Issue 008
The Weekly Brief
For the week of June 28, 2026
The dominant thread this week runs through northern Wisconsin water: Ashland residents took to the streets over Enbridge's use of Lake Superior municipal water for Line 5 reroute construction, while a federal judge extended the bar on Lac du Flambeau's fishing restrictions on nearly twenty lakes, keeping two of Patty's most-watched treaty-rights storylines very much alive. On the national front, Michigan opened a public comment window on the Line 5 tunnel project, NARF is flagging the tribal water-law stakes, and the 150th commemoration of the Battle of Greasy Grass drew tribal nations together to reclaim that history on their own terms. Quieter but worth watching: Forest County Potawatomi's Bwadwét entrepreneurship launch and the boarding-school oral history project wrapping its national tour in Tulsa both show communities building forward, not just defending ground.
Across the Twelve Nations
Two treaty-rights fights dominated Wisconsin Indian Country this week, but there was also a Potawatomi entrepreneurship launch and a Menominee athlete's national honor worth noting.
Ashland Residents Protest Line 5 Reroute's Draw on Lake Superior Water
A group of Ashland residents rallied Wednesday against Enbridge's use of municipal Lake Superior water for hydrostatic testing of the Line 5 reroute through Bad River ceded territory. The protest adds a local-community dimension to what has largely been framed as a tribal-versus-pipeline fight, and raises a pointed question: who authorized the city to supply water for a project the Bad River Band is actively challenging in federal court? The Wisconsin Examiner's coverage is the most detailed available this week, though WPR's ongoing beat reporting on the reroute remains the essential running record.
Federal Judge Again Bars Lac du Flambeau from Restricting Fishing on Nearly Twenty Lakes
A federal judge has continued the injunction blocking Lac du Flambeau from enforcing its fishing restrictions on the lakes that cross allotment-era roads at the center of the ongoing easement dispute. The ruling keeps the band's access-control strategy on hold while the broader road-dispute litigation works through the courts, and it sits in direct tension with the tribe's sovereign interest in managing its own lands. WPR's coverage, the Native source of record on this beat, is the right place to start.
Potawatomi Ventures Launches Bwadwét Entrepreneurship Program for Native Business Builders
Forest County Potawatomi's economic development arm, Potawatomi Ventures, has launched Bwadwét Innovation Community, named from the Bodewadmi word meaning 'the one who starts a fire,' anchoring a fifteen-week entrepreneurship program for tribal adult members. The initiative is a concrete example of the economic diversification beyond gaming that Patty tracks across the twelve nations. WPR's report is brief but the underlying development is substantive, and the Potawatomi Traveling Times provides the tribal-voice detail on the program's design.
Menominee Boxer Lew Boyd Inducted into North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame
Lew Boyd of the Menominee Nation was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame in Green Bay on May 30, recognized for a remarkable amateur boxing career of 76 wins and 6 losses and for his subsequent work as a coach. The Potawatomi Traveling Times, which covered the induction, notes Boyd's dual legacy as competitor and mentor. This is the kind of ordinary-person story Patty's 'Native People Up Close' frame was built for: a Mamaceqtaw man excelling on his own terms, not as a symbol of anything larger.
Treaty Rights and Water: Line 5, Michigan, and the Stakes of Tribal Water Law
Michigan's public comment window on the Line 5 tunnel opened this week, and NARF's water-law resource guide is a useful companion piece for anyone tracking the legal landscape.
Michigan Opens Public Comment on Line 5 Tunnel as NARF Flags Tribal Water Stakes
Michigan is accepting public comment on the proposed Line 5 oil tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, and NARF's updated resource page makes clear what tribal nations and Indigenous communities have long argued: the tunnel project poses direct risks to treaty-protected waters, fisheries, and natural resources. This is the Michigan flank of the same pipeline fight that runs through Mashkiiziibii, and the comment window is a rare moment when organized tribal voice can enter the formal record. NARF is the right source here, and Patty, you may want to flag this for Bad River's legal team if they haven't already.
NARF's National Indian Law Library Publishes Tribal Water Law Resource Guide
The National Indian Law Library has released a curated water-resources guide through NARF's Headwaters Report, covering federal Indian water law, tribal water rights adjudications, and the intersection of treaty rights with water infrastructure disputes. For anyone updating a chapter on Wisconsin Ojibwe treaty rights or preparing for a keynote on sovereignty, this is a practical reference tool, not just a press notice. The guide is particularly useful alongside the ongoing Line 5 and manoomin litigation.
Indian Country: Federal Policy, Courts, and Community
A boarding-school oral history project nears its close, a Tohono O'odham sovereignty fight over the border wall moves into federal court, and the IHS director nomination advances in the Senate.
Boarding School Oral History Project Concludes Its National Tour in Tulsa
The nationwide tour to document first-hand accounts from Indian boarding school survivors is wrapping up in Tulsa, marking the close of a multi-year effort to build an archive of living memory before it is lost. ICT's report is brief, but the underlying project is significant: survivor testimony is the evidentiary foundation for any future federal reckoning, and its preservation is exactly the kind of truth-and-healing work that the boarding school investigation has called for. The conclusion of the tour is a milestone worth noting in any updated chapter treatment of the boarding school era.
Tohono O'odham Nation Sues Federal Government over Border Wall on Tribal Lands
The Tohono O'odham Nation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging what it calls an illegal border wall construction on its lands, a fight that directly implicates tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and the nation's ability to protect sacred sites and family connections that cross the international boundary. ICT's Southwest Bureau has the report. The case is a clean example of the federal government treating tribal land as a resource to be used rather than a sovereign territory to be respected, and it will be worth tracking as it moves through the courts.
Senate Indian Affairs Committee to Consider Mark Cruz for Indian Health Service Director
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a nomination hearing for Mark Cruz, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, to lead the Indian Health Service. The IHS directorship has been a revolving door in recent administrations, and a permanent, Senate-confirmed director who is himself a tribal citizen would be a meaningful change for Indian Country health infrastructure. Native News Online has the basics; the hearing outcome will be the more important story to track.
Indigenous Babies Bear the Highest Burden as the U.S. Runs Short of the Only Drug That Treats Congenital Syphilis
Indigenous infants have had the highest rates of congenital syphilis in recent years, disproportionate to their share of the population, and now the country is running short of the one U.S.-made drug that treats the condition. ICT's report connects a national pharmaceutical supply failure to a specifically Native health disparity, the kind of structural story that gets lost when coverage focuses only on individual cases. This belongs alongside the broader IHS-funding and Indian Country health-equity beat.
ICT Newscast: Ho-Chunk Land Return, Boarding School Healing, and a Tribal Microgrid
This week's ICT Newscast packages three significant Indian Country developments: a Ho-Chunk land return, a boarding school healing initiative, and a tribal microgrid project. The Ho-Chunk land return is the Wisconsin thread worth pulling, and the microgrid story points toward the energy-sovereignty work tribes are doing independent of federal infrastructure programs. The newscast format is a useful index when the underlying stories haven't yet been reported individually.
People: Elders, Leaders, and Voices Worth Knowing
Arlene Alloway, Eldest Member of Forest County Potawatomi, Celebrates 98 Years
Arlene Alloway, known in the community as Nigansekwe, Leading Lady, marked her 98th birthday on May 12 surrounded by family and the Forest County Potawatomi community. The Potawatomi Traveling Times sat with Arlene and her family for a portrait that is exactly what Patty's 'Native People Up Close' frame calls for: a specific elder, a specific community, a life lived on her own terms. At 98, Nigansekwe is a living archive of Bodewadmi history across the twentieth century, and the community's celebration of her is its own kind of sovereignty.
Native Candidates Win Primaries in New York and Utah
Native candidates backed by progressive coalitions won primary races in New York and Utah in the June 23 elections, according to ICT's politics desk. The brief is short on specifics about which candidates and which nations, but the pattern of Native electoral success in 2026 primaries is worth tracking as a trend. Patty, the ICT piece is a starting point; the underlying candidates' affiliations and platforms deserve a follow.
Long Read: Reclaiming Greasy Grass at 150 Years
One piece this week earns the full fifteen minutes.
Where Two Histories Collide: Native Sun News on the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Greasy Grass
Native Sun News's reflection on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Greasy Grass sets the commemoration against the backdrop of the United States' own 250th birthday celebrations, and the juxtaposition is quietly devastating. The piece does what the best Native journalism does: it holds two calendars at once, refuses to let the dominant culture's anniversary swallow the other, and insists that what happened along the Greasy Grass was not a defeat but a moment of sovereign assertion that still resonates. Read alongside the ICT newscast coverage of the commemoration events and the Native Sun News profile of historian Donovin Sprague, this piece anchors a week in which tribal nations gathered on that ground to say, in the words of one elder quoted by ICT, 'We changed history.' The Seventh Generation lens is implicit throughout: these nations are not commemorating a past; they are teaching their children who they are.