Opinion ID: 216969
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Existence of the Ontonagon Band

Text: BIA regulations provide the procedures for acknowledging when American Indian groups exist as tribes. 25 C.F.R. § 83.1-13 (2011). Federal recognition matters because [a]cknowledgment of tribal existence by the Department is a prerequisite to the protection, services, and benefits of the Federal government available to Indian tribes by virtue of their status as tribes. 25 C.F.R. § 83.2. Apart from formal recognition, individuals at one time associated with a tribe cannot independently continue the tribe by refusing to adhere to a tribal decision; instead, individual tribe members dissolve their connection with their tribe when they refuse to abide by the decision of the tribe. E. Band of Cherokee Indians v. United States, 117 U.S. 288, 309, 6 S.Ct. 718, 29 L.Ed. 880 (1886); see also Delaware Tribal Bus. Comm. v. Weeks, 430 U.S. 73, 86, 97 S.Ct. 911, 51 L.Ed.2d 173 (1977). Genschow presented no evidence that the Ontonagon Band has complied with the BIA regulations to establish itself as a federally recognized tribe. Genschow cites the 1854 Treaty with the Chippewa as evidence of recognition of the Ontonagon Band, but that does not operate to replace federal recognition by virtue of the BIA procedures. See United Tribe of Shawnee Indians v. United States, 253 F.3d 543, 548 (10th Cir.2001) (concluding that a treaty from the 1850s does not speak to present-day tribal status). Instead, the historical evidence indicates that the majority of the Ontonagon Band decided to organize as a federally recognized tribe known as the KBIC in 1936. See Farver Letter, supra (explaining that most of the Ontonagon Band lived on the L'Anse reservation); Constitution And By-Laws of The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Nov. 7, 1936, pmbl. (We, the . . . Ontonagon Band of Chippewa Indians residing within the original confines of the L'Anse Reservation. . . [establish] our community . . . the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.). Regarding Genschow's claim that the Ontonagon Band continued separately from the KBIC, there is some evidence that at least one or two Ontonagon Band members lived apart from the majority of the tribe living on the L'Anse reservation. Warren Letter, supra. Nonetheless, any decisions by individual Ontonagon Band members to forego joining their tribe in establishing the KBIC did not continue the Ontonagon Band as an independent entity. See E. Band, 117 U.S. at 309, 6 S.Ct. 718; see also id. at 303, 6 S.Ct. 718 (describing members who chose not to join the newly created Cherokee nation as without organization or a collective name). Documents created since the Constitution indicate that the Ontonagon Band exists today only as the KBIC. BIA Response Letter, supra (The only Ontonagon Band of which we are aware is organized . . . to make up the [KBIC].); see also 2004 Field Solicitor Opinion, supra; Letter from Susan J. La Fernier, President, KBIC, to Gerald Parish, Superintendent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Dep't of the Interior (Oct. 2, 2007). Furthermore, the list of federally recognized tribes includes the KBIC and does not include an independent Ontonagon Band. Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible to Receive Services from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, 75 Fed.Reg. 60810 (2010).