Johnson: LdF will not tolerate abuse of tribal members or land

Lac du Flambeau tribal president John Johnson Sr. has sent a clear message to members of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, which has denied the tribe allocated revenues: The tribe and its members will no longer tolerate what Johnson calls ongoing abuse of the Lac du Flambeau people and of tribal lands, and will do what it takes to defend its sovereignty. 

“We have to do all we can to reserve and protect our current land for future generations after ceding millions of acres of land in exchange for the small piece of property we now call home,” Johnson, president of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, wrote in a December 11 letter to state Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk).

Johnson’s letter was a response to one sent by Felzkowski in which she said she hoped for a dialogue with the tribe over road closure issues within the reservation that have blocked access to private property along the roads.

In her letter, Felzkowski said Johnson had failed to pursue available options to resolve the matter and had taken “drastic and profound” actions. She implied that Johnson and the tribe were bad actors, writing that “good actors don’t give their neighbors 24 hours notice that they are barricading them in their homes.” 

As a result of the controversy, the Joint Finance Committee, of which Felzkowski is a member, has withheld $1 million in tribal-generated gaming revenue that was allocated for the tribe in the biennial budget. The JFC also withheld $1 million from the Bad River tribe over separate issues but released $1 million each to the state’s nine other tribes.

In his response to Felzkowski’s missive, Johnson did not mince any words, either, describing the decision of the JFC as short-sighted, discriminatory, and one that disrespected the sovereignty and self-determination of the tribe.

He said Felzkowski’s letter aligned with that vote.

“Your letter seems to echo this sentiment, implying a punitive response to our legitimate exercise of sovereignty in protecting our lands,” Johnson wrote. “Regrettably, this is not the first instance of such treatment by the state of Wisconsin, and we anticipate it won’t be the last.”

Johnson schooled Felzkowski on tribal history, pointing out that the tribe had signed treaties with the United States in 1827 and 1842 that ceded millions of acres of land, enabling Wisconsin to be admitted to the union as the 30th state. 

“Due to further encroachments by white settlers for over a decade, our ancestors again signed another treaty in 1854, ceding additional lands to the United States in exchange for a permanent homeland, the current Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation,” he wrote. “The General Allotment Act, a late 19th century federal policy, promoted the allotment of tribally held lands to individual tribal members, whereby those lands eventually were acquired by non-tribal members.”

That, Johnson wrote, amounted to a scheme crafted “to divest the tribe of its land base in the hopes that we would eventually go away.”

Thankfully, Johnson observed, the early 20th century ushered in a new federal policy that repudiated the allotment of tribal lands and instead promoted tribal land consolidation and the significance of reservations as permanent homelands for tribes and Indian people.

Simply put, Johnson wrote, the Lac du Flambeau Indian reservation is their only home. 

“The 1854 treaty created it and is still the law of the land,” he wrote. “In your letter, you state that you don’t have an issue with the tribe safeguarding our territorial jurisdiction, yet at the same time you want to punish us for taking these steps.”

Get a grip

Johnson wrote that the situation Felzkowski referred to as “the barricade crisis” merited a broader understanding. 

“It is not merely a dispute with non-tribal members over land rights but a reflection of our enduring struggle to protect what little we have left of our ancestral lands,” he wrote. “The comparison to a dispute between private landowners oversimplifies the deep rooted and complex nature of this issue.”

Withholding the funds, Johnson asserted, was patently wrong and discriminatory, and he said anger should be directed away from the tribe and toward responsible parties.

“These non-tribal landowners who purchased fee simple lands on our reservation should be suing the title companies that issued faulty insurance policy commitments for their warranty deeds and the town of Lac du Flambeau for committing fraud, with their assurances of public access over lands that they have no legal interest in,” he wrote. “You and the joint committee should be assisting those landowners with those fights. Instead, you, the joint committee, and others want to vilify the tribe for safeguarding our territorial jurisdiction.”

In his letter, Johnson essentially stated that Felzkowski didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Within your letter, you make uninformed claims, cast judgment, and simplify an effort we have been working on for more than a decade without the town taking meaningful action, much less engaging in a genuine manner,” he wrote. “For you to say ‘good actors don’t give their neighbors 24 hours’ notice before barricading them in their homes’ is uninformed rhetoric. For you to cite a veteran waiting to go to the hospital, simplifies, and disregards all of the effort we made through our tribal police department, human services, and other programs to support people impacted by the road closures.”

Johnson also said it was important for people to understand that the title companies were asking for easements that were longer in length than what a tribal member could receive under tribal law. 

“The town and title companies want the tribe to give them ‘right of way’ access forever,” he wrote. “Essentially, they are asking us to give up our land. We have given up millions of acres of land over generations. And we now live on a 12-by-12 square mile piece of land known as a reservation. This is all we have left.”

Moreover, Johnson wrote, the town and the title companies have repeatedly tried to circumvent negotiations with the tribe for more than 10 years.

“By acting disingenuously and delaying the process of securing 25-year easements, we arrived at this point,” he wrote. “Anyone who has dealt with government and lawyers, could just imagine how quickly the costs added up.”

Johnson said the tribe feels for the property owners impacted by the actions of the town and the title companies. 

“In fact, we share their frustration and can relate,” he wrote. “We’re hearing many property owners feel like the town and the title companies misled them and are currently running them around in circles rather than solving the matter.”

Johnson said he hoped his letter would give Felzkowski a better understanding of the history of trespassing and mistreatment the tribe has faced, forcing the tribe to take action to enforce its rights. 

“We hope that you will direct your outrage to the parties truly responsible for this, while upholding your duty to protect all citizens you are sworn to advocate for, including Lac du Flambeau tribal members,” Johnson wrote. “For these reasons and many others related to actions over more than a century, we are going to work to right the wrongs of the past and will no longer tolerate abuse of our people or our land. We have a 12-by-12 square mile reservation to call home. We have to do all we can to reserve and protect our current land for future generations after ceding millions of acres of land in exchange for the small piece of property we now call home.”

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.