Information courtesy the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin.

The St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin recently announced the purchase of a large property on Sugarbush Lake, near the upper Apple River. The tribe paid $4.1 million for 831 acres of land, a large house, and two small lakes, according to a video released by the tribe.

The house is intended for use as a recovery center for people afflicted with substance abuse disorders.

“We just thought this would be a monumental effort to help our members, our descendants, our future of our kids, and our recovery efforts with this pandemic going on with fentanyl and heroin,” tribal chairman William Reynolds says in the video.

Reynolds said the recovery center will go beyond the typical 30-day stays, providing up to 120 days when needed. Until now, the St. Croix Chippewa have not had their own facility for helping those in need.

“The people of St. Croix have for the past few decades relied on other tribes and other resources,” Michaela Taylor Lowe, of the tribal housing authority. “Now with the development and the huge purchase here we can begin working in our own historical culturally associated recovery and wellness programming.”

The large property includes 20 miles of trails, wild rice beds, and abundant wildlife. Protecting these resources is another goal of the purchase.

“This is going to open up a lot of this for us culturally,” says tribal council member Thomas Fowler. “There’s a lot here. There’s a lot of medicine. There’s a lot of wildlife too out here that needs to be protected. There are rivers and rice beds that run through here, and it’s our obligation as Anishinabe to protect those things.”