Ojibwe band’s territories used to span millions of acres across what is now the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Land that was ceded to the U.S. through various treaties in the 1800s.
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa John D. Johnson Sr. said there’s still relatives here of the families that grew up on one of the islands on Trout Lake, which can be seen from the tribe’s recently acquired land along the southwestern shores of the lake.
“It's very, very special to look out and see that island over there and remind us that you know those are our ancestors that lived here. They walked here, they hunted here, they gathered here,” said Johnson. “It's all good for me. Man, I just love this place.”
Nearly a year ago, the Lac du Flambeau Tribe acquired the Marywood property in Arbor Vitae as part of an historic land transfer.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration sold the land to the tribe for $30,000, the price the FSPA bought it for in 1966.
It was part of the sister’s reconciliation for running an American Indian Boarding School in Odanah for 80 years.
This week, the property got a new name and mission.
It’s now called the Biindigen Spiritual Center.
Biindigen is the Ojibwe word for welcome.
Tribal Elder Tinker Schuman, who led the water ceremony for the renaming, chose the name.
“Usually, when we give an elder tobacco like that. They sit and think, think, think, and they might have a vision. They might have a dream. They might have something that goes on that says, you know, ‘This is the name. This is what we're going to call it,’” said Johnson.
Sisters from FSPA visited Arbor Vitae for the renaming ceremony.
One of the sisters shared a message she had read earlier that day from another Native nation about being their ancestor’s dream.
“It went on to say, you carry the culture, the language, the spirituality of your ancestors. I was so impressed when I read that that I asked to share that with you. So may this land continue to nourish your minds, bodies, spirits into your next generations.”
One of the first major events the tribe hosted on the property was the Indigenous Girls Rock Camp. The girls stayed and practiced at Biindigen Spiritual Center and then performed at Lake of the Torches Casino.
“I come out here and visit them. They were practicing, singing, and the small walls didn't do no due diligence until they got into that big auditorium room on the casino, and you could hear their voices,” said Johnson. “Was beautiful, all that practicing they've done all week.”
Johnson says he’s looking forward to it being used for teaching in the winter and bringing people together.
“We're going to try to protect it as best as we can, as long as we can, so our future generations of our children have something to look forward to, just like our ancestors did for us,” said Johnson. “We knew at some point in time this land would come back to us, and it's a good day. That mino-bimaadiziwin is ‘the good life’. Mino-bimaadiziwin.”
