[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 129 (Tuesday, August 2, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE RECLAMATION OF WISCONSIN POINT FROM THE CITY OF 
        SUPERIOR TO THE FOND DU LAC BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR OJIBWE

  Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, today I rise to recognize the 
reclamation of Wisconsin Point from the city of Superior to the Fond du 
Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. Wisconsin Point, a narrow strip of 
land separating Allouez Bay from Lake Superior, is a small portion of 
the Tribe's ancestral home and also an indigenous burial ground dating 
back 400 years. At least seven generations were laid to rest at the 
Wisconsin Point cemetery, including the Tribal community's leader Chief 
Joseph Osaugie.
  The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior--or Wayekwaa-gichigamiing 
Gichigamiwininiwag--Lake Superior Men at the far end of the Great 
Lake--is an Anishinaabe--Ojibwe--band located near what is now known as 
Cloquet, MN. The Fond du Lac Band are one of six Tribes who comprise 
the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, which was organized 
in 1934 with a new constitution under the Indian Reorganization Act.
  In 1918, approximately 180 Ojibwe graves buried on Wisconsin Point 
were exhumed by the U.S. Steel Company and reburied in 29 plots south 
of the St. Francis Cemetery to make way for industrial development. 
Living Tribal members were also uprooted and removed.
  Now, more than 100 years later, significant work has been done by the 
city of Superior and Tribal leaders to acknowledge the trauma of the 
lives and culture lost.
  On August 18, 2022, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and 
the city of Superior jointly host a celebration of the return of 
Wisconsin Point's sacred burial ground, as well as the mass grave near 
St Francis cemetery to the Tribe.
  Please join me in celebrating this historic moment, where once again 
the Wisconsin Point lands return back to Lake Superior Ojibwe.

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