Bay Mills Indian Community

Last updated
Bay Mills Indian Community
Gnoozhekaaning
Indian reservation
Bay Mills Indian Community Flag.svg
Flag
Seal of the Bay Mills Indian Community.svg
Seal
Bay Mills Indian Community, MI location2.png
Locations within Chippewa County
USA Michigan location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Bay Mills
Location within the State of Michigan
Coordinates: 46°27′15″N84°36′49″W / 46.45417°N 84.61361°W / 46.45417; -84.61361
Country United States
State Michigan
County Chippewa
Land purchased1936
Government
 • TypeExecutive Council
 • ChairwomanWhitney Gravelle
Area
 • Land4.793 sq mi (12.41 km2)
Population
 (2017)
 • Total2,057
Time zone UTC-5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code(s)
49715 (Brimley)
49783 (Sault Ste. Marie)
Area code 906
Website Official website

The Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC) (Ojibwe: Gnoozhekaaning, lit. "Place of the Pike"), is an Indian reservation forming the land base of one of the many federally recognized Sault Ste. Marie bands of Chippewa (aka Ojibwa).

Contents

The largest section of the reservation is located in Chippewa County, Michigan, approximately 15 miles (25 km) west-southwest of Sault Ste. Marie. The tribe has land in both Bay Mills and Superior townships. A smaller section lies southeast of Sault Ste. Marie and encompasses Sugar Island, all contained within the boundaries of Sugar Island Township.

History

The Ojibwa are a large tribe with numerous bands who have occupied territory for centuries around the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Their territories are now divided between the nations of Canada and the United States (where the people are commonly known as the Chippewa).

Numerous bands have historically occupied areas around the cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario. The city developed along both sides of the St. Mary's River, established first during the colonial era as a French and then British fur trading post. A settled community gradually developed around the post, cosmopolitan in its varied cultures of Native American tribes, Métis people, and French and Anglo ethnic Europeans. In the 19th century, the Ojibwa/Chippewa bands in Michigan were forced to cede large amounts of territory to the United States, and many bands became landless. Nonetheless, they persisted in maintaining their cultural communities.

Bay Mills people are Ojibwa or Chippewa who have lived for hundreds of years around the Whitefish Bay, the falls of the St. Marys River, and the bluffs overlooking Tahquamenon Bay, all on Lake Superior and southwest of Sault Ste. Marie. The Bay Mills Indian Community was officially established by an Act of Congress on June 19, 1860. [1]

After passage of the federal Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC) created a new form of government under a written constitution, adopted on November 27, 1937. This was approved and recognized by the federal government, which purchased land for the community to establish a reservation land base. Its territory was one of the four reservations established in Michigan under the 1934 act. [1] These lands, along with the original Bay Mills Mission and a small area on Sugar Island, occupied by its people at least since the late 18th century, comprise the majority of the current reservation land holdings in Chippewa County. [1]

In 1966, BMIC was one of the four founding members of the Inter-Tribal Michigan Indian Council, established to share developments and to improve relations of tribes with the state and federal governments. Other founding members were the Keweenaw Potawatomie Indian Community, Hannahville Indian Community, and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. The council now represents 11 of the 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan.

Reservation

The area within the reservation boundaries is in U.S. trust status and is divided into two separate areas. As of the 2000 census, the majority of the land base, 3.761 square miles (9.74 km2), lies northwest of Brimley, Michigan, in the eastern parts of Bay Mills and Superior townships. The remaining 1.032 square miles (2.674 km2 or 660.67 acres) is located on Sugar Island in the St. Marys River southeast of Sault Ste. Marie and within US boundaries. The tribe's total land area at the time of organization in 1937 was 4.793 square miles (12.41 km2), on which a population of 812 persons resided.

Since the late 20th century, the Tribe has acquired additional land, and now has a land base of approximately 3,494 acres (5.46 sq mi; 14.14 km2), of which 3,109 acres (4.86 sq mi; 12.58 km2) are held in trust by the federal government.

Government

The BMIC consists of approximately 1,309 enrolled members. It is governed by the General Tribal Council, which consists of all voting-age members of the tribe. Daily decisions are made by the Executive Council, which consists of five elected officials (president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and councilperson).

Bay Mills Community College is an accredited tribal college operated in by the BMIC Bay Mills Community College.jpg
Bay Mills Community College is an accredited tribal college operated in by the BMIC

The tribe operates Bay Mills Community College, an accredited tribal college, and Bay Mills Resort & Casino.

Environment

Biological Services Department

The Biological Services Department strives to enhance, protect, and restore fish, wildlife, and plant communities, and bodies of water. Staff participate in research and monitoring of the environment on both tribal trust lands and the surrounding region. Major programs include Great Lakes fisheries assessments, inland fish and wildlife assessments, forest management, invasive species management, beach health monitoring, water quality assessments, and some recycling programs to reduce hazardous chemical entering the environment. Biological Services also provides outreach and education to the community in both public events and printed publications. [2]

Recycling Initiatives

Bay Mills Biological Services Department seeks to prevent hazardous chemicals from entering the environment by supporting recycling and waste collection.

Law Support

Clean water is essential to the Bay Mills Indian Community. The Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to provide assistance to tribes to protect and maintain the waters in and around their land. The EPA awarded a grant of $124,400 to the Bay Mills Indian Community of Michigan to implement water resource and non-point source programs to protect human health and the environment. The funding allows the tribe to continue efforts that establish and implement ongoing water pollution control programs. It also supports water quality monitoring, and community education and outreach. [3]

Economy

Following changes in state and national laws to allow gaming casinos on tribal reservations, in the mid-1990s, the tribe started working with casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr. and Detroit businesswoman Marian Ilitch to develop a casino. It wanted to generate jobs and revenue for reinvestment in education and welfare of tribal members. Originally Malik and his partners had proposed that the tribe, in partnership with Harrah's, build a casino in the area of Downtown Detroit referred to as Foxtown. In 1996 Michigan voters narrowly approved a ballot measure permitting three larger commercial casinos in Detroit, which would have provided too much competition.

For almost a decade BMIC and its partners worked to pursue land claims in the Hay Lake/Charlotte Beach area on the eastern shores of Michigan's northern peninsula, believing that it had been denied adequate compensation from the federal government for lands it was forced to cede in the 19th century. BMIC wanted to trade such land in settlement agreements with the government for potentially more lucrative casino sites closer to population centers, such as Port Huron or elsewhere. BMIC representatives testified in hearings in Congress on this proposal in 2004. [4]

The voters of Port Huron approved the proposal for Bay Mills casino in 2001. While the agreements were signed by the Governor of Michigan and approved by the legislature, they stalled in Congress. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10th) has introduced HR. 831 and Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow had previously introduced S.2986 to support this project.

The tribe later gained approval for a land deal at Brimley, Michigan, on Waiska Bay west of Sault Ste. Marie. Its Bay Mills Resort & Casino has 17,000 sq feet of casino space with 695 slots and 13 table games, 3 restaurants and 144-room hotel. [5]

Religion

In Chippewa life, religion is an essential part. They believe that man is a part of the great natural cycle. They purse to get in touch with the spirits and get protection from evil. In their religion, everything in the universe has a soul, no matter animate or inanimate, and they all should be respected. Every child experienced a fasting period in a sacred place to seek a vision and spirit, which became the child's lifelong guardian. In their opinion, land and water should be shared for common use, not privately owned. They do not have the conception of the land ownership because of their religious views. [6]

In May 2021, the Kateri Tekakwitha church in Bay Mills, Michigan, was destroyed by a fire. It was the second time that the same church had been burned, which had been built in her honor. [7]

Law

Legalization of Marijuana

After Michigan legalized the recreational use and sale of marijuana, the Bay Mills Indian Community voted to approve the legalization as well. They officially adopted the ordinance allowing individuals to cultivate, possess, and use marijuana on April 8, 2019. The Bay Mills Indian Community became the first tribe in the State of Michigan to legalize the recreational use of marijuana on the reservation. And under the tribe's law, tribal members who have previous convictions in the tribal court for marijuana-based offenses can move to have those convictions vacated. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chippewa County, Michigan</span> County in Michigan, United States

Chippewa County is a county in the eastern Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,785. The county seat is Sault Ste. Marie. The county is named for the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people, and was set off and organized in 1826. Chippewa County comprises the Sault Ste. Marie, MI micropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar Island Township, Michigan</span> Civil township in Michigan, United States

Sugar Island Township is a civil township of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 653 at the 2020 census. The township consists of Sugar Island, several smaller islands, and the surrounding waters in the St. Marys River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superior Township, Chippewa County, Michigan</span> Civil township in Michigan, United States

Superior Township is a civil township of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,337 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ojibwe</span> Group of indigenous peoples in North America

The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. They are Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic and Northeastern Woodlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake Indian Reservation</span> Home to the federally recognized Red Lake Band of Ojibwe

The Red Lake Indian Reservation covers 1,260.3 sq mi in parts of nine counties in Minnesota, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L'Anse Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation in Michigan, United States

The L'Anse Indian Reservation is the land base of the federally recognized Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the historic Lake Superior Band of Chippewa Indians.. The reservation is located primarily in two non-contiguous sections on either side of the Keweenaw Bay in Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The Keweenaw Bay Community also manages the separate Ontonagon Indian Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span> Ojibwa Native American tribe

The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a federally recognized Ojibwa Native American tribe. It had 3,415 enrolled members as of 2010. The Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation lies mostly in the Town of Lac du Flambeau in south-western Vilas County, and in the Town of Sherman in south-eastern Iron County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It has a land area of 107.1 square miles (277.4 km2) and a 2020 census resident population of 3,518 persons. Its major settlement is the unincorporated Lac du Flambeau, which had a population of 1,845 persons.

Sugar Island is an island in the U.S. state of Michigan in the St. Marys River between the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario. The entire island constitutes Sugar Island Township in Chippewa County at the eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula. According to the 2000 census there were 683 people living on a land area of 128 square kilometers ; about 14 people per square mile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians</span> Reservation

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, commonly shortened to Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians or the more colloquial Soo Tribe, is a federally recognized Native American tribe in what is now known as Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tribal headquarters is located within Sault Ste. Marie, the major city in the region, which is located on the St. Marys River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fond du Lac Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation in northern Minnesota

The Fond du Lac Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota near Cloquet in Carlton and Saint Louis counties. Off-reservation holdings are located across the state in Douglas County, in the northwest corner of Wisconsin. The total land area of these tribal lands is 154.49 square miles (400.1 km2). It is the land-base for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Before the establishment of this reservation, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa were located at the head of Lake Superior, closer to the mouth of the Saint Louis River, where Duluth has developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians</span>

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe located in northwest Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula. Sam McClellan is the current tribal chairman, elected in June 2016 to a four-year term after succeeding Al Pedwaydon, who served from 2012 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span> Band of Ojibwe Native Americans based in Bayfield County, Wisconsin

Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a band of Ojibwe Native Americans. The Red Cliff Band is located on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation, on Lake Superior in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. Red Cliff, Wisconsin, is the administrative center. Red Cliff is notable for being the band closest to the spiritual center of the Ojibwe nation, Madeline Island. As of November 2010, there were 5,312 enrolled members, with about half living on the reservation and the rest living in the city of Bayfield or the Belanger Settlement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kechewaishke</span> Ojibwe leader

Chief Buffalo was a major Ojibwa leader, born at La Pointe in Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, in what is now northern Wisconsin, USA.

The Lake Superior Chippewa are a large number of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They migrated into the area by the seventeenth century, encroaching on the Eastern Dakota people who had historically occupied the area. The Ojibwe defeated the Eastern Dakota, who migrated west into the Great Plains after the final battle in 1745. While they share a common culture including the Anishinaabe language, this highly decentralized group of Ojibwe includes at least twelve independent bands in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span>

Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a band of the Lake Superior Chippewa, many of whom reside on the Lac Vieux Desert Indian Reservation, located near Watersmeet, Michigan. It is approximately 45 miles southeast of Ironwood, Michigan in Gogebic County.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Michigan since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015. The U.S. state of Michigan had previously banned the recognition of same-sex unions in any form after a popular vote added an amendment to the Constitution of Michigan in 2004. A statute enacted in 1996 also banned both the licensing of same-sex marriages and the recognition of same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians</span> Native American tribe in Michigan

The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians is a state recognized tribe of Ojibwe and Odawa Native Americans, based in the state of Michigan. The tribe is headquartered in St. Ignace, Mackinac County and has around 4,000 enrolled members. Today most tribal members live in Mackinac, Chippewa, Emmet, Cheboygan, and Presque Isle counties, however many tribal members are also located throughout the state of Michigan and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kewadin Casinos</span>

The Kewadin Casinos are a set of casinos located in the US state of Michigan. The casinos are owned by the federally recognized Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The primary property is located in Sault Ste. Marie, with additional locations on tribal lands in Christmas, Hessel, Manistique, and St. Ignace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kewadin Casino, Hotel and Convention Center</span>

Kewadin Casino, Hotel and Convention Center is a casino, hotel, and convention center in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan which opened in November 1985. It is one of the Kewadin Casinos, which are all owned and operated by the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

The Treaty of Detroit of 1855 was a treaty between the United States Government and the Ottawa and Chippewa Nations of Indians of Michigan. The treaty contained provisions to allot individual tracts of land to Native people consisting of 40-acre (16 ha) plots for single individuals and 80-acre (32 ha) plots for families, outlined specific tracts which were assigned to the various bands and provided for the severance of the government consolidation of the Ottawa and Chippewa.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Bay Mills Indian Community", Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan Indians, 2012
  2. ↑ "Bay Mills Indian Community". www.baymills.org. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  3. ↑ US EPA, OA (2018-06-19). "EPA awards $40,422 to Bay Mills Indian Community of Michigan for water quality protection". US EPA. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  4. ↑ "The Case for Land Claims Settlement:" Testimony before House Resources Committee, June 2004 Archived December 27, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Bay Mills Resort & Casino, 500 Nations website, 1999-2015
  6. ↑ Michigan, Bureau of Employment and Training (1977). Bay Mills Indian Community Comprehensive Plan.
  7. ↑ U.P. Church Named After American Saint Destroyed for Second Time (May 5, 2021) MLive.
  8. ↑ "Bay Mills Indian Community first tribe in Michigan to legalize marijuana". IndianCountryToday.com. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
 Michigan, Bureau of Employment and Training, and Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan. Bay Mills Indian Community Comprehensive Plan. The Bureau, 1977. Web.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.