I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4801 
To extend the deadlines for distributing certain funds secured by the Michigan 
Indian Land Claims Settlement Act and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 16, 2006 
Mr. STUPAK introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To extend the deadlines for distributing certain funds secured 
by the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act 
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 ‘‘Michigan Indian Land 
Claims Settlement Act Amendments’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Michigan Indian Land Claims Settle-
ment Act (Public Law 105–143) (hereafter ‘‘the 
Act’’) provides for the distribution of certain judg-
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ment funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commis-
sion to certain Ottawa and Chippewa of Michigan in 
dockets numbered 18–E, 58, 18–R, and 364. 
(2) Under the terms and conditions of the Act, 
a sizable percentage of those funds have already 
been distributed to the Grand Traverse Band of Ot-
tawa and Chippewa Indian, the Bay Mills Indian 
Community, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indi-
ans, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa, and 
the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa. The re-
maining funds are currently being held in trust 
pending distribution to certain individual descend-
ants of treaty signers, and to certain unrecognized 
Michigan Ottawa and Chippewa Tribes that obtain 
Federal acknowledgment or a Federal reaffirmation 
of the government-to-government relationship with 
the United States prior to the distribution period es-
tablished in the Act. That distribution period is no 
earlier than December 15, 2005, and no later than 
December 15, 2006. 
(3) To qualify for these funds, an unrecognized 
Michigan Ottawa or Chippewa Tribe must— 
(A) be a signatory to either the 1836 trea-
ty (7 Stat. 391) or the 1855 treaty (11 Stat. 
621); 
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(B) have a membership which is predomi-
nantly Chippewa and Ottawa; 
(C) have submitted to the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs a letter of intent to seek Federal 
acknowledgment not later than July 15, 1998; 
(D) have submitted to the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs a documented petition for Federal 
acknowledgment not later than December 15, 
2000; and 
(E) have obtained Federal acknowledgment 
or reaffirmation by Congress or the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs prior to the distribution period 
established in the Act. 
(4) Two Michigan based unrecognized Ottawa 
and Chippewa Tribes, the Burt Lake Band of Ot-
tawa and Chippewa Indians and the Grand River 
Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, have met 
the first 5 requirements, but the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs has not completed its review of the tribes’ 
documented petitions. 
(5) Because neither of those tribes has caused 
this delay, it would be unfair and unjust to deny ei-
ther tribe its tribal shares of the funds merely be-
cause the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been unable 
to complete work on the petitions. 
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(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to extend 
the distribution dates established in Public Law 105–143 
to protect the legal rights of those 2 tribes. 
SEC. 3. TECHNICAL AMENDMENT. 
Section 106(a)(2) of the Michigan Indian Land 
Claims Settlement Act is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(1) TIME
LIMITATIONS.—The judgment dis-
tribution roll of descendants prepared pursuant to 
paragraph (1)(A) shall be approved not later than 
December 15, 2007.’’. 
Æ 
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