Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi side with town in Lac du Flambeau roads dispute

This story was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Henry RedmanWisconsin Examiner

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has enlisted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a long-running dispute between the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the town of Lac du Flambeau over the town residents’ access to roads on tribal land.

Tiffany, the Republican candidate in Wisconsin’s race for governor this fall, has twice tried to get Bondi to weigh in on the issue, first in an August letter and then earlier this month when Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 11.

The dispute has been running since January 2023 when the tribe placed barricades on four roads after negotiations over easements between the tribe, town and title companies broke down. The town sits within the tribe’s reservation and cannot be accessed without crossing tribal land.

Credit: A roadblock is seen along Center Sugarbush Lane on Feb. 8, 2023, at Lac du Flambeau town hall in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on May 31, 2023, to force a northern Wisconsin town to pay unspecified damages for failing to renew road access easements with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. (Photo by Tork Mason/The Post-Crescent via AP, File Photo)

The easements had expired, yet the town and its residents continued to use the tribal roads without payment, which the tribe said amounted to trespassing. The town paid at least $600,000 for road access and the tribe eventually removed the barricades but the federal government later sued the town on the tribe’s behalf. Last August, a federal judge sided with the town, ruling that the roads are public and must remain open.

After the federal court ruling, a town resident told Wisconsin Public Radio that he was hopeful the decision would calm the chaos of the dispute and a town official said the tribe has been “patient” with the town despite the fact that the community essentially did not pay rent on its use of the land for a decade.

But now the town has requested reimbursement for the payments it made to the tribe and, at the Feb. 11 committee hearing, Tiffany said the dispute amounted to “extortion.”

“The perpetrators of this, the tribe out there, they demanded compensation from the town. I would call it extortion,” Tiffany said.

Bondi responded by saying “we would more than welcome working with you.”

In a statement, Lac du Flambeau Tribal President John Johnson Sr. said the town’s payments to the tribe were “voluntary and lawful” and that Tiffany’s claim was “inaccurate and inflammatory.”

“To mislead the public by calling the tribe ‘perpetrators’ is not only irresponsible, it is a direct attack on our sovereignty, our treaty rights and our reputation as a sovereign government,” Johnson said.

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