I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2322 
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 
JUNE 23, 2011 
Mr. BENISHEK (for himself and Mr. KILDEE) 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Burt Lake Band of 
Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Reaffirmation Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The members of the Burt Lake Band of Ot-
tawa and Chippewa Indians, whose historic name is 
the Cheboigan (or Cheboygan) Band, are descend-
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ants and a political successor to signatories of the 
1836 Treaty of Washington and the 1855 Treaty of 
Detroit. The treaty signatories were twice recognized 
by the United States, on a government-to-govern-
ment relationship basis, through the execution and 
ratification of those treaties. 
(2) The 1836 Treaty of Washington provided 
that the Cheboigan Band would receive a reservation 
of 1,000 acres on the Cheboigan, within its aborigi-
nal territory, for a period of 5 years after ratifica-
tion of that treaty but the United States failed to 
provide that reservation. The 1855 Treaty of Detroit 
provided that Ottawa and Chippewa Indians could 
select individual allotments of land within designated 
reserves, and 2 townships were set aside for selec-
tion by the ‘‘Cheboygan Band’’ in Cheboygan Coun-
ty. Those members who selected allotments within 
that area were not awarded those individual land 
holdings until 3 years after a special Act of Con-
gress was passed in 1872. 
(3) Between 1845 and 1850 the Band’s mem-
bers used treaty annuity payments to purchase land 
for the Band in Burt Township, Cheboygan County, 
Michigan. That land, called Colonial Point, was 
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placed in trust with the Governor of Michigan on the 
advice of Federal Indian agents. 
(4) During the next 50 years, questions arose 
regarding the taxability of the property, and the 
acreage was ultimately sold for back taxes in 1900. 
(5) After the Band was forcibly evicted from 
Colonial Point and its village was burned to the 
ground by its new owner, John McGinn, the major-
ity of the Band’s families took up residency on near-
by Indian Road on lands which other Band members 
had purchased or received as treaty allotments or 
homesteads. 
(6) In 1911, the United States filed suit in the 
United States Federal District Court for Eastern 
Michigan seeking to regain possession of the Colo-
nial Point Lands (United States v. McGinn, Equity 
No. 94, filed June 11, 1911). In its complaint, the 
United States advised the Court that it was suing on 
behalf of the ‘‘Cheboygan band of Indians [which] is 
now and was at all the times mentioned in this bill 
of complaint a tribe of indians [sic] under the care, 
control, and guardianship of the plaintiff and said 
band is now and was at all times mentioned in this 
bill of complaint recognized by the plaintiff through 
its chiefs or head men which it annually elects.’’. 
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(7) In 1917, the Federal District Court decided 
the McGinn case against the United States finding 
that the language in the Colonial Point deeds did 
not prevent the Colonial Point land from being 
taxed. 
(8) Over the next 20 years, Acting Chief Enos 
Cabinaw, acting on behalf of the Cheboygan Band, 
asked the United States to appeal or otherwise rec-
tify the District Court’s decision, but no Federal ac-
tion was taken. Throughout this period, the United 
States continued to provide the Band and its mem-
bers with many of the same Federal services that 
were being provided to other Indian tribes in Michi-
gan. 
(9) The Act of June 18, 1934 (hereafter in this 
Act referred to as the ‘‘Indian Reorganization Act’’), 
authorized and directed the Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs to provide technical assistance and Federal 
funds to petitioning tribes to assist them in reorga-
nizing their governments and improving their econo-
mies. Members of the Cheboigan Band, as well as 
members of other landless treaty Tribes in Michigan, 
submitted petitions to receive that assistance. Simi-
lar petitions were also submitted by 4 Michigan 
bands that still held communal lands. Possession of 
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a tribal land base was a prerequisite to the receipt 
of most of the Federal funds and services provided 
for in the Indian Reorganization Act. 
(10) While the Indian Reorganization Act di-
rected the Secretary to assist landless bands, like 
Burt Lake, and authorized Federal funds to acquire 
land, no Federal funds were appropriated to acquire 
new tribal lands for any of the landless bands in 
Michigan. After struggling with this dilemma, the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs extended the benefits of 
the Indian Reorganization Act to only those 4 Michi-
gan tribes that had an existing land base on the 
date of the enactment of the Indian Reorganization 
Act. Of the Ottawa and Chippewa Tribes who signed 
the 1836 and 1855 Treaties, only 1 group, the Bay 
Mills Indian Community, was organized under the 
Indian Reorganization Act. 
(11) The failure of the Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs to grant Indian Reorganization Act benefits to 
the Cheboigan Band did not terminate the band’s 
government-to-government relationship with the 
United States, and Congress has never taken any 
action to terminate Federal acknowledgment of the 
Burt Lake Band. 
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(12) The Bureau of Indian Affairs does not 
have the legal authority to terminate a tribe that has 
been acknowledged by an Act of Congress. 
(13) Since 1972, the following Michigan tribes 
that were not organized under the Indian Reorga-
nization Act, have been recognized or reaffirmed as 
federally recognized Indian tribes: 
(A) The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chip-
pewa was reaffirmed by a Memorandum of the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs on September 
7, 1972. 
(B) The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa 
and Chippewa Indians was acknowledged by the 
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs on May 
27, 1980. 
(C) The Little Traverse Bay Bands of 
Odawa Indian and the Little River Band of Ot-
tawa Indians each had its Federal status re-
affirmed by an Act of Congress on September 
21, 1994. 
(D) The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake 
Superior Chippewa Indians had its Federal sta-
tus as a separate Indian tribe reaffirmed by an 
Act of Congress at the request of the Adminis-
tration on September 8, 1988. 
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(E) The Pokagon Indian Nation had its 
Federal status reaffirmed by an Act of Con-
gress on September 21, 1994. 
(F) The Huron Potawatomi Nation had its 
Federal status acknowledged by the Assistant 
Secretary of Indian Affairs on March 17, 1996. 
(G) The Gun Lake Tribe (Match-She-Be- 
Nash-She-Wish) had its Federal status ac-
knowledged by the Assistant Secretary of In-
dian Affairs on August 23, 1999. 
(14) The Burt Lake Band has been consistently 
recognized by third parties as a distinct Indian com-
munity since well before 1900. 
(15) The Burt Lake Band consists of members 
who are the children, grandchildren, or great grand-
children of Indian persons who resided on or near 
Colonial Point or Indian Road prior to 1910. The 
majority of the Band’s adult members grew up on 
or near Indian Road or had an immediate family 
member who did. As the result, the Band’s members 
have maintained very close social and political ties. 
The Band has its own, well-defined membership cri-
teria, which requires the maintenance of tribal rela-
tions. 
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(16) The Burt Lake Band consists of families 
who have and continue to provide mutual aid to each 
other, visit each other regularly, mobilize to assist 
each other in times of need, practice traditional arts 
and crafts, gather for Ghost Suppers, decorate the 
graves of their ancestors, and participate in other 
traditional tribal ceremonies and events. 
(17) Since 1829 the Burt Lake Band’s mem-
bers have attended and consistently mobilized to 
maintain the Indian Mission Church of St. Mary’s, 
first on Colonial Point and later on Indian Road. 
The Burt Lake Band’s members have also worked 
together to maintain the Tribe’s 2 Indian ceme-
teries. They have also dug the graves and buried 
their relatives in those 2 Indian cemeteries for al-
most 200 years. 
(18) The Burt Lake Band’s members have 
throughout time made formal and informal decisions 
for the community. The Burt Lake Band has also 
organized its own modern tribal government without 
the assistance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
(19) The majority of the Band’s elders have a 
high degree of Indian blood and continue to speak 
the Ottawa language when they gather with each 
other. Before World War II, more than 50 percent 
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of the Burt Lake families were still speaking the tra-
ditional language in their homes, and more than 50 
percent of those tribal members who were married 
were married to other Ottawa and Chippewa individ-
uals. 
(20) There is no evidence that the Band has 
willfully abandoned tribal relations and there is no 
evidence that the Congress has taken any legal ac-
tion to terminate its government-to-government rela-
tions with the Burt Lake Band. 
(21) Because the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
failed to review the Band’s petition for over 20 
years, a percentage of the Band’s members enrolled 
in other Tribes in order to obtain the Federal serv-
ices, most notably health care and prescription drug 
assistance, that they were legally entitled to, but de-
nied as members of Burt Lake. This step was often 
taken on the advice of one or more employees of the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs. This dual enrollment situ-
ation has now created a new problem for the Band’s 
reaffirmation, because the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ 
current regulations prohibit it from recognizing a 
tribe when a part of the tribe’s community is or was 
enrolled in another federally recognized tribe. 
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(22) In September 2006, the Assistant Sec-
retary of Indian Affairs denied the Burt Lake 
Band’s petition for recognition even though it found 
that the Burt Lake Band has been identified as an 
Indian entity by scholars, local and State officials, 
and other tribes, and even though it found that the 
members of the Burt Lake Band maintain a strong 
Indian community. In its letter denying the Burt 
Lake Band’s petition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
stated that ‘‘Congress may consider taking legisla-
tive action to recognize petitioners that do not meet 
the specific requirements of the acknowledgment 
regulations but may have merit.’’. 
(23) The Burt Lake Band has exhausted its ad-
ministrative remedies, therefore this Act is both nec-
essary and appropriate. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act, the following definitions 
apply: 
(1) The term ‘‘Burt Lake Band’’ means the 
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, 
a continuously existing historical tribe of Indians de-
scending from the Cheboygan band which was in-
cluded in treaties with the United States in 1836 
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and 1855 and descending from the Indian Village at 
Burt Lake in 1900. 
(2) The term ‘‘Indian Reorganization Act’’ 
means the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 U.S.C. 461 et 
seq.). 
(3) The term ‘‘OFA’’ means the Office of Fed-
eral Acknowledgment, a branch of the United States 
Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs. 
(4) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of the Interior. 
SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION. 
(a) FEDERAL RECOGNITION.—The Burt Lake Band 
of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is hereby reaffirmed as 
a federally recognized Indian tribe. All laws and regula-
tions of the United States of general application to Indi-
ans or nations, tribes, or bands of Indians, including the 
Indian Reorganization Act, which are inconsistent with 
any specific provision of this Act shall not be applicable 
to the Burt Lake Band and its members. 
(b) FEDERAL SERVICES AND BENEFITS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Burt Lake Band and its members shall 
be eligible for all services and benefits provided by 
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the Federal Government to Indians because of their 
status as federally recognized Indians without regard 
to the existence of a reservation or the location of 
the residence of any member on or near any Indian 
reservation. 
(2) SERVICE AREA.—For purposes of the deliv-
ery of Federal services to the enrolled members of 
the Burt Lake Band and to other Indians, all of 
Cheboygan County Michigan, and any area in the 
State of Michigan that is outside of Cheboygan 
County, but located within 25 miles of the Burt 
Lake Band’s Cemetery at the St. Mary’s Indian 
Mission Church, shall be deemed to be within the 
Service Area of the Burt Lake Band. Nothing con-
tained herein shall prohibit the Federal Government 
from providing services to members of the Burt 
Lake Band who reside or are domiciled outside this 
Service Area, or from otherwise expanding the Burt 
Lake Band’s Service Area in compliance with appli-
cable Federal law and policy. Nothing in this sub-
section is intended to diminish or alter the service 
area of another federally recognized Indian tribe. If 
any part of the Burt Lake Band’s service area over-
laps with the service area of another federally recog-
nized Indian tribe, that overlap shall be addressed in 
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