The ongoing hostage crisis in Lac Du Flambeau, Wisconsin, has entered week seven, and two people with the power to stop it — President Joe Biden and Gov. Tony Evers — refuse to act.
Some 65 non-tribal Wisconsinites cannot enter or leave their homes due to barricades erected by the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. According to Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, the barricades are illegal because the closed roads receive public funding.
For over a month, the only way non-tribal residents have been able to leave the reservation is by crossing frozen lakes, which are quickly melting with spring. Racial tensions and the threat of violence are also rising as the residents grow desperate, the tribe refuses to negotiate, and the government ignores the crisis.
Why Are the Barricades There?
The Lac Du Flambeau Reservation looks like patchwork, with sections of the land owned by non-tribal residents. The now-blockaded, non-tribal residents living on the reservation had right-of-way easements to their homes for sections of four roads owned by the tribe, but those easements expired more than a decade ago.
With the easements long expired, tribal President John Johnson has closed the roads and is demanding $20 million from two title companies to reopen them for only 15 years. Residents, the title company, and the town say the easements are not worth $20 million.
“Our town has a budget of around $2 million a year,” said blockaded resident Joseph Hunt. “And no title company in the
