Issue 002
The Weekly Brief
For the week of May 17, 2026
The dominant thread this week runs through northern Wisconsin and the federal courts: a judge halted some Line 5 reroute construction while Bad River pressed for a fuller stop, Ashland County quietly cut a deal to be reimbursed for policing protests, and the Attorney General's office weighed in against Lac du Flambeau in the roads dispute even as a federal judge blocked the tribe from restricting fishing on nearly twenty lakes. Taken together, these stories show the Ojibwe Ceded Territory as a pressure zone where treaty rights, pipeline politics, and intergovernmental friction are all converging at once. Away from Wisconsin, the week's most striking arc was the rapid rise and fall of the Pe' Sla drilling threat in the Black Hills, which ended in a full permit withdrawal after occupation, ceremony, and litigation combined to force the mining company's hand. And NARF's Fourth Circuit win confirming that NAGPRA covers children's remains at boarding schools arrived quietly but carries lasting weight.
Listen to this issue
Spoken by Deepgram Aura. The written brief above is the canonical version.
Across the Twelve Nations
A busy week in the Northwoods, with Line 5, the Lac du Flambeau roads and fishing disputes, herbicide concerns on wild rice waters, and a Bad River MMIW milestone all demanding attention.
Federal Judge Halts Some Line 5 Reroute Work in Northern Wisconsin
A Bayfield County federal judge issued a partial stop on Enbridge's Line 5 reroute construction, a significant if incomplete win for Bad River and allied opponents of the pipeline. The ruling does not halt all work, leaving the Band's broader motion still before the court. WPR's coverage explains which segments are paused and what legal thresholds remain. This is the story to watch as the summer construction season opens.
Bad River Asks Federal Court to Stop All Enbridge Line 5 Reroute Construction
The Bad River Band filed a motion asking the court to extend the partial halt into a full construction stop, arguing that any reroute work through the ceded territory threatens treaty-protected resources and the Band's sovereign interests. The motion follows the partial injunction and signals that Mashkiiziibii is not settling for half measures. This is the piece to pair with the partial-halt ruling above.
What Would It Actually Take to Halt Line 5 Reroute Construction? WPR Breaks Down the Legal Landscape
WPR's explainer maps the procedural steps between the current partial halt and a full construction stop, walking through the injunction standards, the appeals risk, and the timeline pressures Enbridge is using to its advantage. It is the clearest single-source guide to where the litigation stands and what Bad River needs to prove next. Worth keeping close as the court calendar moves.
Ashland County Cuts Deal to Be Reimbursed for Policing Line 5 Reroute Protests
The Ashland County Board approved an agreement under which the county will be compensated for law enforcement costs incurred while policing protests of Enbridge's Line 5 reroute. The arrangement raises the pointed question of who, ultimately, is paying to police opposition to a private pipeline project on contested ceded territory. WPR's reporting is the right source here.
U.S. Attorney General Backs Town's Demand That Lac du Flambeau Repay Road Dispute Costs
The Department of Justice filed a brief siding with the Town of Lac du Flambeau's demand that the tribe reimburse it for costs stemming from the 2023 road-closure dispute, a significant federal intervention against the Band's position. The move follows the 2023 easement standoff that drew national attention and complicates the tribe's ongoing legal posture. WPR, which has tracked this dispute from the beginning, has the story.
Federal Judge Blocks Lac du Flambeau from Restricting Fishing on Nearly Twenty Lakes
A federal judge ruled against the Lac du Flambeau Band's attempt to restrict non-tribal fishing on nineteen reservation lakes, finding the tribe had not met the legal standard for such restrictions. The Band had cited declining walleye and muskellunge populations as the basis for the closures. The ruling lands in the same week as the DOJ roads brief, compounding pressure on the Band from multiple federal directions.
State of Wisconsin Sues Lac du Flambeau Over Fishing Restrictions on Reservation Lakes
Mazinaigan, GLIFWC's newspaper, reports that Wisconsin filed suit against the Lac du Flambeau Band on April 30 after the tribe issued fishing restrictions on nineteen reservation lakes, citing walleye and muskellunge declines. The tribe's conservation concerns are real: GLIFWC data shows long-term population stress in some northern lakes. This is the Native-source account of the same dispute the federal court ruling addressed.
Bad River Establishes MMIW Task Force and Declares May 5 a Tribal Day of Awareness
The Bad River Tribal Governing Board voted to create a formal Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives task force and designated May 5 as the Band's Tribal Day of Awareness, joining a growing number of Wisconsin nations formalizing their MMIW commitments in tribal law. The Wisconsin Examiner covered the vote, which took place in the same week as the national MMIP day of awareness. This is the kind of governance action that belongs in the Bad River section of the Ojibwe chapter.
Wisconsin Tribes Push Back Against Aquatic Herbicide That May Harm Wild Rice
Mazinaigan reports that the Menominee Nation and GLIFWC member bands are escalating their opposition to ProcellaCOR, an aquatic herbicide used in Ceded Territory lakes, citing preliminary data showing elevated mortality in manoomin at submerged and floating-leaf stages. The Voigt Intertribal Task Force is involved, and field data from fourteen Wisconsin lakes is raising red flags. This is a manoomin-protection story that sits squarely in Patty's treaty-rights and wild-rice beats.
Wisconsin Signs $125 Million PFAS Funding Package; Tribes Among Those Eligible for Grants
Governor Evers signed legislation directing $125 million to address PFAS contamination in Wisconsin's water supplies, with tribal communities explicitly included among those eligible for grant funding. Mazinaigan notes that some of the highest PFAS levels in the state have been documented near tribal lands. The funding is meaningful but the contamination problem it addresses is not going away.
Treaty Rights and Water
The 9th biennial stipulation in LCO v. Voigt, a new BS degree integrating Ojibwe worldview with treaty natural resources science, and the spring spearfishing season all arrived in the same issue of Mazinaigan.
Six Wisconsin Ojibwe Bands File 9th Biennial Stipulation in LCO v. Voigt, Expanding Ceded Territory Harvest Rights
The six Wisconsin Ojibwe bands expect to file the ninth round of biennial stipulations with the State of Wisconsin in the Voigt case, modernizing and consolidating six previous filings since 2001. Key updates include a tribal fee waiver for state park access and expanded harvest opportunities across the Ceded Territory. Mazinaigan has the details, and this is the kind of incremental-but-consequential legal housekeeping that the Ojibwe chapter needs to track.
GLIFWC and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University Launch Bachelor's Degree in Treaty Natural Resources
GLIFWC and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University signed an MOU to launch the Nanda-gikenjigeng Program, a new Bachelor of Science in Treaty Natural Resources that weaves Ojibwe worldview and language into Western scientific methodology. The program is designed to train the next generation of tribal natural resource managers who can work fluently in both knowledge systems. Mazinaigan has the story, and it belongs in the same conversation as Patty's Ice Worlds work on integrating TEK and Western science.
'North of Highway 29': A Tribal Leader on What Northern Wisconsin's Nations Actually Need
WPR's interview with a northern Wisconsin tribal leader makes the case that the priorities of the Ojibwe bands and their neighbors are distinct from the rest of the state, organized around treaty rights, manoomin, and the particular ecology of the Northwoods rather than the policy concerns that dominate Madison and Milwaukee. The framing, 'north of Highway 29 is its own country,' is a useful shorthand for what Patty's Ojibwe chapter has always argued. Lead with the tribal voice here.
Spring Spearfishing Season Opens Strong for Wisconsin Ojibwe Bands Despite High Water
Mazinaigan reports that the St. Croix Band launched the Ziigwan 2026 spearfishing opener on April 10, registering the first 390 walleyes of the season, while high water from snowmelt slowed some eastern Ceded Territory operations. Long-term GLIFWC data shows that open-water spearfishing remains well within sustainable harvest levels. The season is a living expression of treaty rights that the Voigt Decision made possible.
USDA Forest Service Reorganization Raises Alarm for GLIFWC and Ojibwe Treaty Rights in the Ceded Territory
The Trump administration's proposed reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service is generating serious concern at GLIFWC, whose member tribes depend on Forest Service infrastructure for research, treaty-resource monitoring, and intergovernmental coordination across the Ceded Territory. Proposed changes could eliminate or consolidate regional offices that have been key partners in Voigt-era treaty implementation. Mazinaigan has the story.
Indian Country
ICWA faces another Supreme Court challenge, NAGPRA wins a landmark ruling on children's remains, the UN Permanent Forum confronts a budget crisis, and tribal colleges warn of existential federal cuts.
ICWA Faces Another Supreme Court Challenge, Three Years After Brackeen Was Decided
A new petition is asking the Supreme Court to revisit the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, three years after the Court upheld it in Brackeen v. Haaland. ICT has the story, and the threat is real: the current Court's composition has shifted, and the challengers are using new procedural angles. ICWA matters to every Wisconsin nation, and Patty has noted it belongs in the brief regardless of where it fits in the chapter structure.
Fourth Circuit Rules NAGPRA Applies to Children's Remains, Clearing Path for Winnebago Repatriation from Carlisle
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit confirmed that NAGPRA's repatriation obligations extend to the remains of children who died at federal boarding schools, a ruling that directly advances the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska's effort to bring home two boys who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. NARF, which represented the tribe, calls it a landmark. The decision has implications for every tribal nation still waiting for children's remains held by the Army.
Winnebago Tribe Celebrates NAGPRA Victory: 'Brings Joy to the Tribe'
ICT's coverage of the Fourth Circuit NAGPRA ruling centers the Winnebago Tribe's own voice, quoting tribal members on what it means to finally have a legal path to bring their children home from Carlisle. The ruling confirms that the Army cannot hide behind procedural arguments to avoid its repatriation obligations under federal law. Pair with the NARF account above for the full picture.
Federal Cuts Would Be 'Death Knell' for North Dakota Tribal Colleges, Presidents Say
The Interior Department's FY2027 budget proposes cutting more than $150 million from tribal colleges and universities and tribal postsecondary programs, a reduction that tribal college presidents in North Dakota say would effectively end their institutions. ICT's reporting captures the alarm from campus leaders who have built these colleges into anchors of reservation economies and language revitalization. The threat is continental but the pattern is familiar to Wisconsin's tribal college community.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Confronts an Uncertain Future Amid Budget Crisis
ICT reports that the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the primary international body where tribal nations can raise concerns before the world community, is facing questions about its effectiveness and continuity as the UN grapples with a broader budget crisis. The timing is particularly fraught given the current U.S. administration's posture toward multilateral institutions. For Wisconsin nations whose sovereignty arguments have always had an international dimension, this matters.
Supreme Court Guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Callais v. Louisiana
NARF's analysis of the April 29 Callais ruling explains that the Supreme Court has effectively dismantled the primary tool tribal nations and other minority communities have used to challenge racially discriminatory district maps. The decision lands as North Dakota tribes are already in litigation over redistricting that dilutes Native voting power. NARF's framing is the right entry point: this is a sovereignty and self-determination story, not just a civil rights one.
One Menominee Nation Family's Story of Tragedy and Advocacy at the MMIW Rally
ICT's coverage of the annual MMIW rally centers the family of Linda Dickenson, a Menominee woman whose murder remains a defining case for Wisconsin's MMIW movement, and the advocates who gather each year to demand accountability. The piece foregrounds ordinary voices, exactly the register Patty's journalism ethics call for: not the task force announcement, but the family still waiting for answers. This is the human counterpart to the Bad River task force story in the Wisconsin section.
People
A retirement that deserves more than a footnote, a poet laureate honored nationally, and a GLIFWC career that shaped Ojibwe treaty law.
Kimberly Blaeser, Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate and White Earth Ojibwe Writer, Wins National Book Foundation Prize for 'Ancient Light'
Kimberly Blaeser, White Earth Ojibwe poet and former Wisconsin Poet Laureate, has received a National Book Foundation prize for her collection 'Ancient Light,' a body of work that braids Anishinaabemowin, photographic image, and lyric poetry into something genuinely new in American letters. WPR's coverage is the right source. Blaeser's work belongs in the same conversation as the language revitalization programs Patty has tracked across the twelve nations, and her national recognition is the kind of milestone the third edition should name.
Ann McCammon Soltis Retires After Nearly 33 Years Defending Ojibwe Treaties at GLIFWC
Ann McCammon Soltis retired from GLIFWC after nearly 33 years as the agency's director of intergovernmental affairs, a career that spanned the Minnesota v. Mille Lacs litigation, the Voigt biennial stipulations, and dozens of other legal and policy battles that defined what the 1837 and 1842 treaties mean in practice. Mazinaigan's tribute names her role in specific cases and credits her with building the interagency relationships that made GLIFWC effective as more than a monitoring body. She is the kind of person Patty's journalism ethic calls us to name specifically.
Long Read
Abundance in the Iskigamizigan: A Bountiful Sugarbush Season in the Ceded Territory, and What It Means to Pass the Knowledge On
Mazinaigan's feature on the 2026 maple sugarbush season in the Ceded Territory is the kind of story Patty's journalism ethics were built to honor: specific people, a specific place, a specific practice, and the quiet transmission of knowledge across generations. The season was marked by cooler temperatures and ideal sap-flow conditions, with a fourth-grade class from Hayward visiting Pat Eaten's sugarbush to learn the work firsthand. The iskigamizigan, the sugar camp, is not a relic; it is a living institution that connects Ojibwe families to the land, to each other, and to the seasonal rhythms that mino-bimaadiziwin requires. This is the kind of piece that belongs in the brief not because there is a crisis but because there is joy, and because the joy is the story. It is also a window into the TEK-and-climate conversation Patty has been tracking since Ice Worlds: what happens to the sugarbush as winters shorten and sap-flow windows shift? The 2026 season was good. The question is how many more like it remain.