As Lac du Flambeau road closure standoff enters month two, possible legal and legislative action loom. Here's what to know.

Frank Vaisvilas, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·5 min read
15

LAC DU FLAMBEAU - Pam Kester fears for her daughter’s well-being after leaving their home on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin, where tribal officials set up barricades on four roads this winter.

She said her daughter, who is autistic, had been doing better than ever before at the local high school after her family moved to Lac du Flambeau in September.

But since having to leave their home because of the blockade, Kester said her daughter has been struggling with her studies.

“My daughter desperately wants to go back to school,” Kester said. “She will be dropping a class this week because it is too challenging without the personal help of her teacher. Change is very difficult for her, and stability in her schedule and routine have been completely disrupted.”

The situation may also affect her daughter’s physical health, she said.

“My daughter has a ventricular heart defect and has had two open-heart surgeries,” Kester said. “When stressed, she experiences heart palpitations and has just been put on a 30-day heart monitor to gauge the level of these palpitations.”

A roadblock is seen along Ross Allen Lane on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Residents share life 'Behind the Barricades'

The Kesters are one of dozens of non-tribal families living on the reservation affected by the closure of roads accessing their properties

Tribal officials set up roadblocks on four roads on the reservation Jan. 31, stranding non-Native residents of some 65 households, in a land dispute.

Other residents have chosen to stay in their homes and are using snowmobiles through forests and frozen lakes to leave for supplies.

“We bought a second home in LDF 10 years ago,” wrote one participant on the Facebook page “Behind the Barricades in Lac du Flambeau,” which was set up for residents affected by the situation. “If I was looking now, I would not buy on tribal land. Homes sold and bought honestly, taxes paid, and none of that matters now for some homeowners. People barricaded into their homes. I would look elsewhere if I was buying today. Too much at risk.”

Residents talk with town supervisor Bob Hanson (left) after a town board meeting on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Officials call for resolution; attorney warns of legal action

Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin stepped in and wrote a joint letter to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs asking the agency to intervene for a resolution.

Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-Wausau, has written a letter to LDF Tribal President Johnson saying the move by the tribe appears to be a shakedown attempt and threatened legislative action.

“Like most area residents, I want to see a resolution that addresses the concerns of all parties,” he wrote in his letter. “However, this will not happen so long as the tribal government continues to block open access to these roads. In fact, the longer the roadblocks remain in place, the more likely policymakers will be to pursue a legislative option.”

And Bridget Hubing, the attorney representing the title companies and many of the residents, is threatening legal action.

She wrote that landowners had made a second settlement offer of more than $1 million to the tribe and another letter asking to meet, to which the tribe hadn’t responded.

“Due to the lack of response while the barricades have remained in place for the last 23 consecutive days my clients have directed me to take all appropriate legal action,” Hubing wrote to the tribe’s attorney. “I will file the complaint if the roads are not reopened by noon on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023.”

A roadblock is seen along Annie Sunn Lane on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Why the roadblocks?

By setting up roadblocks, Lac du Flambeau tribal officials say they’re trying to safeguard what little land they have left.

Tribal officials said the roads, which had been there for decades, had been illegally built on tribal lands. They said the easements for those roads had expired more than 10 years ago and that negotiations broke down over the years with title companies that handle the properties the roads access.

The tribe is asking for $20 million to reopen the roads and Lac du Flambeau Tribal President John Johnson said the title companies would have only had to pay a fraction of that amount if they had been willing to “negotiate in good faith” nearer the time the easements expired.

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The 86,600-acre Lac du Flambeau Reservation is primarily in Vilas County in northern Wisconsin. It includes about 1,700 non-tribal households and about 2,300 tribal households. The tribe has a population of about 3,500 citizens.

Tribal officials said they have been conducting regular well-being checks on residents to make sure they have enough food and prescription medicine.

Some residents, however, said they have only been checked on once by the tribe and are concerned about the ability of first responders to reach them in time in case there’s an emergency.

Residents Holly Schwartz (left) and Cindy Lee (right) review a local road map on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Why non-tribal citizens are living on the reservation

Many non-tribal citizens live on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation and on tribal reservations across the U.S. largely because of the Dawes Act.

Congress, in the late 1800s, started a nationwide policy of encouraging individual ownership on reservations by tribal members in an effort to force them to assimilate into American society.

Much of those individual parcels were eventually conveyed to non-Indigenous people by sale, foreclosure or enforcement of tax liens, and much of the tribal land was lost.

Dig deeper

A roadblock is seen along Center Sugarbush Lane on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Frank Vaisvilas is a Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.You can directly support his work with a tax-deductible donation online at  GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Lac du Flambeau road closures: Lawsuit, legislative action possible