Chippewa Tribe Repudiates Recent Illegal Events on the Nation's Reservation

Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Tribe repudiates recent illegal events on the Nation's reservation. The Tribe's President and Council also wish to express gratitude to area law enforcement and fire departments for their assistance during recent illegal break-in.

Lac du Flambeau, WI - The Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Tribe, through its democratically elected president and Tribal Council wishes to express their frustration, anger, and repudiation of the recent illegal break-in, occupation, and vandalism of the Nation's Tribal Center by a number of individuals who are currently released on signature bond from the state judicial system.

These individuals, who took it upon themselves to break into the Tribal Center under the guise of "political dissention," consisted of enrolled Tribal members and others, who, in recent media releases have stated that they are enrolled Tribal members, but who are in fact not.

"These Tribal members and non-enrolled individuals resorted to destructive measures in order to draw attention to themselves for personal gain and to advance their extreme political ideologies and subversive agenda," said Tribal President, Victoria Doud. "Their views do not represent the majority views of this Tribe, and therefore they have taken upon themselves to circumvent the law and our Tribal constitution in a cowardly and illegal attempt to create a false and misleading appearance of impropriety of the current administration," she continued. "We would like to state, in no uncertain terms, that these Tribal members and other individuals who were arrested that day and were charged will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, both in the state, federal and Tribal courts, and any future attempts to usurp the will of the entire Tribe's membership through intimidation and violence will not be tolerated. We look forward to working with each of the prosecutor's offices so that these cases will be handled appropriately and so that justice will prevail."

The break-in and subsequent standoff occurred following the previous night's Tribal Council meeting where a dispute arose regarding an investigative committee's report about charges of Tribal constitutional and legal violations. The committee was in the process of recommending impeachment when opposing Councilmember Tom Maulson, objected to the removal of one of the committee members because of their conflict of interest. The meeting was then recessed once it became apparent that un-productive and disruptive arguments by opposing Council members and members of the audience would not cease.

At approximately 1:30 am that night, a group of individuals including Murial Fralick's son, Chris Fralick, broke into the Tribal Center by force. Chris Fralick is a convicted felon recently released from parole from a 1995 burglary and criminal damage to property conviction. (Refer to Wisconsin State vs. Christopher S. Fralick, Brown County Case Number 1995CF00071).

These individuals allegedly locked themselves into the Tribe's Enrollment Department, which houses critical Tribal and personal Tribal member data, including social security numbers, names and information on all of the Tribe's enrolled members and their family members.

Gerry Brown, Tribal Secretary and Supervisor of the Enrollment Department stated; "I am concerned about the impact to our Tribal members and their family members by this invasion of privacy and possible theft of personal information, especially by known convicted felons and individuals with a history of prior arrests. In addition, I am concerned about industrial espionage, as there are sensitive documents detailing our financial ventures that, if released to the public, could be detrimental to the Tribe as a whole and beneficial to our Tribal enterprise's competitors," continued Brown. "All of this information could be easily sold or used to steal from an unknowing Tribal member. This is a serious breach of security."

No one was hurt and the illegal occupation ended peacefully due in large part by the local and surrounding community's law enforcement and fire-rescue assistance. "On behalf of the Tribal Council, I would personally like to thank the numerous law enforcement officials and fire-rescue members who unselfishly helped us during our time of need," stated President Doud. "As there were elders and minors involved, as well as extremely flammable and dangerous materials brought into the building by these individuals, the risk of a different outcome was highly possible. I have no doubt that there was a safe and peaceful resolution to this illegal occupation because of the professionalism of these agencies."

On a final note, President Doud stated; "To this day I still can not believe that a few radical individuals would put minors and elders into such a dangerous and compromising position in order to advance their own political agendas. It is not the Ojibwe way. Therefore, we are committed to making sure those individuals who helped orchestrate and participated in this unnecessary and subversive act of intimidation are discovered and held accountable for their actions."

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