History Is at the Heart of Wisconsin's 2021 State of the Tribes Address In a speech to the state Legislature, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa President John D. Johnson, Sr. connects the principles of tribal sovereignty to contemporary issues important to Native communities. History's deep currents and their inexorable flows into present-day conditions flowed throughout the 2021 State of the Tribes address, delivered to the Wisconsin Legislature on behalf of Wisconsin's 11 sovereign and federally recognized tribal nations. At the same time, the history-making magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic loomed over the speech and its setting. The address was delivered by John D. Johnson, Sr., president of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, whose 12-by-12-mile reservation — or Waswagoning, a "place where they fish by torchlight" in the Ojibwe language — now straddles portions of Iron, Oneida and Vilas counties. "Just travel north to Minocqua and hang a left," said Johnson, inviting lawmakers to visit.