The Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is a historic small

State of Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

-recognized band of Indians who live mostly in Emmet and Cheboygan counties. These two counties are located in the northernmost region of the

Lower Peninsula of Michigan The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the ...

. Since 1985, the Burt Lake Band has petitioned the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

for re-recognition as a federally acknowledged band, a recognition first achieved in the 1830s.

History

The Ottawa people participated in the wars against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 18th and early 19th centuries. By the mid 1830s the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and Chippewa people of the

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

sought negotiated treaty agreements with the United States. As a result, the Treaty of Washington was signed in the fall of 1836. The 1836 Treaty of Washington was signed between the

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...

of the Michigan Territory ceding some 13,000,000 acres of land to the

US federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...

. The ceded Anishinaabe land was located in the western two-thirds of the Lower Peninsula and the eastern half of the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

. In all, it was almost a third of the state of Michigan's total land. In exchange, the Anishinaabeg were to receive annuity payments, supplies and a guarantee they could hunt and fish for perpetuity. As part of the treaty agreement, the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians were set aside a 1,000-acre reservation on

Lake Cheboigan Burt Lake is a 17,120 acre (69 km2) lake in Cheboygan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The western shore of the lake is on the boundary with Emmet County. The lake is named after William Austin Burt, who, together with John Mullett, ma ...

. The reservation was to last for 5 years. However, the United States failed to set aside the promised land. Beginning in February 1848 and ending in April 1850, the members of the Burt Lake Band used their annuity money from the 1836 treaty to buy six separate parcels of land totaling 375 acres. This was land on Indian Point along the shoreline of Lake Cheboigan."White Man's Treachery," ''The Detroit News,'' 7 October 1969 A second treaty, the

Treaty of Detroit The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Michi ...

, was signed in 1855 between the Anishinaabe of Michigan and the United States. The Chippewa and Ottawa people of the Burt Lake Band were provided land in two townships of land in Cheboygan County. These two townships were where the Band had earlier purchased six parcels of land. The treaty also specified that individual Anishinaabeg could select land allotments within the reservation. However, these individual holdings were not granted until 1875, some 3 years after an 1872 Act of Congress had been passed.

Burt Lake Burn-Out

During the years after the 1855 treaty, local officials of Cheboygan County imposed property taxes on the land parcels at the Indian Village settlement on Indian Point. As a result, the band had to sell land in order to pay back taxes. After buying the "tax titles," Cheboygan banker and land speculator John W. McGinn obtained a "writ of assistance" from the Circuit Court of Cheboygan in 1898. In October 1900, he used the writ to demand that Sheriff Fred Ming remove the residents of Indian Village. After Ming and his deputies did so, McGinn burned the village to the ground, an act that became known as the Burt Lake Burn-Out. The Chippewa and Ottawa people who lived there were forced to relocate to Indian Trail (now Indian Road), where other Burt Lake Chippewa and Ottawa people owned land. The Burt Lake Band was previously known as the Cheboiganing Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians. This historic recognition existed before the 1836 Treaty of Washington and continued through 1917 when a lawsuit involving the Burt Lake Band was decided by federal Judge Clarence Sessions.

Recognition

After the burn-out, the Burt Lake Band, historically recognized by the federal government, became landless and lost its federal acknowledgment. Since 1985, the band has petitioned the

(BIA) to regain its recognition, as the community has held together culturally for these decades.''Federal Register,'' Vol. 69, No. 73, 4-15-2004. In 2006, the BIA rejected the band's request for recognition citing marriages into other bands and inconsistent paperwork. Later in May 2020, judge

Amy Berman Jackson Amy Sauber Berman Jackson (born July 22, 1954) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Early life and education Amy Berman was born on July 22 ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...

said that the BIA's bans were "arbitrary and capricious", giving the BIA sixty days to respond to the band's petition.

References

External link

Official Tribe Website
{{authority control Cheboygan County, Michigan Ojibwe in the United States Emmet County, Michigan Great Lakes tribes Indigenous peoples in the United States Native American tribes in Michigan State-recognized tribes in the United States

History

Burt Lake Burn-Out

Recognition

See also

References

External link