Fred Maulson: Navigating Both Worlds In A Younger Generation

LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wisconsin — “We struggle with our own community sometimes, and that’s the difficult part,” said Fred Maulson, son of tribal member Tom Maulson. “We’ve seen and gone off to school and experienced life beyond what we have here.”

His father, Tom Maulson, is a former tribal chairman who made headlines in the 1980s when he became a face of the “fish wars,” a long dispute over fishing the walleye present in the Lac du Flambeau area. 

Fred Maulson is part of a younger generation and has lived a different experience from his father. He has spent time away from the reservation in college and now he commutes off of the reservation for work.

Maulson spoke on his experiences as both transformative and helpful to build a life and earn a living and disconnective from his culture and elders in the community.

“To bring that back is somewhat foreign because it’s not the norm and sometimes we’re resented and looked down upon for our education,” said Maulson. 

Though he at times has dealt with disconnection from his community he is an active member and wants to work towards a better future for the tribe, encouraging young people to connect with their history, earn an education and get involved with tribal leadership.

Maulson is an Indian Education mentor at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, Wisconsin, a neighboring town to Lac du Flambeau. He is also a co-teacher in the school’s Voyageur program, an alternative learning program for struggling students. 

Maulson feels that it is important to support Native students as many of them face obstacles others aren’t willing to see and place the blame on the children.

“You have to ask, why are kids doing what they’re doing?” 

For Maulson, he feels it’s an effect of what has happened to Native people in the past and the discrimination they continue to face today. Many Native students also have different priorities than non-native students, working to put food on the table for their families or helping take care of their siblings.

“Their priority is living not school.”

He says people need to try and understand the kids and where they are coming from before placing the blame on them. He feels schools need to work with and empathize with the students.

In Lakeland Union High, Maulson believes there has been some progress, “but that’s only because of the effort we have put in to change things- it has been hard work.”  

Maulson struggles with the misunderstanding and uneducated comments that he feels destroy the vision of who they really are as people and as a community. 

For younger generations like the students he teaches, Maulson feels those comments don’t just hurt them but also change their perception of themselves.

“We struggle with our young people today with knowing who they are- we lose our identity.”

Maulson understands what the students go through as he dealt with the ignorant comments and othering when he was growing up as well.

“I heard when I was growing up, ‘why don’t you use your canoes and torches’. I said well do you have a wagon and horses? Then they said F— you, you Indian.”

He says the same thing is happening today with the barricade issue, bringing another wave of prevalent hateful, racist and misinformed comments about the tribe.

“I struggle when those comments come out, the not understanding,” said Maulson. “These comments are distorting who we are.”

He hopes that in time people will be educated more about who the Anishinaabe and Native people as a whole really are, but as of now, he doesn’t see an end in sight. 

“That’s simple minded people that you’re trying to educate and it’s been going on for years and years. Will it ever stop? No. It never will.”