Fond du Lac Band closer to gaining control of Wisconsin Point land.

[Lee Borgersen]

   April 02, 2011, 12:00 AM

Fond du Lac Band closer to gaining control of Wisconsin Point land.
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is one step closer to gaining control of land its ancestors once occupied on the end of Wisconsin Point in Superior.
By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune
 
 

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved the transfer of 14 acres on Wisconsin Point to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would hold the land in trust as part of the Fond du Lac Reservation, Fond du Lac Tribal Chairwoman Karen Diver said.

“This restores our historic and cultural connection to that piece of land. … We still have tribal members who have in their memories visiting family and friends in that village before the people were forcibly removed,” Diver said.

It will be too late for Bob Miller’s grandmother, who grew up in an Ojibwe village there and always hoped to move back. But Miller, of Hermantown, said the land acquisition will restore a cultural tie that was broken when developers wanted to build homes and ore docks on Wisconsin Point.

“My grandmother and her sisters and brothers grew up in that village. They told us stories about taking the boat to go to town for shopping or school … until the ice froze,’’ said Miller, a descendant of Chief Joseph Osaugie, who led the band of Ojibwe on Wisconsin Point in the mid-19th century.

“She always said if we got that land back, she’d build the first house. … But she died 14 years ago.”

The land transfer back to Fond du Lac would be at no cost to the band, although the General Services Administration still has to approve the deal before it becomes official.

“Most of the paperwork has already been done ... so we’re hoping this can be finished in a few months,” Diver said.

The federal government has owned the end of Wisconsin Point since 1901, when it condemned nearly 45 acres. The Ojibwe lost more land on the point in a dispute with the Interstate Railroad Co. in 1918, when a small village was forcibly moved and a nearby Indian burial ground was bulldozed, with remains reburied at a Superior cemetery.

“They moved the families and the cemetery before they realized they couldn’t really build much out there because it was a sand bar... so they ended up not using the land anyhow,’’ said Miller, who is an enrolled Oneida band member.

The land, located where the Superior Entry connects the harbor with Lake Superior, became available when the U.S. Army declared it surplus property in 2002.

The property includes two houses, a four-bay garage and a dock that were part of a former U.S. lighthouse station built about 1912. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reserved an easement on several acres to allow for work on the road and shipping channel. The City of Superior and University of Wisconsin also own land along Wisconsin Point in the area.

Tribal officials have said the band may use the property for educational or human service-related activities, although Diver said no decision on use of the land had been made.



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