Issue 003
The Weekly Brief
For the week of May 24, 2026
The biggest story out of Wisconsin Indian Country this week is the federal judge's decision halting some work on the Enbridge Line 5 reroute through Bad River territory, a development Mashkiiziibii has been fighting toward for years. Alongside that, the Lac du Flambeau Band faces a state lawsuit over its fishing restrictions on reservation lakes, adding another chapter to the long, tangled story of Ojibwe treaty rights and resource stewardship in the Ceded Territory. Nationally, a Fourth Circuit ruling confirmed that NAGPRA applies to children's remains, giving the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska a path toward repatriating two boys who died at a federal boarding school, and the Supreme Court sent a Native voting rights case back to the Eighth Circuit after the lower court had stripped private individuals of standing. The week's Mazinaigan carries a quietly landmark item: GLIFWC and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University have signed an MOU to launch a new Bachelor of Science in Treaty Natural Resources, weaving Ojibwe worldview into Western science in a way that could reshape how the next generation of tribal resource managers is trained.
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Across the Twelve Nations
A busy week in northern Wisconsin, with Line 5 and treaty fisheries both generating legal action, and a quiet institutional milestone at LCO that deserves more attention than it will probably get.
Federal Judge Halts Some Enbridge Line 5 Reroute Work in Bad River Territory
A federal judge has ordered a partial stop to construction on Enbridge's Line 5 reroute through the Bad River watershed, the latest turn in a legal fight that Mashkiiziibii has been waging to protect its manoomin beds and treaty-protected waters. The ruling does not halt all work, and the legal landscape remains unsettled, but it is the kind of concrete, court-ordered pause the Band has been pressing for. We tracked Bad River's original motion to stop reroute construction in an earlier issue; this is the follow-on. Watch WPR for updates as the injunction scope becomes clearer.
Wisconsin Sues Lac du Flambeau Over Reservation Fishing Restrictions as Walleye and Muskellunge Decline
The State of Wisconsin filed suit against the Lac du Flambeau Band on April 30 after the tribe imposed fishing restrictions on 19 reservation lakes, citing documented declines in walleye and muskellunge populations. The tribe's position is straightforward: the fish are struggling and the Band has both the sovereign right and the ecological obligation to act. Mazinaigan, which broke this story in the Ceded Territory press, notes that the state's lawsuit arrives even as tribal fisheries data drives the conservation concern. This is the inverse of the usual posture, and it sits directly alongside the road-dispute litigation that has already strained LdF-state relations.
Six Wisconsin Ojibwe Bands File 9th Biennial Stipulation in LCO v. Voigt, Expanding Harvest Rights and State Park Access
The six Wisconsin Ojibwe bands expect to file a joint 9th-round biennial stipulation with the State of Wisconsin in the long-running Voigt case, modernizing and consolidating six previous filings dating to 2001. Key updates include a fee waiver for tribal members at state parks within the Ceded Territory and expanded harvest opportunities. This is the kind of incremental, durable treaty-rights work that rarely makes headlines but steadily expands what Voigt means in practice for Anishinaabe people living on and off reservation.
GLIFWC and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University Launch Bachelor's Degree in Treaty Natural Resources
GLIFWC and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University have signed an MOU to create the Nanda-gikenjigeng Program, a new Bachelor of Science in Treaty Natural Resources that integrates Ojibwe worldview with Western scientific methodologies. The program is designed explicitly to train the next generation of tribal natural resource managers, people who will carry both the legal weight of treaty rights and the knowledge systems of the Anishinaabe into the field. This is the kind of institution-building that Patty's Seventh Generation lens was made for: a degree program that did not exist before, rooted in a specific place and a specific set of obligations.
Menominee Family Keeps Linda Dickenson's Name Alive at Annual MMIW Rally
ICT profiled a Menominee Nation family whose advocacy for missing and murdered Indigenous women centers on the murder of Linda Dickenson, one case among many that the movement works to prevent from being forgotten. The piece foregrounds the family's voice, not an agency spokesperson, and traces how grief becomes sustained public action. Patty, you noted in an earlier issue that MMIW advocacy has become central to virtually every Wisconsin nation over the past decade; this is that story at the human scale.
Wisconsin Signs $125 Million PFAS Funding Package; Tribes Among Those Eligible for Well Grants
Governor Evers signed a $125 million package to address PFAS contamination in Wisconsin's water supplies, with tribes explicitly named among those eligible for grant funding to address private well contamination. Mazinaigan notes that some of the highest PFAS levels in the state have been found near tribal communities. The intersection of water quality, treaty-protected resources, and tribal sovereignty makes this more than a general environmental story.
Bad River and Lac du Flambeau Help Conserve 1,051 Acres on the Gile Flowage in Iron County
Iron County, with support from GLIFWC, the Bad River Band, and the Lac du Flambeau Band, purchased 1,051 acres of undeveloped shoreline, uplands, and islands on the Gile Flowage from Xcel Energy for permanent conservation and public access. The acquisition protects habitat within the Ceded Territory and keeps the land out of private development. This is the kind of quiet, durable land protection work that rarely generates a press release but matters enormously to the communities whose treaty rights depend on intact landscapes.
Treaty Rights and the Waters They Protect
Herbicide threats to wild rice, USDA Forest Service reorganization, and a spring spearfishing season shaped by high water: the Ceded Territory is busy.
Menominee Nation and GLIFWC Bands Push Back Against Aquatic Herbicide That Harms Wild Rice
Tribes including the Menominee Nation and GLIFWC member bands are escalating their opposition to ProcellaCOR, an aquatic herbicide being used in Ceded Territory lakes, citing preliminary studies showing elevated mortality in manoomin at submerged and floating leaf stages. Voigt Intertribal Task Force Chair is quoted directly in Mazinaigan's coverage, which also notes field data from 14 Wisconsin lakes suggesting harm to wild rice beds. The Seventh Generation question here is not abstract: manoomin is both a treaty-protected resource and a living relative, and the data is pointing in a troubling direction.
USDA Forest Service Reorganization Raises Treaty Rights Alarms for GLIFWC and Ceded Territory Tribes
The Trump administration's proposed reorganization of the USDA Forest Service has GLIFWC and its member tribes worried about impacts on treaty rights enforcement and research capacity in the Ojibwe Ceded Territory. Proposed changes include consolidating or eliminating regional offices that have historically coordinated with tribal governments on harvest management and habitat monitoring. Mazinaigan reports that GLIFWC is treating this as a serious institutional threat, not a bureaucratic reshuffling.
St. Croix Band Opens Ziigwan Spearfishing Season; Long-Term GLIFWC Data Shows Stable Open-Water Trends
St. Croix Band spearfishers launched onto three lakes on April 10, registering the first 390 walleyes of the 2026 season, near the historical average. Mazinaigan notes that long-term GLIFWC data shows open-water spearfishing has remained within sustainable bounds, a quiet counter-narrative to the crisis framing that has historically surrounded Ojibwe off-reservation harvest. High water from snowmelt and rain slowed the eastern Ceded Territory season, while western Upper Michigan saw a productive stretch between rain events.
GLIFWC Member Tribes Oppose Federal Rollback of Roadless Area Protections in National Forests
The current federal administration is proposing to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which has protected roughly 60 million acres of National Forest land from road construction, timber harvesting, and mineral leasing. GLIFWC and its member tribes have formally opposed the rollback, arguing that roadless areas within the Ceded Territory are integral to the wild rice, fisheries, and gathering resources that treaty rights guarantee. The connection to sulfide mining risk in northern Wisconsin is direct.
Indian Country: Federal, Courts, and Sovereignty
A landmark NAGPRA ruling, a voting rights case sent back for reconsideration, a new tribal homeownership law, and the Dakota Access pipeline saga reaching a new chapter.
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 ruled that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act applies to the remains of children, a decision that brings the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska closer to repatriating the remains of two boys who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. NARF, which litigated the case, called it a victory for all tribes seeking to bring their children home from boarding school cemeteries. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition also celebrated the ruling, noting it affirms that the federal government cannot use technicalities to avoid its legal obligations to repatriate the youngest victims of the boarding school era.
Supreme Court Sends Turtle Mountain Voting Rights Case Back to Eighth Circuit After Lower Court Stripped Private Standing
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Eighth Circuit's decision in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians et al. v. Howe, a North Dakota voting rights case in which the lower court had stripped private individuals of the ability to sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. NARF, which is tracking the case, called the remand a corrective step after an erroneous ruling that would have gutted tribal voting rights enforcement. The case now returns to the Eighth Circuit for reconsideration, and its outcome will matter for Native voters in states where reservation boundaries and district lines have long been contested.
Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Denounce Wyoming Governor's 'Direct Attack on Native Voting'
The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation formally rejected Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon's call to examine electoral boundaries on the reservation in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent voting rights ruling. Tribal governments called it a direct attack on Native voting power. The pattern is worth watching: the Supreme Court's weakening of the Voting Rights Act is being used almost immediately to pressure tribal electoral geography.
New Federal Law Aims to Reduce Mortgage Delays on Tribal Trust Land
President Trump signed the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act, which tribal housing leaders say is one of the most significant federal policy shifts for Native homeownership in years. The law targets the bureaucratic delays that have long made it nearly impossible for tribal members to obtain conventional mortgages on trust land. Native Sun News reports that tribal housing advocates across Indian Country are cautiously optimistic, while noting that implementation will determine whether the law delivers on its promise.
A Decade After Standing Rock, Dakota Access Pipeline's Contested Segment Gets Federal Approval
The Army Corps of Engineers has approved the long-disputed segment of the Dakota Access pipeline that was at the center of the 2016-2017 Standing Rock protests, bringing a decade-long regulatory and legal saga to at least a provisional close. ICT notes that further litigation is likely, and tribal opponents have not conceded the fight. The approval arrives as the broader pattern of pipeline approvals over tribal objections continues to accelerate under the current administration.
Federal Budget Proposal Would Cut More Than $150 Million from Tribal Colleges, Campus Presidents Warn of 'Death Knell'
The Department of the Interior's fiscal year 2027 budget request proposes cutting more than $150 million from tribal colleges and universities and tribal postsecondary programs. Campus presidents in North Dakota told ICT that cuts at this scale would be a death knell for institutions that are already operating on thin margins and serving students with few other options. The threat is national, but it lands directly on Wisconsin's tribal college infrastructure as well.
People Worth Knowing
A retirement that deserves more than a brief mention, a Wisconsin Ojibwe filmmaker, and a Forest County Potawatomi language revival rooted in one man's legacy.
Ann McCammon Soltis Retires After Nearly 33 Years Defending Ojibwe Treaties at GLIFWC
Ann McCammon Soltis retired from GLIFWC in March 2026 after nearly 33 years as director of intergovernmental affairs, a career that included central roles in landmark legal and policy victories for the Wisconsin Ojibwe bands. Mazinaigan's retirement profile traces her work on the Minnesota water quality standards case, the Voigt stipulation process, and years of federal budget advocacy in Washington. She is the kind of person whose name does not appear in mainstream coverage but whose institutional knowledge and legal skill shaped the treaty-rights landscape that the Ojibwe chapter describes. Her retirement is a genuine transition moment for GLIFWC.
Ojibwe Filmmaker Alex Nystrom Explores Grief and Death in New Short Film
WPR profiles Ojibwe filmmaker Alex Nystrom, whose new short film takes grief and death as its subject, working in a register that is intimate rather than documentary. Nystrom is exactly the kind of emerging Wisconsin Native voice that Patty's 'Native People Up Close' editorial logic was built for: a specific person doing specific creative work, not an inheritor of a vanishing tradition but a contemporary artist with a contemporary practice.
Forest County Potawatomi Revive Billy Daniels Maple Sugar Camp, Honoring a Language Teacher's Legacy
The Billy Daniels Maple Sugar Camp, established around 1993 by one of the first certified Bodewadmi tribal language and cultural teachers, has been revived following Daniels' passing in November 2020 at age 88. The Forest County Potawatomi Cultural Preservation Department is leading the revival, bringing youth back to the iskigamizigan and reconnecting them to the Bodwéwadmimwen vocabulary that Daniels spent his life teaching. This is mino-bimaadiziwin expressed as land practice: a language teacher's life work continuing through the trees he tapped.
Long Read
Forest County Potawatomi Host Three-Day Language Immersion Gathering, Bringing Together Four Bodewadmi Communities
The Forest County Potawatomi Language Department hosted a three-day Language Immersion Event that brought together language staff from the Prairie Band, Nottawasseppi Huron Band, and Pokagon Band Potawatomi communities, with participants staying fully immersed in Bodwéwadmimwen for the duration. The Potawatomi Traveling Times account is worth reading slowly: it describes not a classroom exercise but a living network of speakers and learners across multiple communities, working together to strengthen a language that connects them all. The piece also touches on the pedagogical choices the immersion team made, the intergenerational dynamics in the room, and what it means to spend three days inside a language that the boarding school era nearly erased. For the third edition of Indian Nations of Wisconsin, the Forest County Potawatomi language program is one of the most active and collaborative in the state, and this gathering is evidence of that.