reported.

“Fortunately, a remote area with few buildings,” St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay wrote in a Facebook posting. No injuries were reported, he said.

The two small towns are about 40 miles northwest of Duluth.

While not unprecedented, the September tornado in northern Minnesota is rare, Lynum said.

“Usually severe weather starts to end the last part of August, but it’s been so warm we are seeing severe weather in September.”

The identities have now been released of both men who were shot to death during a one-day spate of gunfire tied to homeless encampments, while a suspect in the shootings remains jailed.

Robert Milton Brown, 39, of Minneapolis, was shot in the head Wednesday and died at the scene in the 2500 block of S. 15th Avenue, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.

Police said Brown was standing by a garage in an alley at 4:15 p.m. when a group of people passed by. One person in the group approached Brown and shot him.

About 12 hours earlier, Roland Scott Littleowl, 20, died after being shot in the head in an alley in the 2500 block of 17th Avenue S. The shooting also left a man in his 30s wounded, police said.

In a third incident Wednesday, a man suffered a potentially life-threatening gunshot wound at 7:20 p.m. in the 2300 block of S. 17th Avenue S. The suspect was arrested 15 minutes later near E. 26th Street and 17th Avenue S., according to police.

The alleged shooter remains jailed with charges pending. Police have not released his identity.

On Thursday, Mayor Jacob Frey Frey vowed to accelerate the destruction of the encampments and called out the fentanyl crisis as a major factor.

Also on Thursday, the City Council approved measures related to housing and homelessness: a new set of reporting requirements intended to add transparency to camp removals, including where individuals land after being dispersed; a $1.5 million rehabilitation grant to help a downtown shelter make needed repairs; and an extension of the pre-eviction notification period for renters from 14 days to 30 days.