Maiingan at Risk: Tribes Need Our Support After Flambeau Nine

Please watch our video of Joe Rose telling the entire story of Maiingan.

For decades, tribal members have stood in the cold, in the snow, in the wind, fighting for Maiingan. These images throughout this page are from Ojibwe protests I stood in myself. They speak for themselves. They show the grief, the strength, and the refusal to let Maiingan be erased.

The Ojibwe teach that the first human and the wolf walked the world together as brothers, naming every living thing side by side. Their fates were bound — what happens to the wolf will happen to the Ojibwe people. Wolves are not “wildlife” in this worldview; they are relatives, teachers, and part of a sacred covenant. Tribal nations oppose trophy hunting because it violates that kinship, and many bands protect wolves within their own territories. This is why the tribes and Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance stand together in calling for wolves to be placed on the state list.

The Flambeau Nine were killed without tribal consultation, without a buffer zone, and without a single agency honoring the commitments they made in the 2023 Wisconsin Wolf Plan. They knew the cultural significance of Maiingan. They knew the creation story Joe Rose carried his whole life. They knew wolves are relatives. And they still acted alone.

The tribes are grieving. They are angry. They are exhausted. They should not have to carry the public burden of explaining this disaster or reliving the trauma of 2021, when the state blew past its quota and took the tribal protection quota for wolves. They should not have to pay for necropsies on wolves they consider family. They should not have to fight this battle again while mourning.

We walk side by side with the tribes, not as their voice but as their ally. While tribal nations grieve and carry the cultural weight of what happened to Maiingan, Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance does the work they should not be asked to do right now: digging up records, exposing agency failures, supporting tribal science, and building the policy case for protections. We share information with tribal biologists, assist in research, and help uncover what agencies hide. GLWA and the tribes agree that wolves must be placed on the state list — for every reason stated in the petition and more. If you want to protect Maiingan, support tribal sovereignty, and make sure the truth about the Flambeau Nine is not buried, your donation is the most direct way to help.