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 Nearly
90 years after their forebears were evicted from Wisconsin Point, Ojibwe
Indians may regain control over a small part of the land.
If
successful, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa might use the
former U.S. Army Corps of Engineer property at the end of Wisconsin Point
as a cemetery for human remains removed from the point in 1918.
The
remains were reburied in a mass grave in Superior's St. Francis Cemetery.
"If
we are successful in getting the property back, we would give due consideration
for a reburial back on Wisconsin Point for those individuals that were
put in that mass grave," said Band Chairman Robert "Sonny"
Peacock. "And we would like to keep that area as a historical site,
probably educational as well."
The
Army declared the 18.2-acre property to be surplus late in 2002. Earlier
this year, the General Services Administration, which will dispose of
the property, asked other federal agencies if they wanted the land.
The
Bureau of Indian Affairs responded in March that it wants to obtain the
property and hold it in trust for the Fond du Lac Band. No money would
change hands if the transaction advances.
The
bureau will submit a formal application for the property to the General
Serv- ices Administration later this month, BIA environmental scientist
Herb Nelson said. The General Services Administration will review the
application when it arrives.
"If
it's complete, we approve it, and the property is transferred," said
General Services Administration real estate specialist Arthur Ullenberg.
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 Corps would
reserve an easement on 3.33 acres to allow for work on the road and shipping
channel.
The
federal government has owned the property since it was condemned in 1901.
The Ojibwe lost the rest of Wisconsin Point about 1918 in a dispute with
the Interstate Railroad Co.
In
1914, area Ojibwe petitioned President Woodrow Wilson and Indian Commissioner
Cato Sells for help in the ownership dispute.
"We
do with horror contemplate being torn from the property of our fathers
on Wisconsin Point, our dear honored dead removed and the sacred cemetery
desecrated," they wrote. "Seven generations and more lie buried
in this cemetery, including Chief O-sa-gie."
But
corporate interests prevailed, and the Ojibwe and some of their graves
were moved.
"We
found one paper that was written by a young man who was a water boy out
there when they were moving the cemetery," Superior Area Indian Center
President Robert Miller said. "They only moved the graves that were
well-marked. Out of about 300 bodies that were out there, they moved about
180. My grandmother knew where a lot were."
Miller's
grandmother was raised on the point. He said there were about seven homes
in the village when its residents were evicted.
Today,
some people still consider the area to be sacred. Graves remain under
the point's road and one of its parking lots, said Miller, who opposes
talk to either expand the road or extend the Osaugie Trail onto the point.
The
paved bike trail is named for a Fond du Lac leader, the Chief O-sa-gie
of the 1914 petition.
Peacock
said there is no timetable for the possible movement of graves back to
the point if the band regains control of the land.
"That's
a technical point, a cultural religious point that I can't even approach,"
he said. "I don't know what the medicine people would say on something
like that. I don't know what the process would be."
Because
federal agencies get the first chance to obtain surplus federal property,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs application on behalf of the Fond du Lac
Band likely dashes the University of Wisconsin-Superior's desire to obtain
the land for itself.
UWS's
Lake Superior Research Institute has talked about using the area for natural
and cultural education.
The
UWS institute operates the research vessel L.L. Smith, which is also used
for education. UWS once leased the Wisconsin Point property but let the
lease lapse during a budget crunch in 1986. The L.L. Smith now docks in
Minnesota.
"We
understand it's property that's important to the tribe, and would be satisfied
if they gain ownership of it," UWS spokeswoman Beth George said.
STEVE
KUCHERA can be reached at (218) 279-5503, toll free at (800) 456-8282,
or by e-mail at kuchera@duluthnews.com.
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