April 17, 2023 at 10:57 a.m.
U.S. attorneys file amicus brief in support of LdF tribe in road dispute
The property owners live along or near four roads at the center of a dispute between the tribe, the town of Lac du Flambeau, the property owners and title insurance companies. The tribe barricading Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane on Jan. 31 because easements over tribal land there had expired in the past decade.
An amicus brief in support of the Lac du Flambeau tribe was filed on April 10 in United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin by Samuel Gollis, a U.S. attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Megan Stelljes, an assistant U.S. attorney with the DOJ.
"In the United States' view, the Court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction because Plaintiffs (landowners) have failed to identify a cause of action authorizing their claim under the Declaratory Judgment Act, which seeks to enforce the tribal provisions of the Federal Aid Highway Act," the brief reads.
At one point in the introduction to the 21-page brief, O'Shea and Stelljes write that the complaint from the property owners "also suffers from other legal defects" that center around what the brief states is the belief of the property owners that the Lac du Flambeau tribe "must keep the roads open to the public because the (tribe) chose to list the roads on the National Tribal Transportation Facilities Inventory (NTTFI).
In a March 30, 2023, letter to tribal council president John Johnson, Sr., Tammie Poitra, regional director of the Midwest Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), advised Johnson that the BIA had removed the four roads on March 24, 2023, nearly two months after the barricades had been put in place by tribal road department personnel.
That action was taken after the BIA received a resolution and other documentation from the tribe on March 15 requesting the removal of the four roads from the NTTFI., Poitra wrote. The removal of the roads from the NTTFI was noted by O' Shea and Stelljes in their brief. They wrote that the removal of the roads from the inventory eliminates the property owners' "purported right to use the roads and providing a basis to dismiss" counts one through three of the federal lawsuit.
With the filing of the U.S. government's amicus brief, the matter will now be decided by the judge in the lawsuit.
In the meantime, the tribe, on April 11, issued a statement regarding the filing of the amicus brief, stating the U.S. government's amicus brief "is in direct support of the Tribe's motion to dismiss."
"We are grateful for the United States' recognition of our rights as a sovereign Tribe and for their support in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin," Tribal President John D. Johnson, Sr. said in the statement. "We are grateful the United States, who signed the 1854 Treaty acknowledging our Reservation as a permanent homeland, has shown its support by way of amicus brief. This action not only validates our efforts to protect our ancestral lands but also strengthens the relationship between our Tribe and the U.S. government."
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].
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