The period between 1889 and 1994 marks a pivotal chapter in the history of the Ottawa Indians, specifically those affiliated with the Grand River Bands in Michigan. This era, often referred to as the Restoration Era, is characterized by a complex interplay of broken treaties, governmental neglect, persistent tribal leadership, and ultimately, the hard-won reaffirmation of sovereignty for some of these bands. It is a story of resilience in the face of adversity, a struggle to maintain cultural identity, and a relentless pursuit of justice and self-determination. This article delves into the key events, figures, and policies that shaped this crucial period in Ottawa history, highlighting the challenges faced and the triumphs achieved. The title Ottawa Indians: The Restoration Era (1889 – 1994) signifies a long and difficult journey for the Ottawa people.
The Erosion of Treaty Rights and Governmental Abandonment
The 1855 Treaty, intended to secure permanent reservation homelands for the Grand River Ottawa, proved to be a fragile safeguard against the encroachment of non-Native settlers and the shifting policies of the United States government. Despite the treaty’s provisions, federal officials, entrusted with the protection of Ottawa lands, often facilitated the transfer of these lands to non-Indian ownership. By 1880, a staggering two-thirds of the land within the Grand River Ottawa Reservations had been alienated, a testament to the systemic failures and, in some cases, deliberate actions that undermined the treaty’s intent.
The year 1889 marked a turning point with the closure of the Michigan Indian Agency. This action symbolized a broader abandonment of federal responsibilities towards the Grand River Ottawa. The federal government adopted a new interpretation of the 1855 Treaty, one that declared the tribal status of the Ottawa governments as "dissolved." This meant the Ottawa were no longer recognized as sovereign entities but were instead considered merely Indian citizens of Michigan, subject to state laws and regulations.
This shift in federal policy left the Ottawa vulnerable to exploitation and the loss of their remaining property. The closure of the agency effectively severed the direct link between the Ottawa communities and the federal government, leaving them with limited recourse against those who sought to take advantage of them.
Despite the government’s attempts to dissolve their tribal status, the Ottawa people persevered. As oral histories and family narratives within the Little River Band and other Ottawa communities reveal, the Grand River Ottawa did not abandon their ancestral lands. Instead, they clustered together on the remaining parcels, often sharing limited resources with multiple families. Some sought refuge in settlements just outside the reservation boundaries, utilizing homestead laws to secure small plots of land. Others joined relatives who still resided in settlements on the 1836 Manistee Reservation, clinging to familiar landscapes and kinship ties.
Maintaining Identity and Asserting Treaty Rights
A special census of Michigan Indians conducted in 1890 provided a snapshot of the Grand River Ottawa during this period of upheaval. The census confirmed that the Ottawa continued to exist as distinct social, political, and cultural communities on and near their Reservations. Few spoke English, underscoring the persistence of their native language and cultural practices.
The majority of Ottawa people continued to sustain themselves through traditional means: trapping, hunting, fishing, and gathering berries and roots from their Reservations and throughout the 1836 Ceded lands. These activities not only provided sustenance but also reinforced their connection to the land and their cultural heritage.
Despite the federal government’s attempts to erase their tribal status and disregard its treaty obligations, Ottawa leaders refused to allow the government to abandon its commitments. Leaders from various Reservation communities actively assisted individual Band members in presenting claims to federal officials, seeking the recovery of lands that had been unjustly denied or taken.
These leaders also presented formal petitions demanding that the United States honor its treaty-based obligations to provide a Reservation homeland and financial assistance to their people. Similar petitions were filed by leaders from the Little Traverse and Grand Traverse communities, demonstrating a unified front in the face of governmental indifference.
In 1905, a significant legal victory was achieved when a lawsuit against the federal government resulted in a judgment against the United States. The lawsuit sought to recover annuity and trust fund money that had been wrongly denied to the Ottawa Bands under the 1855 Treaty.
To pay this claim to the descendants of the 1855 Treaty signatories, the federal government commissioned a new census of the Michigan Ottawa. Federal officials anticipated that the census would identify only a small number of Ottawa descendants. However, the Special Agent assigned to prepare the roll of Grand River Ottawa, named Durant, discovered vibrant communities of Ottawa Bands living on and near the Reservations.
Durant’s roll revealed that substantial portions of the Grand River Ottawa lived in towns they had built on and near their Reservations. This directly contradicted the federal government’s assumption that the Grand River Ottawa Bands had been dissolved and assimilated into Michigan society. The Durant Roll also showed the population numbers had been undercounted.
These communities continued to recognize traditional chiefs and maintained their distinct cultural identity. Nearly 700 Grand River Ottawa people, representing 25% of the total population, still resided on or near the 1836 Reservation and the Mason County portion of the 1855 Reservation. In addition to providing the "base roll" used today by the Little River Band and other Michigan Ottawa/Chippewa Bands, Durant’s Roll confirmed that official census numbers had grossly undercounted the number of Ottawa people living on and near their Reservations. The era Ottawa Indians: The Restoration Era (1889 – 1994) would see continued efforts to maintain their identity.
Leaders and Organizations: Pursuing Justice in the 20th Century
Throughout the 20th century, Grand River Ottawa leaders continued to pursue claims for both land and money owed to them. Among the most prominent leaders during the early 20th century were Sampson Robinson, Jacob Walker Cobmoosa, and Enos Pego.
In 1910, Sampson Robinson and other Reservation community leaders, including William [Paquotush] Sam and William Micko, organized a committee and hired attorneys to pursue claims for land and money. Simultaneously, Jacob Walker Cobmoosa and Henry Pego organized other Grand River communities and formed a coalition with other Ottawa leaders from the Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Reservations to pursue financial and other claims under their treaties.
This group held a joint council on the Manistee Reservation in 1917 to discuss their plans. These community leaders continued the practice of previous Grand River Ottawa communities of selecting headmen and speakers to represent their communities and to meet with United States officials in Washington, D.C. on a government-to-government basis.
Sampson Robinson and Jacob Walker Cobmoosa shared the goal of pursuing land claims, focusing on seeking compensation from the United States for lands illegally taken from their Bands. Cobmoosa obtained a power of attorney from 358 Ottawa people authorizing him to pursue land and other claims against the federal government. The names of the signers on Cobmoosa’s document include a number of Little River Ottawa families: Bailey, Battice, Genereau, Kelsey, Koon, Lewis, Medacco, Memberto, Pego, Pete, Peters, Sam, Theodore, and Wabindato.
During the 1920s, Cobmoosa and Robinson successfully lobbied Congress for the introduction of legislation that would have allowed the Ottawas to pursue their land and money claims. However, federal officials attempted to argue that Cobmoosa and Robinson could not represent the interests of the Grand River Ottawa because the Bands’ status had been dissolved by the 1855 Treaty.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells opposed the legislation, arguing that the 5th Article of the 1855 Treaty dissolved the tribal organization and that the Indians had agreed to become citizens. Sells further argued that there were no funds available for disbursement and that the government held no land in trust for the tribe or its members. Although the United States Senate passed the legislation, the bill ultimately failed due to a lack of support from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This lack of support would continue to hinder the efforts of Grand River Ottawa leaders until September 1994.
Despite the setback in 1917, Jacob Walker Cobmoosa returned from Washington, D.C. to Michigan and continued his work on behalf of the Grand River Ottawa. Beginning in 1922, Cobmoosa began compiling a detailed list of all claims held by individual Grand River Band members relating to their lands. Cobmoosa continued to write letters to the federal government outlining the claims of the Grand River Ottawa and requesting that lands be purchased for the Band and Band members. While there is no indication that any of the claims identified by Cobmoosa received consideration by federal officials, Cobmoosa’s efforts inspired a new generation of Ottawa leaders who would later successfully bring financial claims against the United States on behalf of the Grand River Band Descendant’s Committee and the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association.
The Indian Reorganization Act and Missed Opportunities
In the 1930s, federal Indian policy shifted from assimilation to strengthening tribal governments. The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 aimed to improve Indian communities by allowing tribal governments to organize under constitutions, ending land allotment, and assisting tribes in re-acquiring reservation lands.
At the request of Jacob Walker Cobmoosa, Jerome Medacco wrote to Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier to ask the Bureau of Indian Affairs to acquire lands for the Grand River Ottawa within their Reservations so the Grand River Ottawa could take advantage of the IRA. Petitions requesting assistance under the IRA were filed by Arthur Moby on behalf of the Grand River Ottawa residing on the Manistee Reservation and by Enos Pego on behalf of the Grand River Ottawa living on the 1855 Reservation in Mason and Oceana Counties.
John Collier and other Bureau of Indian Affairs employees met with Grand River delegations in Manistee, Muskegon, and Grand Rapids in 1935 and 1936 to discuss their potential reorganization under the IRA. However, the issue of reservation land became a major obstacle.
The BIA lacked institutional knowledge of the history of the Grand River Bands’ Reservations due to the closure of the Mackinaw Agency decades earlier. Most of the lands within the Reservations had been conveyed to non-Indians, often illegally. Those lands conveyed to individual Band members as fee patents were quickly lost through illegal tax sales and fraud. Because there were no trust lands within the Reservations, BIA officials incorrectly concluded that no Grand River Reservations still existed.
Federal officials failed to distinguish between land ownership and reservation boundaries. They believed that the Grand River Ottawa could not reorganize under the IRA until new reservation lands, held in trust by the United States, were purchased for the Bands. Ultimately, federal officials refused to allow the Grand River Ottawa (and other Michigan Ottawa communities) the opportunity to receive assistance and to reorganize under the IRA, citing a lack of funds to acquire new reservation lands and reiterating their belief that the tribal organization of the Grand River Bands had been dissolved under the 1855 Treaty.
The Northern Michigan Ottawa Association and the Pursuit of Claims
In 1946, the United States created the Indian Claims Commission to resolve legal claims by Indian tribes against the government. Grand River Ottawa leaders acted quickly to use this process. Jacob Walker Cobmoosa initially attempted to file claims using the Power of Attorney he received in 1918. His efforts were taken up by a new generation of Ottawa leaders: Levi McClellan, Robert Dominic, and Waunetta Dominic, who had formed the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association (NMOA). With Cobmoosa’s support, the Dominics and the NMOA hired attorneys to pursue the claims of the Grand River Ottawa (and other Ottawa communities) against the United States.
Dominic asked Cornelius Bailey to meet with Grand River Ottawa Elders to collect documents and information concerning claims against the United States. The NMOA and its attorneys drafted a complaint listing eleven claims for unconscionable dealings by the United States government in the way it compensated the Ottawa for lands under various treaties. While the claims were being prosecuted, the NMOA continued organizational efforts to serve as an umbrella government for Ottawa communities throughout Michigan.
The NMOA organized itself as an umbrella council for local units that elected their own officers who were sent to serve on a central committee. The Grand River Ottawas elected several local units representing Reservation communities and urban/out-of-state communities. Units 5 and 7 of the NMOA represented the Reservation communities in Manistee, Mason, Oceana, and Muskegon Counties.
While many Reservation-based Grand River Ottawa families wanted to pursue claims for Reservation lands, the NMOA leadership made clear that the claims being pursued were for compensation for lands the Ottawa and Chippewa were forced to sell to the United States under the 1836 Treaty, not for the return of lands illegally taken from the Band or Band members.
The NMOA won claims against the United States in 1964 (for Grand River Ottawa claims under the 1821 Treaty of Chicago) and 1968 (for Ottawa/Chippewa claims under the 1836 and 1855 Treaties). The Indian Claims Commission agreed that the federal government had knowingly paid too little money for millions of acres the Ottawa and Chippewa had sold to the United States.
The Grand River Ottawa voted to divide the funds awarded to them as per capita payments to Grand River persons who were ¼ Ottawa blood or more. The Grand River Ottawa, through the Grand River Band Descendant’s Committee, also exercised their political will to win Congressional approval of their proposed distribution plan over the objections of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Long Road to Restoration
Although the matter of restoring sovereignty to the Ottawa Bands and the status of their Reservations remained unresolved, the Grand River Ottawa’s political victory in obtaining approval of their distribution plan empowered the Grand River leadership to seek broader recognition of their political status. Grand River leaders formed new organizations (Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians, Inc., and the Thornapple Band of Ottawa Indians, Inc.) to promote broader political/community goals.
Grand River Ottawa leaders began seeking funds to develop housing for members residing on their Reservations and again petitioned the United States to provide lands to the Bands within their Reservations. Leaders in the Oceana County portion of the 1855 Reservation sought funds to develop housing for members residing on or near the Reservation. Leaders on the Manistee Reservation petitioned federal officials to acquire lands within the Reservation for their use. Leaders also contacted the Native American Rights Fund for legal assistance in obtaining restoration of Manistee Reservation lands. However, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials responded by stating that land and services were only available to federally recognized bands and tribes, creating a "Catch-22" situation.
The concepts of federal recognition and federal restoration were relatively new, originating from the 1977 American Indian Policy Review Commission’s examination of the relationship between Indian tribes and the United States. The Commission’s work led to the establishment of Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations allowing unrecognized tribes and bands to petition for recognition and to reestablish government-to-government relations with the United States.
The issue of reservation status in Michigan also received renewed attention from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in connection with efforts to identify claims as part of the process of implementing federal legislation intended to resolve thousands of claims nationwide. However, funding for the project was ended in 1981 before investigators were able to identify potential claims of the Grand River Ottawa or Band members.
The Manistee Reservation-based Ottawas who formed the "Thornapple River Band," later formed a second nonprofit corporation called the "Little River Band of Ottawa Indians." In 1991, Band members obtained federal grants to assist in petitioning the Bureau of Indian Affairs to restore their tribal sovereignty. They also sought Congressional support for legislation recognizing the continued sovereignty of the Ottawa.
This effort, focused on restoring the federal government’s recognition of the Bands’ status as sovereigns, recognized that reservation restoration was an integral part. The Tribal Council and community members knew that the Grand River Ottawa had lost their sovereignty due to the loss of title to their Reservation lands, largely through federal and state wrongdoing.
In cooperation with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa and Pokagon Potawatomi, the Little River Ottawa achieved a monumental victory. On September 21, 1994, President Clinton signed into law a bill that restored and reaffirmed the status of the Little River Band of Ottawa as a sovereign, the political successor of nine of the nineteen Bands of Grand River Ottawa.
The legislation reestablished all rights and privileges of the Bands and their members that had been abrogated or diminished. It also required the Secretary of the Interior to acquire real property in Manistee and Mason Counties for the benefit of the Little River Band. The language of the legislation restored the political sovereignty of the Little River Band Ottawa Indians as a Tribal government. The words also refer to all treaty rights and privileges that were taken from the tribe and were intended to refer to the reservation land the Tribe lost during the 1870s.
The law specifically requires the United States to buy land in the counties where the reservations are located for the restored tribe. With the support of Tribal members, the Tribal Council continues the work of their ancestors to restore their Reservation land so that their rights as Ottawa people can never be denied again. The efforts of the Ottawa Indians: The Restoration Era (1889 – 1994) proved successful for the Little River Band of Ottawa.