ants and political successors to signatories of the 
1836 Treaty of Washington and the 1855 Treaty of 
Detroit. The Band was twice recognized by the 
United States, on a government-to-government rela-
tionship 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, but the United States failed to provide 
that reservation. The 1855 Treaty of Detroit pro-
vided for the withdrawal of unsold lands in 2 Michi-
gan townships 35 North and 36 North Range 3 
West for the use of the Cheboygan Band, but due 
to the Federal Government’s failure to act, those 
members who selected allotments within that area 
were not awarded those individual land holdings 
until 3 years after a special Act of Congress 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 
placed in trust with the Governor of Michigan on the 
advice of Federal Indian agents. 
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(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.’’. 
(7) In 1917, the Federal District Court decided 
the McGinn case against the United States finding 
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that the language in the Colonial Point deeds did 
not prevent the Colonial Point land from being 
taxed. 
(8) Over the next 20 years, members of the 
Band asked the United States to appeal or otherwise 
rectify the District Court’s decision, but no Federal 
action was taken. Throughout this period, the 
United States continued to provide the Band and its 
members with many of the same Federal services 
that were being provided to other Indian tribes in 
Michigan. 
(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 
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. 
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(10) While the Indian Reorganization Act di-
rected the Secretary to assist landless bands, like 
Burt Lake, and authorized Federal funds to acquire 
land for landless tribes, no Federal funds were ap-
propriated 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 Michigan tribes that had an existing land 
base on the date of the enactment of the Indian Re-
organization Act. Of the Ottawa and Chippewa 
Tribes who signed the 1836 and 1855 Treaties, only 
1 group, the Bay Mills Indian Community, was re-
affirmed. 
(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. 
(12) The Bureau of Indian Affairs lacked and 
lacks the legal authority to terminate a tribe that 
has been acknowledged by an Act of Congress. 
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(13) In recent years, the Federal recognition of 
the following Michigan tribes, who were also denied 
the benefits of the Indian Reorganization Act, has 
been reaffirmed: 
(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 reaffirmed by the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs Branch of Acknowl-
edgment 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 reaffirmed by an Act of Congress at the re-
quest of the Administration on September 8, 
1988. 
(E) The Pokagon Indian Nation had its 
Federal status reaffirmed by an Act of Con-
gress on September 21, 1994. 
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(F) The Huron Potawatomi Nation had its 
Federal status reaffirmed by the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs’ Branch of Acknowledgment and 
Research on March 17, 1996. 
(G) The Gun Lake Tribe (Match-She-Be- 
Nash-She-Wish) had its Federal status re-
affirmed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Of-
fice of Federal Acknowledgment on August 23, 
1999. 
(14) The Band has been consistently recognized 
by third parties as a distinct Indian community 
since well before 1900. 
(15) All of the Band’s adult members are the 
children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren of 
Indian persons who resided on or near Colonial 
Point or Indian Road prior to 1910. Most 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 criteria, which re-
quires the maintenance of tribal relations. 
(16) The Band’s families have and continue to 
provide mutual aid to each other, visit each other 
regularly, mobilize to assist each other in times of 
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need, practice traditional arts and crafts, gather for 
Ghost Suppers, decorate the graves of their ances-
tors, and participate in other traditional tribal cere-
monies and events. 
(17) Since 1829 the Band’s members have at-
tended and consistently mobilized to maintain the 
Indian Mission Church of St. Mary’s, first on Colo-
nial Point and later on Indian Road. The Band’s 
members have also worked together to maintain the 
Tribe’s 2 Indian cemeteries. They have also dug the 
graves and buried their relatives in those 2 Indian 
cemeteries for almost 200 years. 
(18) The Band’s members have throughout 
time made formal and informal decisions for the 
community. The 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 
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 
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were married to other Ottawa and Chippewa individ-
uals. 
(20) There is no evidence that the Band has 
willfully abandoned tribal relations, nor is there any 
evidence that the Congress has taken any legal ac-
tion to terminate its government-to-government rela-
tions with the 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 duel 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. 
(22) In September 2006, the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs denied the Band’s petition for reaffirmation 
even though it found that the Band has been recog-
nized as a distinct tribe by scholars, local and State 
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officials, and other tribes from treaty to the present, 
and even though it found that the Burt Lake’s mem-
bers still maintain a strong and unique Indian com-
munity. In its letter denying the Band’s request for 
reaffirmation, under the section informing the Band 
of its current options, 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) Because the Tribe has exhausted its ad-
ministrative remedies, and because the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs has found that its regulations pro-
hibit it from reaffirming the Band’s government to 
government relationship through its Office of Fed-
eral Acknowledgment, this legislation is both nec-
essary and appropriate. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘Band’’ or ‘‘Tribe’’ means the 
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians 
which was previously called the Cheboigan or Che-
boygan Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians; 
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(2) the term ‘‘Burn Out’’ means the destruction 
of the Colonial Point Indian Village of the Burt 
Lake Band in 1900; 
(3) the term ‘‘OFA’’ means the Office of Fed-
eral Acknowledgment, a Branch of the United States 
Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian of Indian 
Affairs; and 
(4) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of the Interior. 
SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION. 
(a) FEDERAL RECOGNITION.—Federal recognition of 
the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is 
hereby reaffirmed. All laws and regulations of the United 
States of general application to Indians or nations, tribes, 
or bands of Indians including the Act of June 18, 1934 
(25 U.S.C. 461 et seq., commonly referred to as the ‘‘In-
dian Reorganization Act’’), which are inconsistent with 
any specific provision of this Act shall not be applicable 
to the 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 Band and its members shall be eligible 
for all services and benefits provided by the Federal 
Government to Indians because of their status as 
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federally recognized Indians without regard to the 
existence of a reservation or the location of the resi-
dence of any member on or near any Indian reserva-
tion. 
(2) SERVICE AREA.—For purposes of the deliv-
ery of Federal services to the enrolled members of 
the 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 Tribe’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 contained herein shall prohibit 
the Federal Government from providing services to 
members of the Band who reside or are domiciled 
outside this Service Area, or from otherwise expand-
ing the Band’s Service Area in compliance with ap-
plicable Federal law and policy. If any part of the 
Band’s service area overlaps with the service area of 
another federally recognized Indian tribe, that over-
lap shall be addressed in compliance with existing 
Federal policies and regulations. 
SEC. 5. REAFFIRMATION OF RIGHTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—All rights and privileges of the 
Band and its members, which may have been abrogated 
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or diminished before the date of the enactment of this Act 
are hereby reaffirmed. 
(b) EXISTING RIGHTS OF TRIBE.—Nothing in this 
Act shall be construed to diminish any right or privilege 
of the Band or of its members that existed before the date 
of the enactment of this Act. Except as otherwise specifi-
cally provided in any other provision of this Act, nothing 
in this Act shall be construed as altering or affecting any 
legal or equitable claim the Band may have to enforce any 
right or privilege reserved by or granted to the Band which 
was wrongfully denied to or taken from the Band before 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 6. TRIBAL LANDS. 
The Secretary shall acquire real property in Che-
boygan County in trust for the benefit of the Burt Lake 
Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, if at the time of 
such acceptance by the Secretary, there are no adverse 
legal claims on such property including outstanding liens, 
mortgages or taxes owed. Such lands shall become part 
of the initial reservation of the Band at the request of 
the Band. The Secretary is also authorized to acquire and 
accept real property in other geographic areas into trust 
for the benefit of the Band and to declare those lands to 
be a part of the Band’s Reservation or Initial Reservation 
to the full extent otherwise authorized by applicable law. 
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SEC. 7. MEMBERSHIP. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The initial membership of the 
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians shall 
consist of persons who can present evidence, acceptable 
to the Tribe, showing that they meet the requirements of 
subsection (b), and persons who meet such other require-
ments as are specified by the Tribe in its Tribe’s Constitu-
tion and Enrollment Ordinance as the same may be from 
time-to-time amended. 
(b) MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA.— 
(1) To qualify for membership in the Burt Lake 
Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a person 
must be able to demonstrate through evidence ac-
ceptable to the Tribe that the person meets at least 
1 of the following requirements: 
(A) The person descends from one or more 
tribal members who were domiciled at Colonial 
Point, Burt Township, Cheboygan County, 
Michigan before or at the time that the Tribe’s 
village was burned in October 1900, as said 
tribal members are identified in the United 
States v. McGinn litigation and related docu-
ments, the 1950 Albert Shananaquet list of Co-
lonial Point Residents, or both. 
(B) The person descends from one or more 
tribal members who are listed on the 1900 and/ 
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or the 1910 Burt Lake Township Federal Cen-
sus, Indian Enumeration Schedule. 
(C) The person has an Indian ancestor 
who was, prior to 1910, living in tribal relations 
with the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chip-
pewa Indians as the Burt Lake Band is defined 
in this Act. 
(D) The person descends from Rose 
Midwagon Moses. 
(2) In addition to the requirements under para-
graph (1), to qualify for membership in the Burt 
Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a per-
son must be able to demonstrate through evidence 
acceptable to the Tribe that the person meets all of 
the following criteria: 
(A) That the person is in tribal relations 
with other Burt Lake Band members. 
(B) That the person’s ancestors have lived 
in tribal relations with other Burt Lake Band 
members on a substantially continuous basis 
from 1910 to the present. 
(C) That the person has a completed tribal 
membership enrollment file as prescribed by the 
Tribal Enrollment Ordinance. 
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(D) That the person’s membership applica-
tion has been processed and that the person has 
been approved for membership in the Burt 
Lake Band in the manner prescribed by the 
Tribal Enrollment Ordinance. 
(c) BASE ROLL.—The Tribe shall provide a copy of 
the base roll of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chip-
pewa Indians to the Assistant Secretary for Indians Af-
fairs not later than 12 months after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. The base roll shall consist of the 320 
persons whose names were listed on the official roll of the 
Burt Lake Band which were members submitted by the 
Band to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Federal 
Acknowledgment on May 2, 2005, and shall also include 
the biological sons and daughters who were born to those 
members between the submission of that list and the en-
actment of this Act. The Base Roll shall also include those 
descendants of Burt Lake members who resided at Colo-
nial Point prior to the Burn Out, who— 
(1) meet the enrollment criteria established by 
this section; 
(2) seek enrollment in the Burt Lake Band not 
later than 12 months after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act; and 
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