On this week
Dates
A small calendar of dates worth noticing, kept locally rather than waiting for a story to surface them. The structural expression of "show up when there's no crisis." Today is September 27, 2026.
This week
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Treaty of La Pointe (1854) signed
Established the four Wisconsin Ojibwe reservations of Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and Red Cliff. Chief Buffalo and Chief O-sho-ga led the negotiations after Buffalo's 1852 trip to Washington persuaded President Fillmore to rescind the removal order.
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Patty and David's wedding
Backyard ceremony on Aztec Trail in Fitchburg under a willow tree, 50 guests. Mother's WWII parachute-silk dress. Mary Farmiloe maid of honor. Jim Braga best man. Reception of 600 at Turner Hall, Madison, with Clyde Stubblefield and his band, 500 kazoos.
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Treaty of La Pointe (1842) signed
Further Ojibwe land cessions; Article II reserved hunting and gathering rights on ceded territory until the President orders removal.
Round-year anniversaries in 2026
5, 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 years since the event. Year-only entries that don't have a firm date.
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Joe 'Mokaang Giizis' Rose dies of COVID
Bad River elder, Northland College emeritus. Patty's 'second dad' per WPR. The Tribal Youth Media camps were held at his roundhouse for many years.
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'Indian Nations of Wisconsin' first edition published
Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Won the 2002 Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Book Award.
All dates
Chronological by month and day. Year-only entries follow at the bottom.
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President Taylor signs the Ojibwe removal order
Ordering Ojibwe annuity payments to be made at Sandy Lake, Minnesota, instead of La Pointe, with the intent of forcing relocation. More than 400 Ojibwe died at Sandy Lake from starvation, disease, and exposure in late 1850.
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'Bad River' documentary theatrical release
Mary Mazzio's 88-minute documentary on the Bad River Band's fight to shut down Enbridge's Line 5. Narrated by Quannah ChasingHorse and Edward Norton. Patty appears on-camera as a Bad River Tribal Elder. EMA Best Documentary; three Critics' Choice nominations. Streaming on Peacock.
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Dominic's birthday (approximate)
Born April 1994. Patty was a month shy of 42. Exact date intentionally left flexible here.
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Forest County Potawatomi receive Class One Air Quality designation
Only the fifth tribe in the United States to obtain this status, with implications for any mining or industrial activity within a ten-mile radius of the reservation. Helped block the Crandon mine. (Approximate date.)
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Patty's birthday
Born May 15, 1952, in Milwaukee. Spent her 21st in Heraklion, Crete in 1973.
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Indian Removal Act signed by Andrew Jackson
The federal claim of authority to move tribes east of the Mississippi. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed; the Ojibwe nervously watched.
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'Way of the Warrior' re-airs on PBS
National rebroadcast on PBS for Memorial Day weekend. (Approximate date.)
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Indian Citizenship Act
Conferred U.S. citizenship on all Native Americans. Some tribes saw it as imposed; tribal citizenship preceded U.S. citizenship.
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Brackeen v. Haaland decided
U.S. Supreme Court upheld ICWA against constitutional challenge. The chapter-7 Indian Child Welfare Act regime survives.
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Indian Reorganization Act
Reversed the allotment policy. Allowed tribes to organize tribal governments and write constitutions. The Wisconsin Oneida and others reorganized under it.
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Patty inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame
Citation: 'Patty Loew, Ph.D., established an extensive career in Wisconsin broadcasting and journalism dedicated to educating audiences about Native American culture and demonstrating civic-minded broadcasting principles.'
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Treaty of 1837 (Pine Tree Treaty) signed
The Ojibwe ceded vast acres of present-day northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Article 5 reserved 'the privilege of hunting, fishing and gathering the wild rice' on ceded lands, the foundation of modern treaty rights litigation.
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House Concurrent Resolution 108 (Termination)
The federal policy of 'terminating' tribal status. The Menominee were terminated in 1954 and restored only after DRUMS and Ada Deer's leadership in 1973.
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American Indian Religious Freedom Act
Protected the right to practice Native religions, including possession of sacred objects and access to sacred sites.
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Prairie du Chien Treaty signed
First grand council bringing all the Wisconsin nations together. Framed as a treaty of 'peace and friendship'; in fact the federal government's preparation for cession treaties to follow. The 'first time in nearly 175 years' reference in INW's preface points back to this.
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Treaty of La Pointe (1854) signed
Established the four Wisconsin Ojibwe reservations of Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and Red Cliff. Chief Buffalo and Chief O-sho-ga led the negotiations after Buffalo's 1852 trip to Washington persuaded President Fillmore to rescind the removal order.
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Patty and David's wedding
Backyard ceremony on Aztec Trail in Fitchburg under a willow tree, 50 guests. Mother's WWII parachute-silk dress. Mary Farmiloe maid of honor. Jim Braga best man. Reception of 600 at Turner Hall, Madison, with Clyde Stubblefield and his band, 500 kazoos.
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Treaty of La Pointe (1842) signed
Further Ojibwe land cessions; Article II reserved hunting and gathering rights on ceded territory until the President orders removal.
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President Biden's federal Indian boarding school apology
Following the Department of the Interior's two-year investigation initiated by Secretary Deb Haaland, the first formal apology from a U.S. president for the boarding school policy. Wisconsin sites named: Tomah, Hayward, Lac du Flambeau.
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Crandon mine site purchased by Sokaogon and Forest County Potawatomi
Ended a decades-long fight. The mine that the closing 'Beyond' essay of INW left as a cliffhanger turned out to be acquired by the very tribes who fought it. The single biggest narrative reversal in Patty's bibliography. (Approximate date.)
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Brooks's birthday
Born November 2, 1990. Patty was 38. Years later she would pick a pint of raspberries on this date from the Middleton garden.
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Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
Established preference for Native foster and adoptive placements within tribal communities. Upheld in Brackeen v. Haaland (2023).
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'Way of the Warrior' premieres on PBS
One-hour documentary about Native American soldiers across WWI to the present. Patty produced, wrote, and narrated. Edward DeNomie is the emotional spine. Won the 2008 RTNDA/UNITY Award and Best International Documentary at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in New Zealand. (Approximate air date.)
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Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
Established the legal framework for the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural items from federal museums and agencies to tribes.
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Menominee Restoration Act
Restored federal recognition to the Menominee, undoing the 1954 termination. Ada Deer's signature legislative achievement.
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Sally (Neville) DeNomie dies
Patty's maternal grandmother. Orphaned in the 1918-1920 Influenza Pandemic. Met Ed via her brother who served with him in the 32nd Red Arrow Division. Died at 80 of complications from diabetes and breast cancer.
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Edward 'Grandpa D' DeNomie dies
Patty's maternal grandfather, born Simon DeNomie at Keweenaw Bay (Indian name Asinbinaakwe'ige, 'Stone Raker'). WWI 128th Infantry, mustard gas, shrapnel, Milwaukee Road Railroad. Died of heart failure while Patty was on a TV shoot in Western Washington. Subject of her PBS documentary 'Way of the Warrior' (2007). Her stated single biggest regret is not interviewing him in depth before he died.
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Walter Bresette dies
Red Cliff Ojibwe treaty rights and anti-mining activist. Co-author of 'Walleye Warriors.' Patty already calls him 'the late Walt Bresette' in her 2001 INW acknowledgments. Profiled in 'Seventh Generation Earth Ethics.'
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'Indian Nations of Wisconsin' first edition published
Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Won the 2002 Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Book Award.
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'Native People of Wisconsin' first edition published
The 4th-grade textbook used by approximately 25,000 Wisconsin schoolchildren each year. Patty has called this her proudest work.
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'Indian Nations of Wisconsin' second edition published
Revised and expanded. The third edition is in progress.
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'Seventh Generation Earth Ethics' published
Twelve biographical profiles, one per Wisconsin First Nation. Won the 2014 Midwest Book Award for Culture.
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'Native People of Wisconsin' revised and expanded edition
The 4th-grade textbook updated with new contemporary kid profiles.
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Eddie Benton-Banai dies
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, AIM co-founder, author of 'The Mishomis Book.' Patty thanks him by name in her INW acknowledgments as a guide of 'pen and spirit.'
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Joe 'Mokaang Giizis' Rose dies of COVID
Bad River elder, Northland College emeritus. Patty's 'second dad' per WPR. The Tribal Youth Media camps were held at his roundhouse for many years.
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Ada Deer dies
Menominee. Patty's UW-Madison mentor: her American Indian Issues seminar in 1987 'lit my academic fires.' First Native woman to head BIA. The DRUMS movement and Menominee Restoration are her enduring legacy.