Michigan Tribes Fight For Survival And Recognition
Because there are disagreements about who can be classified as an Indian, a truly accurate statewide count is not possible. However, some 64,000 members of tribes which have been recognized by the state or federal government live in Michigan. That gives us the 1 of the largest indigenous population among the 50 states.
After several centuries of white occupation, Michigan Indians have lost access to almost all of the land and other resources which had sustained them since time immemorial. Many, including tribes who had lived in Washtenaw County, were forced to leave the state. Yet a network of clans, bands and tribes remain, and they remember the old obligations and unmet promises of the federal government.
Federal obligations to the tribes were incurred in exchange for tribal land concessions and promises of peace on the frontier. The authors of the U.S. Constitution recognized that without at least some cooperation from tribes (which were then still powerful), the new United States could not survive. Thus article 1, section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to "regulate commerce with. . . Indian tribes." Implicit in this power to regulate, as with the ability to make treaties with other sovereign nations, is the government's right to decide which tribes to recognize.
There are now seven federally-recognized tribes in Michigan: Bay Mills Indian Community, Lac Vieux Desert Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Hannahville Potawatomi Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Tribal Community, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the Sault Site. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Another six tribes which are historically recognized by the State of Michigan are now seeking federal recognition. Still other communities and individuals around the state carry on Native American bloodlines and cultures without official recognition of their existence.
The federal government considers each of the seven tribes which it recognizes as a distinct, self-governing entity, allied with the United States by treaty. Free from taxation, immune from many state laws, and eligible for funding through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), acknowledged Indians are the legal heirs of their nations.
But most of their inheritance was stolen long ago. The process began long before there was a United States. The earliest French explorers, priests and traders brought In diseases which decimated the Great Lakes Indians. In the 1640s, the "Hurons," who called themselves the Wyandot and traditionally lived near Georgian Bay, were forced to flee westward across the water and take refuge with Southeastern Michigan's Potawatomi after losing a disastrous war with the Iroquois - a war fought with European weapons at the behest of French and Dutch rivals for domination of the North American fur trade.
When the Americans came, however, they came to take the land. At first, a series of unequal treaties forced the Indians onto reservations. Later, some of these lands were just taken away, as in 1842 when Washtenaw County's Wyandot were forced to move to Ohio, abandoning the Huron River reservation which they had been given in an 1819 treaty.
Other Michigan reservations were divided into small family or individual land "allotments," most of which were eventually lost to whites. Sometimes it was a matter of loan sharks taking Indian land as collateral. In other cases, illiterates were fraudulently Induced to sign deeds which they did not understand. Other lands were taken by the state for failure to pay illegally-imposed taxes. Land records and tribal membership rolls were altered or "lost." The net effect was that over 90% of reservation land ended up in non-lndian hands. In Michigan, only two small original reservation blocks remain: the Michigan Potawatomi Indian Reservation near Escanaba and the Isabella Indian Reservation in Mt. Pleasant.
Despite the history of land grabs and mass expulsions, Michigan's remaining tribes hope for better times. Allard Peeples, Assistant to the Chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, speaks as an executive of an important enterprise: "We have historically, from the fur trade to what they now cali free trade, been major players in the Great Lakes economy. We are surging back to become a major economic player."
Since K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base closed, the tribe has been the largest employer in the Upper Peninsula. It operates 24 businesses which employ 2,400 tribal members and has a $23 million annual payroll. The tribe owns over 1,000 acres in a seven county area. Among its enterprises are health clinics, cultural centers, grocery stores and some 700 housing units. The tribal business which is best known to outsiders is a casino which had over two million visitors last year.
The tribe's modern economy contrasts with the traditional mixture of hunting, gathering and fishing, supplemented by limited agriculture, which prevailed before the whites came. By the 20th century, logging, the draining of lakes and bogs, and excessive hunting and fishing by non-native people ended their subsistence economy, and the Chippewa (also known as the Ojibway) were reduced to poverty.
Peeples explains the re-development process which the Sault Chippewa follow in their communities: "Where we have a good majority of our members residing, we evaluate what services they need, then we acquire land into trust. Once it's into a trust we have the federal authorization to provide services to our people, build housing and begin economic development We know what it is to be powerless. We will not let it happen again."
Rebuilding hasn't always been a smooth process. Several times, the tribe has sued the city of Sault Ste. Marie over access to water and sewer service. Chippewa fishing rights, guaranteed by treaty, have been challenged in court. Yet Peeples predicts that the tribe will gain acceptance: "We're not going anywhere. We are strong partners with the city, strong partners with the county and we are part of the economic revitalization of the Upper Peninsula."
Since their federal recognition in 1975, the Sault Chippewas' membership has grown more than ten-fold, to some 20,000. This is in part due to a controversial policy which allows people without Chippewa ancestry to join the tribe through marriage or otherwise.
Contrasting with the Sault Chippewas are the Little River Band of Ottawa, who are not recognized by the federal government. Mark Dougher, the band's director, explains: "What happened is that at some point when the tribes were losing lands because of allotment, the BIA unilaterally turned its back on some groups. We were one of those groups." lt's Dougher's job to get federal recognition for his people.
Some of the Little River Band's ancestry is traced back to the 19th century Manistee River and Pere Marquette River Indian bands. Both were Indigenous to the western part of the Lower Peninsula and signed treaties with the United States. Later they were Joined by several other Ottawa bands which had been forced out of their Grand River homes.
The Little River Band of Ottawa were sophisticated farmers who lived in communal long houses and worked the land collectively. When they lost their community lands, their traditional economy was destroyed. The Little River Band still live in their traditional area and have kept their identity as a people.
The band's fight for federal recognition has been, and will be, difficult. Through many policy shifts over many years, the U.S. government has sought to eliminate tribal economics, religions and languages. These attacks were usually accompanied by paternalistic pronouncements about what was best for the Indians.
In the 1950s, the government tried to terminate the recognized status of as many Indian tribes as possible. The abuses under the termination program eventually led to a policy shift with the 1978 Indian Recognition Act, which allows any tribe or band to seek a legal relationship with the United States. Since that act, 143 tribal groups have sought federal recognition, but only eight have received it.
Incorporated in Manistee in 1985, the Little River Band of Ottawa notified the BIA in 1990 that it was seeking federal recognition. It currently claims 620 members, who are descendants of persons listed in the Durant Roll, which was a 1910 census of those eligible to receive benefits under Indian treaties.
The recognition process requires the documentation of a tribe's ethnic history, after which the BIA may or may not acknowledge its legitimacy. A tribe can take alternate routes and be recognized by an act of Congress, or through a lawsuit to enforce treaty rights. Many Indians seeking recognition use more than one strategy at one time. If the group is recognized, it must develop a constitution and a tribal services plan to qualify for federal money.
Such federal funding is opposed by many whites, who claim that it discriminates against them. However, Dougher likens federal funding to damages paid for breach of contract: "The money will be used to help our people. We need to rebuild communities hurt in spite of solemn promises."
The finite resources available through the BIA have also divided tribes, which are pitted against one another in search of federal dollars. Privately, many federally acknowledged Indians do not support the claims of others seeking their status. Also, tribes with strict membership qualifications often object to lax rules by which non-Indians may become citizens of other tribes, particularly when the adopting tribes seek to have federal funds divided on the basis of population. Despite the relative merits of various claims, Sault Chippewa-member Peeples points out that "what is politically and financially acceptable to the U.S. government really dictates whether a group receives federal acknowledgment."
However, Native Americans have learned to be cautious in accepting whatever assistance the federal government is giving out. Until 14 years ago, there was an Indian program in which many tribal members now wish they had not participated. In 1819, Congress established the "Civilization Fund," which set up boarding schools throughout the country to reeducate tribal children in white ways. Many treaties thereafter had provisions to promote the English language and the Christian religion. Michigan had two such boarding schools, one run by the BIA in ML Pleasant and the Catholic-administered Holy Childhood School in Harbor Springs. The Mt. Pleasant school closed in 1933, but Holy Childhood remained open until 1980.
Nancy Wanshon, one of Detroit's many urban Indians and the Chairperson of the People of the Earth Chapter of HONOR (Honor Our Neighbors' Origins and Rights), knows the effects that boarding schools had on children. Her mother, a full-blood Odawa Ojibway of the Turtle Clan, was kidnapped by the State of Michigan and put into foster homes, orphanages and ultimately a boarding school. While she was away during this 13-year "civilizing" process her parents died.
Wanshon cites the fear that the process instilled: "My mother believed she had to marry a white man. She had this fear that any children she had with a native man would be taken away." The fear affected the next generation: "We were raised knowing who we were, where we came from, our traditions, our culture. But it was never to go outside of our home."
Wanshon now proudly proclaims her heritage, and works through HONOR to promote intercultural understanding of tribal issues. She is particularly active in the fight against the use of Indian images and names by sports teams and public institutions. HONOR helped to stop the production of Treaty Beer and the use of the Crazy Horse name on malt liquor labels.
Michigan Indians have endured (and continue to endure) great hardships to avoid the "American melting pot." From Reagan's regrets that not enough has been done to assimilate the "backward" people to missionaries' bringing the white man's way of salvation, from north woods rednecks shouting racial epithets when Indians fish to old hippies expressing their admiration for a distorted version of what tribal culture is, the mainstream is as Incompetent as ever in its efforts to understand and guide "Indian affairs." Indians don't have that problem. "I would never leave this area," Wanshon says. "I don't need to go around looking for myself. My people know who I am."