Lac du Flambeau town board responds to tribal council demand

The stage is set for what could be another battle between the town of Lac du Flambeau and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

In October, tribal president John Johnson, Sr. sent a letter Lac du Flambeau town chairman Matt Gaulke that included a notice to “vacate and quit” maintenance on sections of specific town roads including:

• The entire length of Headflyer Lake Lane running north from County Highway D. 

• Two lengths on parcels along North Indian Village Road.

• Eight lengths of road on parcels on Indian Village Road. 

The total is about five miles. 

The three roads were part of a list of 29 roads included in a Feb. 20, 2017, letter that Joseph Wildcat, Sr., then the tribal president, sent to Gaulke. 

According to Johnson’s letter dated Oct. 18, the town had until the end of the day on Nov. 18 to vacate and quit maintenance of the three roads. 

“If the town fails to comply with this notice and remains in possession of, or continues claim a right of maintenence over, the portions of road over Indian lands identified in Attachment A, the Tribe will consider this (according to the Bureau Of Indian Affairs Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations) an authorized trespass,” Johnson wrote.

On Nov. 13, after meeting for nearly an hour in closed session, the town board voted unanimously to approve a motion from town supervisor Dennis Pearson that a response to Johnson’s Oct. 18 letter be drafted and sent to him. 

The brief letter, signed by Gaulke, was delivered to the tribal council via email on Sunday, Nov. 17.

“I am writing in response to your correspondence dated October 18, 2024, in which you requested the Town of Lac du Flambeau to ‘vacate and quit all maintenance and surrender possession’ of Headflyer Lake Lane, North Indian Village Road, and Indian Village Road,” Gaulke wrote to Johnson. “After due consideration and consultation with counsel, the Town is compelled to deny your request.”

According to the Title 25 paragraph of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) code cited by Johnson in his letter, if a person “or entity takes possession of, or uses, Indian land or BIA land without a right-of-way and a right-of-way is required, the unauthorized possession or use is a trespass.”

“An unauthorized use within an existing right-of-way is also a trespass,” the BIA document reads. “We may take action to recover possession, including eviction, on behalf of the Indian landowners and pursue any additional remedies available under applicable law. The Indian landowners may pursue any available remedies under applicable law, including applicable tribal law.”

Araia Breedlove, the Lac du Flambeau tribe’s spokesperson, told The Lakeland Times Monday afternoon that the tribal council was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, Nov. 20, and she wouldn’t have anything regarding the town’s response “until after that.”

The meeting took place after this edition went to press.

The tribal council has another deadline for the town to meet with regard to the monthly permit fees the town had been paying into September as part of an ongoing, expired easement dispute it has with the town on four other roads, Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane. 

Pearson, appointed to the town board on Nov. 6, to finish the term of newly elected tribal council member Gloria Cobb who resigned from the town board in October, owns property on East Ross Allen Lake Road. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].