Lac du Flambeau tribe in northern Wisconsin blocks road amid a land dispute, stranding some non-Native residents. Here's what to know.
LAC DU FLAMBEAU - A dispute over funding prompted Lac du Flambeau tribal officials to close an access road on the reservation, leaving some non-Native residents feeling stranded in their homes.
“They’ve got me barricaded in and I can’t get out,” said David Kievet, who lives in a home on Center Sugarbush Lane on the reservation, which is in Vilas County in northern Wisconsin.
The road has been closed since Jan. 30 after tribal officials said negotiations broke down with title companies that handled the homes.
“Imagine if someone built a road through your property without your permission to access land on the other side of your property,” said Lac du Flambeau Tribal President John Johnson in a statement. “A title company then tells your neighbor they are guaranteed access forever to their property through your land over illegally built road.”
Kievet said there are eight other homes along Sugarbush Lane and residents at three households are “being held hostage” in their homes because of the closed road.
Tribal officials said rights-of-way for the properties expired 10 years ago and the title companies “have been slow to act and take responsibility for issuing defective title policy commitment letters to homeowners that did not address access over Indian lands …”
“We feel for the individual property owners impacted by the title companies’ refusal to negotiate in good faith over the course of 10 years,” Johnson said. “The Tribe is fed up with the title companies’ games. Title companies could have settled the situation by paying a fraction of what is being asked now.”
Kievet said a steel cable and two concrete blocks at the end of Sugarbush Lane prevent him from driving out of his neighborhood.
Tribal police have a key to unlock the steel cable and have to visit him to check on his health, he said.
“Lac du Flambeau police have been very polite about the whole situation,” Kievet said. “They’ve been very cordial.”
He said he’s also called the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office, but they are reluctant to become involved in a civil dispute on the reservation.
Kievet said the town of Lac du Flambeau is holding a meeting to discuss the situation and the only way he can get to it is to drive his snowmobile across a frozen lake.
He believes the tribe should not have closed the road because they’ve had 10 years to work it out with the title companies and could have found another way to deal with the situation rather than what he calls “grandstanding.”
“For them to hold a legal resident hostage is reprehensible,” Kievet said. “I don’t live in Russia. I live in the U.S.”
He said he was required to give part of his property for a public easement for an access road and can’t understand why the tribe can’t do the same.
“There’s a set of rules that pertains to the tribe and certain rules that pertain to us,” Kievet said.
He said he’s concerned a fire truck or ambulance won’t be able to reach his neighborhood in time in case of emergency because of the closed road.
Tribal officials said the property owners have been trespassing on private property owned by the tribe and that it is now up to the title companies, First American Title Company and Chicago Title Insurance Company, to rectify the situation.
“Unfortunately, the title companies and their attorneys are jeopardizing individual property owners, even though the tribe’s expectations in return for the right-of-ways … are fair and reasonable,” Johnson said.
Representatives for First American Title Company, which has an office in Green Bay, said they’re working to resolve the situation.
“Appraisals for the easements in Town of Lac du Flambeau have been completed and delivered to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, which was the final step before negotiations for compensation for the easements could begin,” said Marcus Ginnaty, spokesman for the company. “We continue to follow the procedures established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and we remain committed to reaching an appropriate resolution for all parties involved.”
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The Lac du Flambeau tribe, like most tribes in the U.S., does not own some of the land on its reservation largely because of the now defunct 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.
Congress later reversed its policy with the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, but the damage had been done.
Now, homeowners such as Kievet are caught in the middle.
“To me, this is unbelievable,” he said. “I’m being held hostage on my property and no one seems to care.”
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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 tribe in northern Wisconsin blocks road amid land feud
