>> All right. Well, we Habush Sinykin, thank you
so much. >> Thank you very much.
>> In the Northwoods land owned by the Franciscan
Sisters of Perpetual Adoration was given back to
its original landowners, "Here& Now". Reporter Erica
Ayisi traveled to Arbor Vitae, where the Lac du
Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians
reclaimed a part of their indigenous lands from
Catholic sisters who operated an Indian boarding
school. >> Signed, sealed and
delivered. officially concludes the
transfer of the property to the Lac du Flambeau tribe.
>> The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration are
the first known Catholic orders of sisters to
transfer land to its original Native American
owners in an act of reparations for
colonization during the federal Indian boarding
school era. >> We fspa have been
exploring what it means to unveil our white privilege,
including the responsibility that comes
with the privilege. >> Sue Ernster, president
of the Fspa, says. His sisters acknowledge their
dark legacy of colonialism through truth, healing and
a land transfer of their Marywood Franciscan
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Indians. how we've been complicit
and have benefited from the systems that have kept
others out, such as the Lac du Flambeau.
>> Lac du Flambeau children attended the Saint Mary's
Indian Boarding School in Odanah, which the Fspa
operated for 86 years, during a period when the US
government removed Native American children from
assimilated them into Euro-American Catholic
culture. Does giving land back to Native Americans
reconcile the past? >> It's a step it does not
fully reconcile. There's nothing I believe that can
fully reconcile for the trauma that has been
inflicted over these years. >> Ernster says. When the
sisters realized that they no longer needed their
center, they collaborated with Brittany Koteles of
Land Justice Futures to learn how to incorporate
land justice into their reckoning.
>> We knew that it was the time to reignite the
relationship with the Lac du Flambeau and see if they
would be interested in purchasing the property.
This is not a market rate transaction, it's a land
Bakke. The tribe is paying $30,000 for the property.
>> The Fspa purchased the property for $30,000 in
1966. John Johnson, president of the Lac du
Flambeau, says his counteroffer was a dollar.
>> I had just asked him. I said, how did you get our
land? And I don't mean mine, per se, or my tribe, but
every Ojibwe person in the state of Wisconsin.
>> The Lac du Flambeau, ceded or gave up their land
to the federal government in the 1854 Treaty of La
Pointe. Johnson says the tribe's business department
felt $30,000 was fair considering the property's
current market value. >> When I first heard, it
was like $2.6 million, and then I heard it was, you
know, they had to offer a $3 million. And, you know,
the price could have kept going up and up and up.
>> Marywood is nearly two acres, including an office,
lodge and cabins situated along Trout Lake.
>> And as you look out onto these islands out here,
those were once inhabited by all of our relatives
here. And there are families in Lac du Flambeau
that were raised on the islands.
>> Giving this land back to its original Native
American owners presents challenges. It's situated
just outside the Lac du Flambeau reservation,
subjecting it to taxation. >> There's also processes
that tribes can place that land into trust and protect
it from taxation. >> Philomena Kebec, tribal
attorney and enrolled member of the Bad River
tribe, says the process can be complex.
>> The fee to trust application can be opposed
by municipalities. >> We're looking at this
for midterm potential opportunities for
work in the tribe. >> For now, Larry Turner of
the Lac du Flambeau Business Development
not expecting to make a profit from the land
transfer and will use the property for professional
housing. >> We have such a huge
shortage of professionals in the tribe, including
traveling nurses, doctors for the clinic, management
for the Business Development Corp, and
there's no rentals up here. >> Xia Johnson says he also
wants to use their reclaimed land to sustain
their Ojibwe culture to future generations.
>> Hold on a lake here in the wintertime, we're going
to probably set up a tent or something, you know, and
do some spearing here in the winter for muskellunge
and stuff like that. >> The PFAS former Indian
boarding school was demolished and is now Saint
Mary's Parish on the bad River Tribal Reservation.
In documents acquired by the Catholic Church, was
given at least 10,000 acres of land by the federal
government to operate Indian boarding schools
across the country, including three schools in
Wisconsin. Although the Catholic Diocese of
Superior says all of its land is currently in use
and unavailable for land transfers to tribes, the
Fspa says their land transfer is about reckoning.
>> What is it? We can learn from this so that we can
move forward. >> And reclamation for the
tribe. >> All this land that you
see around here should be rightfully ours anyway.