Here & Now

Tribal Sovereignty is at Issue in Lac du Flambeau's Lawsuits

Zac Schultz:
Another battle between property owners in the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is in court. The tribe recently declared non-Native peoples could not fish for walleye and muskie in lakes within tribal territory. And they’re now facing a federal lawsuit. “Here & Now” reporter Erica Ayisi traveled to the Northwoods to hear how tribal members feel about their sovereignty being challenged in court. This report is in collaboration with ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
I feel strongly that everyone needs to take care of what we have on earth. That means our water, our land, and everyone’s well-being.

Erica Ayisi:
Bagwajikwe Madosh is a citizen of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and she says she believes in preserving Ojibwe traditions, which the Lac du Flambeau tribe is defending in federal court.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
Let us do what we know best: replenish our lakes, keep our grounds clean, our forests.

Erica Ayisi:
Long Interlaken Lake is one of 19 lakes within the Lac du Flambeau Reservation that a federal judge temporarily blocked the tribe from banning nonmembers from fishing walleye and muskellunge in fish.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
We replenish the fish. We replenish what we take.

Erica Ayisi:
Madosh says their fish hatchery helps to maintain their stock but says there’s concern about the fish population.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
It’s not what you use it and then go on with life without knowing what’s going to come next.

Erica Ayisi:
The state of Wisconsin sued the tribe for blocking nonmembers from fishing in certain lakes. Tribal President John Johnson said the fish population is declining but needed to feed their 4,000 tribal members.

John Johnson:
A lot of it’s climate change, a lot of it’s logging structure, infrastructure, everything that goes on in our territory. We’re here to protect it.

Erica Ayisi:
Madhosh says there’s overfishing on their lakes and rivers.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
We need to all limit what we take, you know, and many people are taking what many people can have as well.

Erica Ayisi:
Flambeau Lake is also mentioned in the lawsuit against the tribe.

Adrian King:
Waswagoning which is Lake of the Flaming Torches.

Erica Ayisi:
Adrian King grew up here and has seen new neighbors over the years.

Adrian King:
A lot of these are non-Native houses, as far as I know.

Erica Ayisi:
He says he supports the tribe in responding to a second federal lawsuit involving the tribe, this one filed by the White Sand Lake Association, a group of non-Native homeowners who are suing the tribe for access to use a boat launch on a private property on the shoreline of White Sand Lake that’s within the reservation.

Adrian King:
At least, they’re experimenting in flexing their sovereignty a little bit more.

Erica Ayisi:
The tribe says the lake is threatened by documented environmental concerns, including the presence of Eurasian watermilfoil, an invasive species under Wisconsin law, saying it threatens their cultural resources along the shoreline.

Adrian King:
Wherever the information and data came from, whether it was our own or the state’s, we pay attention to that.

Erica Ayisi:
According to the lawsuit, the association is asking the federal court to decide whether a tribal government may regulate the activities of nonmembers on a fee simple, privately owned land and navigable waters in the state of Wisconsin. Torey Dolan, assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin and citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, says the United States recognizes Indian tribes as sovereign nations who have the right to govern themselves, their members, and their territories.

Torey Dolan:
It means that they’re exercising their ability to have a say over what happens in their territory and in their community.

Erica Ayisi:
When we talk about, they can govern themselves, what does that mean for the communities that are around them?

Torey Dolan:
Generally, just being in tribal territory, you are going to interact with tribal law in some capacity.

Erica Ayisi:
Dolan says the Lac du Flambeau reservation is checkerboarded with non-tribal members purchasing property there because of the Dawes Act or General Allotment Act of 1887.

Torey Dolan:
Congress created the Dawes Act, which authorized Indian agents to go into tribal communities, parcel out the communal land, sell the surplus.

Erica Ayisi:
In a different federal case last year, a judge sided with non-tribal homeowners in a dispute over access to four tribal roads that led to private properties on the Lac du Flambeau reservation.

Torey Dolan:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved these easements, and once they expired, the tribe sought to assert their property rights by closing these roads.

Erica Ayisi:
She says the Dawes Act was motivated by a belief that Native American Indians would die out, assimilate or be indistinguishable from non-Indian populations.

Torey Dolan:
That’s why we have so many legal and political issues today, because they really didn’t expect tribes and tribal people to endure.

Erica Ayisi:
Dolan says she believes it’s important.

Torey Dolan:
Their ability to enforce their own laws means their ability to continue to exist as a people, to continue to exist in their territory and to protect the area.

Erica Ayisi:
King says in times like these, the different tribes in Wisconsin come together.

Adrian King:
They feel a part of the tribe or a tribe, and they want to do their part to protect it.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
We as a people want to keep our earth as clean as possible.

Erica Ayisi:
Madosh says the pending federal lawsuit involving the Lac du Flambeau are about keeping their tribal sovereignty.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
That’s the main one that we need to keep for ourselves.

Erica Ayisi:
And maintaining their culture.

Bagwajikwe Madosh:
And for our children for times coming.

Erica Ayisi:
In Lac du Flambeau, I’m Erica Ayisi for “Here & Now” and ICT.