Federal judge orders injunction in LdF road dispute

On Sept. 26 a federal judge issued an injunction that essentially prohibits the United States government or any agencies associated with the government from closing four roads in Lac du Flambeau until a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed against the town of Lac du Flambeau is decided.

That litigation against the town, in the midst of an ongoing dispute with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, was brought by the DOJ in late May 2023. 

The Sept. 26 ruling on the motion for preliminary injunction, filed by more than 70 landowners and which the town’s insurance company had joined, is the latest development in the dispute that centers around expired easements on tribal land on portions of Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lake Lane and Elsie Lake Lane. 

The town and title companies involved in the dispute had been paying a monthly permit fee to the tribal council to keep the roads from being barricaded as they were on Jan. 31, 2023, before the town and tribal council reached an agreement to reopen them in March of 2023. 

The monthly payments began at $20,000 but the tribal council soon, demanded the monthly payments increase by $2,000. 

In addition, the council wants nearly $10 million for the more than a decade the easements had been expired, 

The monthly payment got up to $50,000 and was paid in August by one of the title companies.

The town board then determined it could no longer make the monthly payment, the most recent of which, $52,000, was due on Sept. 12. The motion by the property owners and the town to keep the roads from being shut down was filed soon after. 

Judge William Conley issued an 18-page ruling outlining the reasons he ruled the way he did. 

“The court issues this separate, written preliminary injunction in light of its Opinion and Order entered today,” he wrote. “It is ordered that the United States is preliminarily enjoined from using any means to restrict access to the four Roads at issue in this case during the pendency of this litigation.”

While not telling the Lac du Flambeau band’s tribal council that it couldn’t barricade the four roads, Conley directed the United States government “to provide a copy of this order and the separate injunction order to the Tribe, as well as encourage the Tribe to eliminate any barriers or other restrictions impending Road access, and refrain from imposing any additional restrictions, on the Homeowners’ access to the Roads during the pendency of this litigation.”

Tribal officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the ruling. Lac du Flambeau town chairman Matt Gaulke told the Times he has no comment “at this time.” 

Brian Jopek may be reached at [email protected].