Total population | |
---|---|
3,985 enrolled members | |
Regions with significant populations | |
United States ( Michigan) | |
Languages | |
Ojibwe (Ottawa dialect), English | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Ojibwe, Potawatomi and other Algonquian peoples |
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (Ojibwe : Gichi-wiikwedong Odaawaag miina ojibweg) is a federally recognized Native American tribe located in northwest Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula. Sandra Witherspoon is the current tribal chairperson, elected in May 2024 [1] to a four-year term after succeeding David Arroyo, who served a single term from 2020 to 2024.
The tribal offices are in Peshawbestown, Michigan. As of June 2024, the current GTB Tribal Council consists of: Chairperson Sandra Witherspoon, Vice-Chair Jane Rohl, Treasurer Tina A. Frankenberger, Secretary Anna Miller, Councilor Brian S. Napont, Councilor Angelina M. Raphael, and Councilor Donna M. Swallows. [2] The tribe owns and operates the Leelanau Sands Casino, the Turtle Creek Casino and Hotel, and the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa.
It is one of three federally recognized tribes of Odawa peoples in Michigan. The others are the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, both recognized in 1994.
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 (Potawatomi) peoples. They were historically part of the confederacy.
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. The Grand Traverse Band is the first federally recognized tribe of Odawa in Michigan. They were one of the first tribes in the United States to own a casino, under new gaming laws passed in the 1980s. [3]
Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi Indians are Algonquian-speaking peoples who gradually migrated from the Atlantic coast, settling around the Great Lakes throughout Canada, and the Midwest of what became the United States: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Today they have federally recognized reservations of communal land only in Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. During the 19th century, they were forced to cede most of their land to the governments of Canada and the United States under pressure from European-American and Canadian settlement.
The name Ottawa, or alternatively "Odawa" or "Odawu," is believed to derive from an Algonquian word for the term "trader." It was incorrectly recorded as meaning "people of the bulrush," for which there is a specific Odawa term referring to a particular band.
Historically, the members of this tribe are descendants of and political successors to nine Ottawa bands who were party to the treaties of 1836 and 1855, related to the total of 19 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 Oceana counties.
The permanent villages of the Grand River bands of Ottawa, including those nine Bands whose descendants compose the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, were located on the Grand, Thornapple, Flat, White, Père 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 for the purposes of settling on a reservation.
The Chippewa (also "Ojibwe", "Ojibway", "Chippeway", "Anishinaabe") are the largest Native American people north of the Rio Grande. Their population is split between Canada (where they are known as the Ojibwe) and the United States. The Bay Mills Indian Community is located at the land base of the Sault Ste. Marie band of Chippewa, which originally occupied land on both sides of what became the US-Canada border. After passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Bay Mills Indian Community organized to recreate a form of government.
Members are descended from the nine historic bands of Ottawa (Odawa) and bands of Chippewa (known as Ojibwe in Canada) peoples who occupied this territory in northern Michigan and signed treaties with the federal government. They were successors to the 19 bands that have been documented in this territory.
The tribe's government includes an elected governing body consisting of a tribal chair and six tribal council members; they are elected by the enrolled members of the Grand Traverse Band. Unfortunately, the Grand Traverse Band has disenfranchised the majority of their members. Nearly all other tribes in Michigan allow all their members to vote in elections. The band has programming, fiscal and administrative authority. The council also appoints judicial officers who 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 territory of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is the Grand Traverse Indian Reservation ( 45°01′13″N85°36′22″W / 45.02028°N 85.60611°W ), 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.
There are also five 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 627.46 acres (2.5392 km2). Its total 2000 census resident population was 545 persons, 80 percent of whom identified as fully Native American. 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 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) dispersed throughout the service area, and it has a total of 3,985 members. Some 1,610 reside in the tribal areas.
The Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center, located in Peshawbestown, Michigan, was opened in 2009 by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians to serve as a heritage and cultural center. [4] The museum includes a gift shop with works of tribal artists and craftspeople, as well as educational materials, maps and books. [5]
There has been one major anthropological study of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Jane Willetts Ettawageshik devoted approximately two years of study in the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians community. Jane Willetts Ettawageshik recorded Anishinaabe stories speak of how the Anishinaabe people related to their land, to their people, and various other means of communicating their values, outlooks and histories in and around Northern Michigan. These stories have been translated into a book "Ottawa Stories from the Springs, Anishinaabe dibaadjimowinan wodi gaa binjibaamigak wodi mookodjiwong e zhinikaadek" [6] by Howard Webkamigad.
The Ojibwe are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and throughout the northeastern woodlands. The Ojibwe, being Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and of the subarctic, are known by several names, including Ojibway or Chippewa. As a large ethnic group, several distinct nations also consider themselves Ojibwe, including the Saulteaux, Nipissings, and Oji-Cree.
The Odawa are an Indigenous American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long preceded the creation of the current border between the two countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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.
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.
The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe is one of six federally recognized bands of Ojibwe people located in present-day Wisconsin. It had 7,275 enrolled members as of 2010. The band is based at the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northwestern Wisconsin, which surrounds Lac Courte Oreilles. The main reservation's land is in west-central Sawyer County, but two small plots of off-reservation trust land are located in Rusk, Burnett, and Washburn counties. The reservation was established in 1854 by the second Treaty of La Pointe.
Peshawbestown is an unincorporated community in Suttons Bay Township of Leelanau in the U.S. state of Michigan. In historical documents, the name is spelled variously as Peshabetown, Peshabatown, Pshawbatown, Preshabestown.
The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma is one of four federally recognized Native American tribes of Odawa people in the United States. Its Algonquian-speaking ancestors had migrated gradually from the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes areas, reaching what are now the states of Michigan and Ohio in the 18th century. In the late 1830s the United States removed the Ottawa to west of the Mississippi River, first to Iowa, then to Kansas in what was Indian Territory.
The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi (NHBP) is a federally-recognized tribe of Potawatomi in the United States. The tribe achieved federal recognition on December 19, 1995, and currently has approximately 1500 members.
The Fox Islands consist of the North Fox and South Fox Islands, in Lake Michigan. The uninhabited islands are approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Cathead Point near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan and about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Beaver Island. The two islands form part of an archipelago. South Fox Island Light was built in 1867 and operated until 1959. Both islands are part of Leelanau County, Michigan, and are administered by Leelanau Township. Several shipwrecks have occurred on the Fox Islands, or the reefs adjoining them; in 1851, the Illinois was reported as a "total wreck" on the Fox Island reef, In 1860, the bark Fontanelle ran aground at the Fox Islands, and in 1861, the schooner Nightingale. In 1873, the ships Frank Perew and Magnet encountered trouble at the Fox Islands.
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.
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a federally recognized 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.
The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe of Odawa. A large percentage of the more than 4,000 tribal members continue to reside within the tribe's traditional homelands on the northwestern shores of the state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The historically delineated reservation area, located at 45°21′12″N84°58′41″W, encompasses approximately 336 square miles (870 km2) of land in Charlevoix and Emmet counties. The largest communities within the reservation boundaries are Harbor Springs, where the tribal offices are located; Petoskey, where the Tribe operates the Odawa Casino Resort; and Charlevoix.
Anishinaabe tribal political organizations are political consortiums of Anishinaabe nations that advocate for the political interests of their constituencies. Anishinaabe people of Canada are considered as First Nations, and of the United States as Native Americans.
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe of the Odawa people in the United States. It is based in Manistee and Mason counties in northwest Michigan. It was recognized on September 21, 1994.
The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people in Michigan named for a 19th-century Ojibwe chief. They were formerly known as the Gun Lake Band of Grand River Ottawa Indians, the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan, Inc., and the Gun Lake Tribe or Gun Lake Band. They are headquartered in Bradley, Michigan.
The Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is a non-profit organization for people who self-identify as being of Odawa and Chippewa descent. The organization's members live mostly in Emmet and Cheboygan counties. These two counties are located in the northernmost region of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Since 1985, the Burt Lake Band has petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs for re-recognition as a federally acknowledged band, a recognition first achieved in the 1830s. The organization is not recognized by the State of Michigan.
The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians is a non-profit organization for people who self-identify as being of Ojibwe and Odawa descent, based in the state of Michigan. The organization is headquartered in St. Ignace, Mackinac County and has around 4,000 members. Today most members live in Mackinac, Chippewa, Emmet, Cheboygan, and Presque Isle counties, however many members are also located throughout the state of Michigan and the United States. The organization is not recognized by the State of Michigan or by the US federal government.
Waunetta McClellan Dominic was an Odawa rights activist who spent her career advocating for the United States government to adhere to its treaty obligations to Native Americans. She was one of the founders of the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association and her influence was widely recognized, especially after winning a 1971 claim against the government for compensation under 19th-century treaties. She was also a proponent of Native American fishing rights being protected. In 1979, she was named by The Detroit News as "Michiganian of the Year" and in 1996, she was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
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.