Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians are a United States federally recognized Native American tribal entity. Robert Kewaygoshkum is the current chairman of the Tribal Council whose offices are in Peshawbestown, Michigan, and where it operates the Leelanau Sands Casino the Turtle Creek Casino and Hotel and the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.

Names

Referring to themselves as "Anishinaabeg" or "Three Fires Confederacy", the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians includes members of the "Odaawaa"/"Odawa" (Ottawa), the "Ojibwe" (Ojibwa/Chippewa) and "Boodewaadami"/"Bodéwadmi" (Pottawatomi) peoples.

Recognition

Under the Indian Reorganization Act, they applied for federal recognition in 1934 and 1943 and were denied. However, in 1978 Dodie Harris Chambers led an effort for recognition and on May 27, 1980, the tribe was formally recognized.

Tribal History

The Band was officially recognized as an Indian Tribe on May 27, 1980, under the provisions of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Members descended from the various Ottawa (Odawa) and Chippewa (Ojibwe) tribal members from northern Michigan.

The Tribe's government includes a governing body consisting of a Tribal chair and six other Tribal Council members, elected by the Grand Traverse Band membership. The Band has the programming, fiscal and administrative authority. The Council also appoints judicial officers that decide criminal, family and civil matters in conjunction with the state court.

The water resources within the 1855 reservation area include Grand Traverse Bay, the eastern shore of Michigan, Lake Leelanau, Elk Lake, and their watersheds. Other natural resources of importance include undeveloped forested parcels and areas of traditional and cultural hunting, fishing and plant gathering.

The Grand Traverse Band's Natural Resources Department is made up of a department manager, game wardens, Great Lakes fishery biologists and technician, fish and wildlife biologists and technician, environmental and water quality staff, and an office manager.

The Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi Indians all migrated from the east coast settling throughout Canada, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota, all having established reservations today in only Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The Ottawa Tribe

Ottawa, or alternatively "Odawa" or "Odawu" derives either from the term "trader" or a truncated version of an Ottawa phrase meaning people of the bulrush. Historically, the members of the tribe are descendants of and politically successors to nine Ottawa Bands who were party to the Treaties of 1836 and 1855 of a total of nineteen bands listed as Grand River Band Ottawa. After the 1855 Treaty, all of the Ottawa Bands located from the Manistee River south to Grand River near or on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan were relocated to reservation lands in Mason and Ocaena Counties. The permanent villages of the Grand River Bands Ottawa including those nine Bands now considered as Little River members, were located on the Thornapple, Grand, White, Pere Marquette and Big and Little Manistee Rivers in Michigan’s western Lower Peninsula.

The Ottawa and Chippewa Treaty of Detroit was signed in 1855 and created an Ottawa/Chippewa nation.

The Chippewa Tribe

The Chippewa (also "Ojibwe", "Ojibway", "Chippeway", "Anishinaabe") are the third largest Native American Indian group in the United States and Canada, surpassed only by Cherokee and Navajo. The Bay Mills Indian Community is located at the land base of the Sault Ste. Marie band of Chippewas. With the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, the Bay Mills Indian Community was created.

Tribal boundaries

The territory of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is the Grand Traverse Indian Reservation, as established by United States Secretary of the Interior on 27 May 1980 and includes lands acquired by the Band. The Grand Traverse Band's Treaty Ceded Territories from the 1836 Treaty covers an area in a line from the Grand River to the Alpena area north and the eastern portion of the upper peninsula from the Chocolay River east. The majority (almost 55 percent) of the reservation's territory lies within several non-contiguous sections of land in eastern Suttons Bay Township in Leelanau County, Michigan. However, there are five other smaller parcels of land in four other counties: one plot in southern Benzonia Township, Benzie County; two plots in southern Helena Township, Antrim County; one plot in eastern Acme Township, Grand Traverse County; and one plot in southwestern Eveline Township, Charlevoix County. The total land area of the reservation and off-reservation trust land is 2.539 km² (0.9804 sq mi, or convert|627.46|acre|km2. Its total 2000 census resident population was 545 persons, 80 percent of whom were of only Native American heritage. The present day, main Reservation and six-county service area consists of Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, and Manistee counties. The Band's federal land base is approximately convert|1100|acre|km2 dispersed throughout the service area with 3,985 members and 1,610 residing in the area.

References

* [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CHECK_SEARCH_RESULTS=N&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P003&-tree_id=4001&-all_geo_types=Y&-redoLog=false&-transpose=N&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=25000US1370&-geo_id=27100US13702600937500&-geo_id=27100US13702601907600&-geo_id=27100US13702602926680&-geo_id=27100US13702605500200&-geo_id=27100US13702608977620&-geo_id=NBSP&-search_results=27100US13702608977620&-format=&-fully_or_partially=N&-_lang=en&-show_geoid=Y Grand Traverse Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Michigan] United States Census Bureau

External links

* [http://www.gtb.nsn.us/ Official tribal site]
* [http://thorpe.ou.edu/constitution/GTBcons3.html Constitution of the Grand Traverse Band]
* [http://www.casino2win.com/ Grand Traverse Resort & Casino]
* [http://www.grandtraverseresort.com]