In 1997, the United States Congress enacted the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act which included distribution of settlement funds to certain individual members of the Michilmackinac (i.e., the Mackinac).
The Chippewa (Ojibwa) and Ottawa (Odawa) Indians are aboriginal and indigenous Algonquin Indian people who occupied areas east of the Mississippi River within the present confines of the northeastern portion of the present United States prior to European contact and settlement within such area.
From time immemorial the Chippewa and Ottawa Indians of North America were organized along band, village and locality basis, and not within a single tribal Nation.
Between the years 1783 to 1855, the United States collectively dealt with the Chippewa and Ottawa Indian bands as a single national entity deemed to be the Ottawa and Chippewa Nation for the convenience of the United States to effectuate land cessions from the Chippewa, Ottawa and other Indians. For example, the Treaty of 1836 was formally entered into by the United States and an entity called “the Ottawa and Chippewa Nation of Indians.”
Prior to 1855 the United States negotiated and entered into more than 25 treaties with the Ottawa and Chippewa Nations.
In 1815, the Defendant’s predecessor established the Mackinac Indian Agency and maintained such agency as the principal federal office through which relations with the Mackinac operated, and services provided to such Indians based upon their status as Indians.
In the above referenced treaties, the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan were represented by participating chiefs from 42 bands of Indians of which 31 bands were Ottawa and 11 bands were Chippewa, including seven (7) bands roughly located in and around the Mackinac Straits between Big Bay D’Noc and Drummond Island, variously identified as Mackinac/ Michilimackinac, or some variation thereof.
Of particular relevance, the Treaty of 1836 completed the Indian land cessions in Michigan, and was signed by many of the Mackinac chiefs and included in Article III, reservations for the Mackinac /Michilimackinac and other lands and waters of traditional use and occupancy for such Indians.
Between 1836 and 1855, Chippewa and Ottawa Indians of Michigan asserted various treaty violations and other equitable claims based upon the Treaty of 1836 and prior treaties, which were addressed in the Treaty of 1855.
During the negotiations of the 1855 treaty, Waw-Be-Geeg, a spokesman for the Michigan Indians stated, “ At the Treaty of (18)36 our Fathers were in partnership with the Ottawa, but now that partnership is finished and we who come from the foot of Lake Superior wish to do business for ‘ourselves.’” In such negotiations, the United States and the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians agreed to the provisions of Article V of the Treaty of 1855, which provided: The tribal organization of said Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, except so far as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this agreement, is hereby dissolved; and if at any time hereafter, further negotiations with the United States, in reference to any matters contained herein, should become necessary, no general convention of the Indians shall be called; but such as reside in the vicinity of any usual place of payment, or those only who are immediately interested in the questions involved, may arrange all matters between themselves and the United States, without the concurrence of other portions of their people, and as fully and conclusively, and with the same effect in every respect, as if all were represented.
The Treaty of 1855, specifically, referenced eight (8) “vicinities” for the residence of the Indians in question and for the “usual place of payment” of annuities under the 1836 and 1855 Treaties.
Specifically, the “Mackinac” vicinities were located at Townships 42 north, ranges 1 and 2 west (near St. Ignace, Michigan) and township 43 north, range 1 west, and township 44 north, range 12 west (near Manistique, Michigan).
In 1872, Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano, a predecessor to the above named Defendant, implemented a policy of “administrative termination” with respect to the Michigan tribes who were signatories to the Treaty of 1855, including the Plaintiff, Mackinac Bands.
In 1889, the Defendant’s predecessor closed the Mackinac Agency, and federal services to the Mackinac, based upon their status as Indians, ceased.
Since that time, the Courts have held that Secretary Delano “illegally acted as if the Band’s recognition had been terminated.”
Since that time, the Mackinac have continued to maintain tribal relations.
In 1910, the Bureau of Indian Affairs conducted an enrollment of the Mackinac Bands, together with other Michigan Indian Tribes, known as the Horace B. Durant Roll, and identifying such Mackinac tribal members as members of such tribe for the purposes of receiving annuities and other services provided to Indian people because of their status as Indian.
In 1916, the Mackinac organized a claims committee to present equitable claims on behalf of the Mackinac to the United States.
n April 4, 1916 the Mackinac claims committee recorded a Power of Attorney at the Mackinac County Recorder’s Office naming David Corp for the purposes of pressing Mackinac claims.
In 1926, Secretary Hurbert Work, the Defendant’s predecessor, requested and commissioned an investigation and report on the condition and affairs of Indians in the United States, which resulted in the report entitled “The Problem of Indian Administration,” also known as the “Meriam Report”.
The Meriam Report documented the continued existence of the Mackinac Bands as being the largest identifiable Indian group in Michigan with a population of 1,193 in 1926.
In 1972 the Indian Claims Commission decisions awarded judgments in Docket Nos. 8–E, 58, and 364 to the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, including the claims of the Mackinac.
In November, 1979, the Mackinac, through Michael Wright and the Consolidated Bahweting Ojibwa and Mackinac Tribe wrote a letter of intent to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian affairs requesting federal reaffirmation of the Mackinac’s Indian’s status as a federally recognized Indian tribe.
In 1997, the United States Congress enacted the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, which included distribution of settlement funds to certain individual members of the Michilmackinac (i.e., the Mackinac).
In the 1990’s, the seven (7) historic bands of the Mackinac are organized into the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians.
On May 13, 1998, the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians filed a letter of intent to file a petition seeking federal acknowledgment of the Mackinac pursuant to the Office of Federal Acknowledgement process [25 CFR 83 ] which was assigned designation as “Group 186” within the OFA docket.
Then in the 2008’s +, the seven (7) historic bands of the Mackinac are organized into 4 different groups, of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians.
The Indian Reorganization Act provides in pertinent part that “Any Indian tribe shall have the right to organize for its common welfare, and may adopt an appropriate constitution and bylaws, and any amendments thereto,” [25 USC § 476(a)].
The Indian Reorganization Act further provides in pertinent part “The Secretary shall call and hold an election as required by subsection (a) of this section … within one hundred and eighty days after the receipt of a tribal request for an election to ratify a proposed constitution and bylaws, or to revoke such constitution and bylaws.” [25 USC § 476(c)].
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