Residents, officials meet to discuss road closures

Lac du Flambeau issue blamed on title firms

LAC DU FLAMBEAU - As the road closure standoff entered its second week on the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Reservation in northern Wisconsin, nonNative property owners met with local officials again to seek a resolution.

Dozens of residents packed the Lac du Flambeau Town Hall building Feb. 8 and the conversations between the non-tribal folks and the few tribal folks there appeared cordial.

One resident at the meeting, Mary Possin, whose property is one of those affected by the road closures, said: “What’s spinning here with a lot of folks is ‘What does the tribe want?’ It strikes me that the fundamental belief the tribe is building this on is their sovereignty. This is about sovereignty.”

The tribe set up four roadblocks across the reservation on Jan. 31, cutting off access to properties owned by some 65 non-Native families.

“When one culture approaches another culture with something they want and there’s a failure to understand, it’s easy to throw up your hands and say you can’t talk to each other,” Possin said.

The situation has been “hell” for her, as it was a struggle just to get to the meeting, she said.

To leave their properties, some homeowners are resorting to riding a snowmobile through woods or across a frozen lake and then meeting up with neighbors for additional transportation.

Tribal officials said the four roads — Annie Sunn Lane, Center Sugarbush Lane, East Ross Allen Lane and Elsie

Lake Lane — had been illegally built on tribal land and the easements for them expired more than 10 years ago.

In a statement, Lac du Flambeau Tribal President John Johnson said title companies, including First American

Title Company, which has an office in Green Bay, and Chicago Title Insurance Company, issued defective title policy commitment letters to homeowners that did not address access over Indian lands.

“Imagine if someone built a road through your property without your conservative Jennifer Dorow, challenging her legal intellect and conservative credentials.

Speaking at a Republican Party event in Dane County earlier this week, Kelly again said he would not commit to endorsing Dorow if she wins the Feb. 21 primary election — then went further than remarks he made a week earlier, questioning the Waukesha County circuit judge’s qualifications and whether she’s a true conservative. permission to access land on the other side of your property,” Johnson said. “A title company then tells your neighbor they are guaranteed access forever to their property through your land over the illegally built road. How would you feel about it? Wouldn’t you want to make sure, even though the road was built illegally to begin with, that everyone acknowledged that you owned the access road that rests on your land, and people using the road follow reasonable expectations for continued use of the road?”

Delayed negotiations

Tribal officials said they have been trying to work with the title companies, the town of Lac du Flambeau and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for years to resolve the matter, but to no avail.

“The Town of Lac du Flambeau, the BIA, and the subsequent title companies representing property owners have all played a contributing role in the situation that we are responding to today,” read a statement from the tribe.

Tribal officials said town officials had not given the issue proper attention after the tribe notified the BIA of the expiring easements.

The BIA gave notices of the expired easements to affected property owners who, in turn, reached out to their title companies, who subsequently contacted their attorneys, the tribe said.

Attorney Bridget M. Hubing of Reinhart Attorneys at Law was hired by the title companies and 37 of the affected property owners. She said in a statement, “When the Town and the Tribe could not agree on ownership of the roads, my clients

“There’s no treatise, there’s no law review article. There’s not even an opinion piece in the newspaper,” Kelly said. “There’s no lecture or presentation of summary judgment decision, no motion to dismiss opinion, that describes what she means (by saying she’s conservative).”

Kelly, who served four years on the Supreme Court before losing in 2020 to

PHOTOS BY TORK MASON/USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN A roadblock is seen along Ross Allen Lane on Wednesday at Lac du Flambeau town hall. A special town board meeting was held to receive public comment and deliberate over the town’s course of action in response to Lac du Flambeau reservation tribal officials erecting barricades along four roads in the area. Tribal officials set up barricades on the roads Jan. 30 after negotiations with property title companies that built the roads and the homes they access broke down. Tribal officials say the roads were illegally built on tribal lands and the tribe was not compensated for the right-of-way easements.

Residents talk with town supervisor Bob Hanson, left, after a board meeting Wednesday at Lac du Flambeau town hall.

SENTINEL FILES JOURNAL Supreme Court candidates Dan Kelly, left, and Jennifer Dorow.