SUPERIOR (WI)
Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee WI]
November 6, 2025
By Frank Vaisvilas
A Catholic organization recently returned land to an Ojibwe tribe in northern Wisconsin, marking what officials are calling the first known return of Catholic-owned land to an Indigenous tribe as an act of reparations.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration on Oct. 31 formally transferred its Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center property located on the shores of Trout Lake in Arbor Vitae to the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Nation, which has a reservation about six miles away. Marywood was a retreat for the sisters.
“This return represents more than the restoration of land – it is the restoration of balance, dignity and our sacred connection to the places our ancestors once walked,” Lac du Flambeau Tribal President John Johnson Sr. said in a statement.
“The Franciscan Sisters’ act of generosity and courage stands as an example of what true healing and partnership can look like. We are proud to welcome Marywood home to ensure it continues to serve future generations of the Lac du Flambeau people.”
The Catholic Church was one of the largest operators of Indian boarding schools in the U.S. from the late 1800s through well into the 1900s. These schools boarding schools would strip Native children of their identity, language, traditional clothes and other parts of their culture and heritage to forcefully assimilate them into American society. Incidents of physical and sexual abuse against children were reported at these schools.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration administered St. Mary’s Catholic Indian Boarding School from 1883 to 1969. Many children from Lac du Flambeau attended the school, which was in Odanah, about 83 miles away from the Marywood property, in northwest Wisconsin on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation.
Officials with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration said they have been wanting to reckon with the history of the school for some time, and returning the Marywood property to an Ojibwe tribe is the start of that.
“It was painful to address our complicity, but we knew it had to be done,” Sister Eileen McKenzie, former president of the Franciscan Sisters group, said in a statement. “We wanted to leave a legacy of healing.”
The Franciscan Sisters sold the Marywood property to the tribe for $30,000, which is what the sisters paid for it in 1966. That amount is only just over 1% of its current market value. The land transfer was assisted by Land Justice Futures, an organization dedicated to support religious communities in land transitions for the purpose of racial and ecological healing.
The sisters hope the land transfer will serve as a model for Catholic congregations for future reconciliations with tribal nations.
“The land now lives into its deeper purpose as a place of renewal and we trust and pray it will plant seeds of cultural renewal for generations to come,” Sister Sue Ernster said in a statement.
Bishop Jerome Powers of the Diocese of Superior said the land transfer is a “tangible act of justice … that flows directly from the heart of our Catholic faith.
“Following in the spirit of Pope Francis’s own commitment toward repentance, we pray this action will help build on a future of mutual respect and trusted relationships with the Lac du Flambeau Tribe, acknowledging their connection to this land.”
The Marywood property is within the Ceded Territory, which is millions of acres of land in northern Wisconsin, northeast Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that was Ojibwe territory until treaties with the U.S. in the mid-1800s. These treaties also retained the right for Ojibwe to harvest in those lands — rights which were upheld by courts in the 1970 and ‘80s.
“This land, known to our people for centuries, carries the songs, stories, and spirits of our ancestors,” Johnson said. “As it returns to our care, we honor their memory by continuing to live in harmony with the waters, forests, and all living things that make this place sacred. The circle is being made whole once again.”
Transfer comes after lawsuit over boarding schools, Catholic Church repudiation of doctrine
Johnson is helping to lead an effort to hold the Catholic Church responsible for its role in the boarding schools.
He said tribal leaders from many different tribal nations are putting together a formal resolution demanding accountability from the church. Johnson said the church should be held liable, and in some way help pay tribal members to help reclaim the culture that was taken away.
In May, certain tribal nations filed a legal complaint against the United States for its role in the infamous boarding schools. The action is being called by legal experts the first significant class-action lawsuit of its kind regarding a dark chapter in this country’s history.
Under the leadership of the late Pope Francis in 2023, the Catholic Church formally repudiated its 500-year-old Doctrine of Discovery, which had essentially permitted Christian European nations to subjugate and spread forced Christianity on Indigenous people in the Americas and Africa, as well as steal their lands.
Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Catholic group returns land to Ojibwe as reparation for boarding school, a historic first