I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3848 

To reaffirm and clarify the Federal relationship of the Burt Lake Band 

as a distinct federally recognized Indian Tribe, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 28, 2015 

Mr. BENISHEK (for himself and Mrs. DINGELL) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To reaffirm and clarify the Federal relationship of the Burt 

Lake Band as a distinct federally recognized Indian 

Tribe, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Burt Lake Band of 

5 Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Reaffirmation Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) The members of the Burt Lake Band of Ot9 tawa and Chippewa Indians, whose historic name is 

10 the Cheboigan (or Cheboygan) Band, are descendVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Oct 29, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3848.IH H3848

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1 ants and a political successor to signatories of the 

2 1836 Treaty of Washington and the 1855 Treaty of 

3 Detroit. The treaty signatories were twice recognized 

4 by the United States, on a government-to-govern5 ment relationship basis, through the execution and 

6 ratification of those treaties. 

7 (2) The 1836 Treaty of Washington provided 

8 that the Cheboigan Band would receive a reservation 

9 of 1,000 acres on the Cheboigan, within its aborigi10 nal territory, for a period of 5 years after ratifica11 tion of that treaty but the United States failed to 

12 provide that reservation. The 1855 Treaty of Detroit 

13 provided that Ottawa and Chippewa Indians could 

14 select individual allotments of land within designated 

15 reserves, and 2 townships were set aside for selec16 tion by the ‘‘Cheboygan Band’’ in Cheboygan Coun17 ty. Those members who selected allotments within 

18 that area were not awarded those individual land 

19 holdings until 3 years after a special Act of Con20 gress was passed in 1872. 

21 (3) Between 1845 and 1850 the Band’s mem22 bers used treaty annuity payments to purchase land 

23 for the Band in Burt Township, Cheboygan County, 

24 Michigan. That land, called Colonial Point, was 


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1 placed in trust with the Governor of Michigan on the 

2 advice of Federal Indian agents. 

3 (4) During the next 50 years, questions arose 

4 regarding the taxability of the property, and the 

5 acreage was ultimately sold for back taxes in 1900. 

6 (5) After the Band was forcibly evicted from 

7 Colonial Point and its village was burned to the 

8 ground by its new owner, John McGinn, the major9 ity of the Band’s families took up residency on near10 by Indian Road on lands which other Band members 

11 had purchased or received as treaty allotments or 

12 homesteads. 

13 (6) In 1911, the United States filed suit in the 

14 United States Federal District Court for Eastern 

15 Michigan seeking to regain possession of the Colo16 nial Point Lands (United States v. McGinn, Equity 

17 No. 94, filed June 11, 1911). In its complaint, the 

18 United States advised the Court that it was suing on 

19 behalf of the ‘‘Cheboygan band of Indians [which] is 

20 now and was at all the times mentioned in this bill 

21 of complaint a tribe of indians [sic] under the care, 

22 control, and guardianship of the plaintiff and said 

23 band is now and was at all times mentioned in this 

24 bill of complaint recognized by the plaintiff through 

25 its chiefs or head men which it annually elects.’’. 


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1 (7) In 1917, the Federal District Court decided 

2 the McGinn case against the United States finding 

3 that the language in the Colonial Point deeds did 

4 not prevent the Colonial Point land from being 

5 taxed. 

6 (8) Over the next 20 years, Acting Chief Enos 

7 Cabinaw, acting on behalf of the Cheboygan Band, 

8 asked the United States to appeal or otherwise rec9 tify the District Court’s decision, but no Federal ac10 tion was taken. Throughout this period, the United 

11 States continued to provide the Band and its mem12 bers with many of the same Federal services that 

13 were being provided to other Indian tribes in Michi14 gan. 

15 (9) The Act of June 18, 1934 (hereafter in this 

16 Act referred to as the ‘‘Indian Reorganization Act’’), 

17 authorized and directed the Bureau of Indian Af18 fairs to provide technical assistance and Federal 

19 funds to petitioning tribes to assist them in reorga20 nizing their governments and improving their econo21 mies. Members of the Cheboigan Band, as well as 

22 members of other landless treaty Tribes in Michigan, 

23 submitted petitions to receive that assistance. Simi24 lar petitions were also submitted by 4 Michigan 

25 bands that still held communal lands. Possession of 


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1 a tribal land base was a prerequisite to the receipt 

2 of most of the Federal funds and services provided 

3 for in the Indian Reorganization Act. 

4 (10) While the Indian Reorganization Act di5 rected the Secretary to assist landless bands, like 

6 Burt Lake, and authorized Federal funds to acquire 

7 land, no Federal funds were appropriated to acquire 

8 new tribal lands for any of the landless bands in 

9 Michigan. After struggling with this dilemma, the 

10 Bureau of Indian Affairs extended the benefits of 

11 the Indian Reorganization Act to only those 4 Michi12 gan tribes that had an existing land base on the 

13 date of the enactment of the Indian Reorganization 

14 Act. Of the Ottawa and Chippewa Tribes who signed 

15 the 1836 and 1855 Treaties, only 1 group, the Bay 

16 Mills Indian Community, was organized under the 

17 Indian Reorganization Act. 

18 (11) The failure of the Bureau of Indian Af19 fairs to grant Indian Reorganization Act benefits to 

20 the Cheboigan Band did not terminate the band’s 

21 government-to-government relationship with the 

22 United States, and Congress has never taken any 

23 action to terminate Federal acknowledgment of the 

24 Burt Lake Band. 


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1 (12) The Bureau of Indian Affairs does not 

2 have the legal authority to terminate a tribe that has 

3 been acknowledged by an Act of Congress. 

4 (13) Since 1972, the following Michigan tribes 

5 that were not organized under the Indian Reorga6 nization Act, have been recognized or reaffirmed as 

7 federally recognized Indian tribes: 

8 (A) The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chip9 pewa was reaffirmed by a Memorandum of the 

10 Commissioner of Indian Affairs on September 

11 7, 1972. 

12 (B) The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa 

13 and Chippewa Indians was acknowledged by the 

14 Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs on May 

15 27, 1980. 

16 (C) The Little Traverse Bay Bands of 

17 Odawa Indian and the Little River Band of Ot18 tawa Indians each had its Federal status re19 affirmed by an Act of Congress on September 

20 21, 1994. 

21 (D) The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake 

22 Superior Chippewa Indians had its Federal sta23 tus as a separate Indian tribe reaffirmed by an 

24 Act of Congress at the request of the Adminis25 tration on September 8, 1988. 


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1 (E) The Pokagon Indian Nation had its 

2 Federal status reaffirmed by an Act of Con3 gress on September 21, 1994. 

4 (F) The Huron Potawatomi Nation had its 

5 Federal status acknowledged by the Assistant 

6 Secretary of Indian Affairs on March 17, 1996. 

7 (G) The Gun Lake Tribe (Match-She-Be8 Nash-She-Wish) had its Federal status ac9 knowledged by the Assistant Secretary of In10 dian Affairs on August 23, 1999. 

11 (14) The Burt Lake Band has been consistently 

12 recognized by third parties as a distinct Indian com13 munity since well before 1900. 

14 (15) The Burt Lake Band consists of members 

15 who are the children, grandchildren, or great grand16 children of Indian persons who resided on or near 

17 Colonial Point or Indian Road prior to 1910. The 

18 majority of the Band’s adult members grew up on 

19 or near Indian Road or had an immediate family 

20 member who did. As the result, the Band’s members 

21 have maintained very close social and political ties. 

22 The Band has its own, well-defined membership cri23 teria, which requires the maintenance of tribal rela24 tions. 


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1 (16) The Burt Lake Band consists of families 

2 who have and continue to provide mutual aid to each 

3 other, visit each other regularly, mobilize to assist 

4 each other in times of need, practice traditional arts 

5 and crafts, gather for Ghost Suppers, decorate the 

6 graves of their ancestors, and participate in other 

7 traditional tribal ceremonies and events. 

8 (17) Since 1829 the Burt Lake Band’s mem9 bers have attended and consistently mobilized to 

10 maintain the Indian Mission Church of St. Mary’s, 

11 first on Colonial Point and later on Indian Road. 

12 The Burt Lake Band’s members have also worked 

13 together to maintain the Tribe’s 2 Indian ceme14 teries. They have also dug the graves and buried 

15 their relatives in those 2 Indian cemeteries for al16 most 200 years. 

17 (18) The Burt Lake Band’s members have 

18 throughout time made formal and informal decisions 

19 for the community. The Burt Lake Band has also 

20 organized its own modern tribal government without 

21 the assistance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

22 (19) The majority of the Band’s elders have a 

23 high degree of Indian blood and continue to speak 

24 the Ottawa language when they gather with each 

25 other. Before World War II, more than 50 percent 


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1 of the Burt Lake families were still speaking the tra2 ditional language in their homes, and more than 50 

3 percent of those tribal members who were married 

4 were married to other Ottawa and Chippewa individ5 uals. 

6 (20) There is no evidence that the Band has 

7 willfully abandoned tribal relations and there is no 

8 evidence that the Congress has taken any legal ac9 tion to terminate its government-to-government rela10 tions with the Burt Lake Band. 

11 (21) Because the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

12 failed to review the Band’s petition for over 20 

13 years, a percentage of the Band’s members enrolled 

14 in other Tribes in order to obtain the Federal serv15 ices, most notably health care and prescription drug 

16 assistance, that they were legally entitled to, but de17 nied as members of Burt Lake. This step was often 

18 taken on the advice of one or more employees of the 

19 Bureau of Indian Affairs. This dual enrollment situ20 ation has now created a new problem for the Band’s 

21 reaffirmation, because the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ 

22 current regulations prohibit it from recognizing a 

23 tribe when a part of the tribe’s community is or was 

24 enrolled in another federally recognized tribe. 


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1 (22) In September 2006, the Assistant Sec2 retary of Indian Affairs denied the Burt Lake 

3 Band’s petition for recognition even though it found 

4 that the Burt Lake Band has been identified as an 

5 Indian entity by scholars, local and State officials, 

6 and other tribes, and even though it found that the 

7 members of the Burt Lake Band maintain a strong 

8 Indian community. In its letter denying the Burt 

9 Lake Band’s petition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

10 stated that ‘‘Congress may consider taking legisla11 tive action to recognize petitioners that do not meet 

12 the specific requirements of the acknowledgment 

13 regulations but may have merit.’’. 

14 (23) The Burt Lake Band has exhausted its ad15 ministrative remedies, therefore this Act is both nec16 essary and appropriate. 

17 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

18 For purposes of this Act, the following definitions 

19 apply: 

20 (1) The term ‘‘Burt Lake Band’’ means the 

21 Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, 

22 a continuously existing historical tribe of Indians de23 scending from the Cheboygan band which was in24 cluded in treaties with the United States in 1836 


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1 and 1855 and descending from the Indian Village at 

2 Burt Lake in 1900. 

3 (2) The term ‘‘Indian Reorganization Act’’ 

4 means the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 U.S.C. 461 et 

5 seq.). 

6 (3) The term ‘‘OFA’’ means the Office of Fed7 eral Acknowledgment, a branch of the United States 

8 Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Af9 fairs. 

10 (4) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

11 of the Interior. 

12 SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION. 

13 (a) FEDERAL RECOGNITION.—The Burt Lake Band 

14 of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is hereby reaffirmed as 

15 a federally recognized Indian tribe. All laws and regula16 tions of the United States of general application to Indi17 ans or nations, tribes, or bands of Indians, including the 

18 Indian Reorganization Act, which are inconsistent with 

19 any specific provision of this Act shall not be applicable 

20 to the Burt Lake Band and its members. 

21 (b) FEDERAL SERVICES AND BENEFITS.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

23 provision of law, after the date of the enactment of 

24 this Act, the Burt Lake Band and its members shall 

25 be eligible for all services and benefits provided by 


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1 the Federal Government to Indians because of their 

2 status as federally recognized Indians without regard 

3 to the existence of a reservation or the location of 

4 the residence of any member on or near any Indian 

5 reservation. 

6 (2) SERVICE AREA.—For purposes of the deliv7 ery of Federal services to the enrolled members of 

8 the Burt Lake Band and to other Indians, all of 

9 Cheboygan County Michigan, and any area in the 

10 State of Michigan that is outside of Cheboygan 

11 County, but located within 25 miles of the Burt 

12 Lake Band’s Cemetery at the St. Mary’s Indian 

13 Mission Church, shall be deemed to be within the 

14 Service Area of the Burt Lake Band. Nothing con15 tained herein shall prohibit the Federal Government 

16 from providing services to members of the Burt 

17 Lake Band who reside or are domiciled outside this 

18 Service Area, or from otherwise expanding the Burt 

19 Lake Band’s Service Area in compliance with appli20 cable Federal law and policy. Nothing in this sub21 section is intended to diminish or alter the service 

22 area of another federally recognized Indian tribe. If 

23 any part of the Burt Lake Band’s service area over24 laps with the service area of another federally recog25 nized Indian tribe, that overlap shall be addressed in 


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1 compliance with existing Federal policies and regula2 tions. 

3 SEC. 5. REAFFIRMATION OF RIGHTS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—All rights and privileges of the 

5 Burt Lake Band and its members, which may have been 

6 abrogated or diminished before the date of the enactment 

7 of this Act are hereby reaffirmed. 

8 (b) EXISTING RIGHTS OF BURT LAKE BAND.—Noth9 ing in this Act shall be construed to diminish any right 

10 or privilege of the Burt Lake Band or of its members that 

11 existed before the date of the enactment of this Act. Ex12 cept as otherwise specifically provided in any other provi13 sion of this Act, nothing in this Act shall be construed 

14 as altering or affecting any legal or equitable claim the 

15 Burt Lake Band may have to enforce any right or privi16 lege reserved by or granted to the Burt Lake Band which 

17 was wrongfully denied to or taken from the Burt Lake 

18 Band before the date of the enactment of this Act. 

19 SEC. 6. TRIBAL LANDS. 

20 The Secretary shall acquire real property in Che21 boygan County in trust for the benefit of the Burt Lake 

22 Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, if at the time of 

23 such acceptance by the Secretary, there are no adverse 

24 legal claims on such property, including outstanding liens, 

25 mortgages or taxes owed, and the Secretary has confirmed 


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1 that the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 has 

2 been complied with regarding the trust acquisition of the 

3 property. After being taken into trust, such lands shall 

4 become part of the initial reservation of the Burt Lake 

5 Band at the request of the Burt Lake Band. The Sec6 retary is also authorized to acquire and accept real prop7 erty in other geographic areas into trust for the benefit 

8 of the Burt Lake Band and to declare those lands to be 

9 a part of the Burt Lake Band’s Reservation consistent 

10 with applicable law. 

11 SEC. 7. MEMBERSHIP. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—The initial membership of the 

13 Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians shall 

14 consist of persons who can present evidence, acceptable 

15 to the Burt Lake Band, showing that they meet the re16 quirements of subsection (b), and persons who meet such 

17 other requirements as are specified by the Burt Lake 

18 Band in its Burt Lake Band’s Constitution and Enroll19 ment Ordinance as the same may be from time-to-time 

20 amended. 

21 (b) MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA.— 

22 (1) To qualify for membership in the Burt Lake 

23 Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a person 

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1 ceptable to the Burt Lake Band that the person 

2 meets at least one of the following requirements: 

3 (A) The person descends from a tribal 

4 member who was domiciled at Colonial Point, 

5 Burt Township, Cheboygan County, Michigan, 

6 before or at the time that the Burt Lake 

7 Band’s village was burned in October 1900, as 

8 the tribal members are identified as Colonial 

9 Point residents in the case files of the litigation 

10 initiated by John W. McGinn to evict former 

11 residents from that land, or in the list prepared 

12 in or about 1950 as the Albert Shananaquet list 

13 of pre-1900 village residents, or both. 

14 (B) The person descends from a tribal 

15 member who is listed on the 1900 or 1910 Burt 

16 Lake Township Federal Census, Indian Enu17 meration Schedule. 

18 (C) The person has an Indian ancestor 

19 who was, prior to 1910, living in tribal relations 

20 with the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chip21 pewa Indians as the Burt Lake Band is defined 

22 in this Act. 

23 (2) In addition to the requirements under para24 graph (1), to qualify for membership in the Burt 

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1 son must be able to demonstrate through evidence 

2 acceptable to the Burt Lake Band that the person 

3 meets all of the following criteria: 

4 (A) That the person is in tribal relations 

5 with other Burt Lake Band members. 

6 (B) That the person’s ancestors have lived 

7 in tribal relations with other Burt Lake Band 

8 members on a substantially continuous basis 

9 from 1910 to the present. 

10 (C) That the person has a completed tribal 

11 membership enrollment file as prescribed by the 

12 Tribal Enrollment Ordinance. 

13 (D) That the person’s membership applica14 tion has been processed and that the person has 

15 been approved for membership in the Burt 

16 Lake Band in the manner prescribed by the 

17 Tribal Enrollment Ordinance. 

18 (c) BASE ROLL.—The Burt Lake Band shall provide 

19 a copy of the base roll of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa 

20 and Chippewa Indians to the Assistant Secretary for Indi21 ans Affairs not later than 12 months after the date of 

22 the enactment of this Act. The base roll shall consist of 

23 the 320 persons whose names were listed on the official 

24 roll of the Burt Lake Band which were members sub25 mitted by the Burt Lake Band to the OFA on May 2, 


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1 2005, and shall also include the biological sons and daugh2 ters who were born to those members between the submis3 sion of that list and the enactment of this Act. The Base 

4 Roll shall also include those descendants of Burt Lake 

5 members who— 

6 (1) meet the enrollment criteria established by 

7 this section; 

8 (2) seek enrollment in the Burt Lake Band not 

9 later than 12 months after the date of the enact10 ment of this Act; and 

11 (3) are accepted for enrollment in the Burt 

12 Lake Band in the manner prescribed by the Burt 

13 Lake Band’s Constitution. 

14 SEC. 8. CONSTITUTION. 

15 The initial constitution of the Burt Lake Band shall 

16 be the constitution that the Burt Lake Band submitted 

17 to the OFA on May 2, 2005. 

Æ 


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