Brothertown in the news again on WPR

Wisconsin’s Brothertown Indian Nation is fighting for federal acknowledgement

The Wisconsin tribe lost its sovereign status in the 1830s. They’ve spent decades trying to get it back.

By Colleen Leahy – Wisconsin Public Radio

There are nearly 1,000 Native American tribes. But according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are 574. What happened to the other 400? Federal recognition is a legal status that grants sovereignty to tribes, allowing them to have a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

“I can remember when I was a lot younger, if you said you were a Brothertown Indian, somebody might say, ‘What, who?’ That can be quite detrimental to your self-concept and your identity,” she said. 

For the Brothertown, lack of federal recognition has even threatened the tribe’s ability to preserve its own heritage. Tousey told a story about how a non-Native man came in possession of a trove of tribal documents that he tried to sell to the tribe for $1 million. “We had no ability to reacquire that,” she said. 

The Oneida Nation, a recognized tribe that often acts as an ally to the Brothertown and has some shared history, stepped in to protect and preserve the Brothertown’s collection. The story highlights the vulnerability of unrecognized tribes; they are at risk of losing control of their own history.

The Brothertown people were forced to move many times over the course of their history, eventually making their way from the East Coast to Wisconsin. When the government tried to force the tribe to move again in the 1830s, this time to Kansas, the tribe refused via legal maneuvering.

“I believe that our ancestors, our leadership, looked around and realized, of course, that no one was asking the non-Indians to move so their land could go to someone else,” Tousey said. 

The tribe has spent the last 45 years trying to get the government to fix this problem. For three decades, the Brothertown worked to gather the necessary documentation to apply for federal recognition. But the government rejected the tribe’s petition in 2012, informing the tribe  they should have been petitioning for restoration, not recognition. 

You can view the entire article and podcast here on the WPR website….

A note from Colleen Leahy I’d like to pass along to the Tribe:

If you attended the 2025 Brothertown Indian Nation event in April, you may have noticed a friendly, polite, and energetic woman walking around with a large recorder, speaking to everyone with her eyes wide open, seemingly trying to take it all in and observe it all.
Her name was Colleen Leahy, a producer for Wisconsin Public Radio. She wrote the Communications Committee with some nice words following the airing of the Brothertown Story. Her excitement was still prominent in her note. She said she had “learned a TON doing this story, perhaps more than about anything she’s done before!” She thanked everyone for their help and added that “the story could not have been completed without all of you, and she truly appreciated your efforts“. She was pleased to know it was received well and wishes us luck going forward.

A special thank you to each who helped her out; and those who were interviewed. It was a helpful story that showcased the Brothertown Indian Nation’s struggle and perseverance. As Phyllis Tousey, Brothertown Indian Nation Chair, optimistically mentioned at the end of her interview with Colleen… “We are still here.”

–The Brothertown Communications Committee