[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 205 (Friday, October 23, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56936-56938]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28438]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Final Determination to Acknowledge the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish
Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan
AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Final Determination.
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SUMMARY: This notice is published in the exercise of authority
delegated by the Secretary of the Interior to the Assistant Secretary--
Indian Affairs (Assistant Secretary) by 209 DM 8. Pursuant to 25 CFR
83.10(m), notice is hereby given that the Assistant Secretary
acknowledges that the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi
Indians (MBPI) of Michigan, c/o Mr. D.K. Sprague, P.O. Box 218, Dorr,
Michigan 49323, exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal
law. This notice is based on a determination that the group satisfies
all seven criteria set forth in 25 CFR 83.7, as modified by 25 CFR
83.8.
DATES: This determination is final and is effective 90 days from
publication of the Final Determination, pursuant to 25 CFR 83.10(l)(4),
unless a request for reconsideration is filed with the Interior Board
of Indian Appeals pursuant to 25 CFR 83.11.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Office of the Assistant Secretary--
Indian Affairs, (202) 208-7163.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Assistant Secretary's proposed finding
to acknowledge the MBPI was published in the Federal Register on July
16, 1997, (62 FR 136, 38113-38115). The 180-day period provided for in
the regulations for comment on the proposed finding closed January 12,
1998. Third party comments were received on January 12, 1998, from
Dennis J. Whittlesey, Esq., on behalf of the City of Detroit. The 60-
day period provided for in the regulations (25 CFR Part 83.10(k)) for
the petitioner to respond to third-party comments ended March 13, 1998.
The petitioner responded to the third-party comments, but did not
submit a response to the proposed finding other than an updated
membership list.
This final determination is made following a review of the third
party comments on the proposed finding to acknowledge the MBPI, of the
MBPI's response to the third party comments, and of the 1998 membership
MBPI list. MBPI is informally referred to by itself and by others as
the Gun Lake Band or Gun Lake Tribe. All references in third party
comments to that name have been taken as applying to MBPI.
The 1994 regulations required an evaluation of whether MBPI was a
previously acknowledged tribe within the meaning of the regulations.
Because it has been determined that MBPI meets the definition of
unambiguous Federal acknowledgment in section 83.1, it has been
evaluated under modified requirements provided in section 83.8 of the
regulations. Conclusions concerning previous acknowledgment are solely
for the purposes of a determination of previous acknowledgment under 25
CFR Part 83, and are not intended to reflect conclusions concerning
successorship in interest to a particular treaty or other rights. The
proposed finding determined that Shop-quo-ung was a signatory to the
1855 Treaty of Detroit. Shop quo-ung's Band received annuity payments
under that treaty until 1870. This band was antecedent to the MBPI
petitioner. Therefore, the date of 1870 was used for purposes of the
proposed finding for previous Federal acknowledgment. The third party
comments challenged this determination, but did so based on a
misidentification of the treaty signer in question as another man,
Sagana, rather than Shop-quo-ung aka Moses Foster, who survived until
after 1900 and whose subsequent career as chief of the band was well
documented. This third party specifically noted also the descent of
``most of the people who attended the Bradley and Salem churches'' from
Shop-quo-ung's band. These comments do not require a change in the
determination of previous unambiguous Federal acknowledgment as made in
the proposed finding, which is affirmed.
Criterion 83.7(a), as modified by the application of section 83.8
(d)(1), requires external identification of the petitioner as an Indian
entity from the date of last Federal acknowledgment. It also requires
that these identifications make clear that the group being identified
was the same as the entity which had been previously federally
acknowledged, but does not require that such identifications
specifically refer to the Indian entity as a ``tribe.'' The proposed
finding concluded that MBPI clearly meets criterion 83.7(a), since such
identifications had been made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and
other Federal records such as the special Indian Population schedules
of the 1900 and 1910 census, by the Methodist Church, by a sequence of
local and regional historians writing from the 1880's to the present,
by the WPA guide to the state of Michigan, and by local newspapers. The
Indian mission church at Bradley in Allegan County, Michigan, and its
daughter church at Salem were clearly tied to a continuously existing
Indian entity which predated the 1870 date of previous unambiguous
Federal acknowledgment and which has continued to exist and be
identified until the present. Therefore, the conclusion of the proposed
finding that MBPI meets criterion 83.7(a) as modified by 83.8(d)(1) is
affirmed.
Under criterion 83.7(b) as modified by 83.8(d)(2), a demonstration
of meeting the criterion for community (defined by the regulations as
``any group of people which can demonstrate that consistent
interactions and significant social relationships exist within its
membership and that its members are differentiated from and identified
as distinct from nonmembers'') is required only for the present day, or
modern, community. However, the historical and anthropological survey
of the MBPI provided sufficient evidence that it had constituted a
historical community as well, which had been centered at Bradley in
Allegan County, Michigan since the founding of the Griswold Mission in
1838-1839. The existence of continuous community since the latest date
of unambiguous previous Federal acknowledgment, 1870, was clearly
documented by church, census, and other records. The proposed finding
concluded that at least 50 per cent of the petitioner's members were
Potawatomi speakers from historical times up through 1957, and that
since then, the members have come together in significant numbers
across all family lines, and have maintained a significant rate of
informal social interaction. The proposed finding concluded that MBPI
not only met the requirements of 83.7(b) as modified by 83.8(d) at the
present time, but also that it met the requirements of the unmodified
83.7(b) from 1870 to the present. This finding is affirmed by the final
determination.
The third party comments on the proposed finding argued that modern
community did not exist in MBPI because of its alleged intention to
seek trust land in the Detroit, Michigan, area; because of the pre-1992
presence of MBPI names on the membership list of Huron Potawatomi, Inc.
(HPI), which was federally acknowledged through the 25 CFR Part 83
process in 1994; and because numerous MBPI members were allegedly
dually enrolled with other Michigan tribes.
[[Page 56937]]
Taking land into trust is a separate issue from Federal
acknowledgment and does not impact the 25 CFR Part 83 criteria.
Evidence of enrollment in other tribes may be pertinent to criterion
83.7(b), but it is not dispositive. Community as defined by the
regulations involves much more than a formal membership list. A
substantial body of anthropological evidence clearly showed the
existence of a distinct community that functioned in the Bradley/Salem
area even during the years when many residents of that community had
their names on the membership list of HPI. The relationship of the
formal membership lists of the two groups was extensively analyzed by
the HPI proposed finding and final determination as well as by the MBPI
proposed finding.
The third party comments alleged that ``scores'' of MBPI members
carried on the 1994 membership list had disaffiliated from the
petitioner in order to join another specified tribe, the Little River
Band of Ottawa Indians. The BIA identified the names of all persons who
had been included on the 1994 MBPI membership list who were not on the
1998 MBPI membership list. Of the 49 individuals, there was one
duplicate entry, three persons in one tribe, five persons not enrolled
elsewhere, six persons in a second tribe, 11 persons in a third tribe,
and 25 persons currently enrolled with Little River. The data did not
indicate that persons formerly or currently enrolled with MBPI (see
discussion under criterion 83.7(f)) were, as a group, choosing to join
any other single tribe according to a pattern, or according to major
family lines or political factions. Eliminating the duplicate entry, an
analysis of the 48 who disenrolled indicated that their disaffiliation
had minimal relevance for MBPI's modern community, since the
disenrollments did not change the character of the group as a whole.
Therefore, the conclusion of the proposed finding that MBPI meets
criterion 83.7(b) as modified by 83.8(d)(2) is affirmed.
Criterion 83.8(d)(5) provides that if a petitioner which has
demonstrated previous Federal acknowledgment cannot meet the
streamlined evidentiary requirements provided by 83.8, it may
demonstrate that it meets the requirements of the criteria in 83.7(a)
through (c) from last Federal acknowledgment to the present. The
proposed finding concluded that MBPI met the provisions of 83.7( c) in
the unmodified form, having maintained political influence or authority
over its members from 1870 to the present. There as an identifiable
sequence of leadership throughout this period. During the periods when
the community did not have a formal governing structure, a significant
level of bilateral political influence or authority was maintained by
indigenous ordained and lay ministers through the Methodist Indian
missions at Bradley and Salem, Michigan. This influence extended to the
whole community. Additionally, under the provisions of interaction
between criterion 83.7(b)(2) and 83.7(c)(3), the proposed finding also
used the existence of sufficient evidence for criterion 83.7(b) for
MBPI for the entire period since 1870 to provide sufficient evidence
for criterion 83.7(c) until 1957, and evidence of community after 1957
also was used as one form of evidence under 83.7(c)(1)(iv).
The third party comments argued that, ``church activities do not
constitute the type of ``political influence''' required under 83.7(c).
However, in the case of several other petitions, the Assistant
Secretary has accepted church activities as demonstrating the existence
of political influence or authority within the petitioning group and
providing a focus of leadership. The Assistant Secretary has also
accepted informal leadership and forms of leadership other than
council-type structures in prior acknowledgment decisions. In preparing
the 1994 revised regulations, the Department specifically rejected more
stringent requirements of formal political organization for
petitioners. Therefore, we affirm the conclusion of the proposed
finding that MBPI meets the requirements of 83.7(c) as modified by
83.8(d)(3).
MBPI met criterion 83.7(d) for the proposed finding. No comments or
new evidence was submitted pertaining to this criterion. Therefore,
this final determination affirms that MBPI meets criterion 83.7(d).
The proposed finding concluded that MBPI met criterion 83.7(e),
descent from the historical Indian tribe. Because this case was
considered under 83.8(d), MBPI was required to demonstrate descent from
the federally acknowledged entity as it existed in 1870. All persons on
the 1994 MBPI membership list, and all persons on the 1998 MBPI
membership list, descend from persons listed on the 1870 annuity
payroll for Shop-quo-ung's Band and from persons listed on the 1904
Taggart Roll, which was prepared by the BIA to determine eligibility
for Potawatomi claims payments.
One commenter argued that research in documents prior to a 1839
payment list discussed in the genealogical technical report to the
proposed finding might call into question, ``the entire Potawatomi
identity of the historic bands who comprise the modern Indian entity.''
The Assistant Secretary was aware at the time of the proposed finding
that individual families of the Bradley and Salem communities also have
Ottawa ancestry. This fact is in accordance with a long-standing
pattern of intertribal marriages in Michigan. The identity of the bands
prior to the last date of previous unambiguous Federal acknowledgment
is not an issue: the MBPI members have clearly established descent from
the band as it existed as of 1870. Therefore, this final determination
affirms the conclusion of the proposed finding that MBPI meets
criterion 83.7(e). After an extensive analysis of the relationship of
MBPI enrollment to that of HPI under criterion 83.7(f), the proposed
finding concluded that the MBPI membership was composed principally of
persons who were not members of any acknowledged North American Indian
tribe. The adult MBPI members had provided written confirmation of
their membership in MBPI, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of the
minors for whom they had legal custody, prior to the issuance of the
HPI proposed finding and prior to Federal acknowledgment of HPI.
The BIA verified the 1998 MBPI membership list, concluding that
only 17 per cent of the current MBPI membership is dually enrolled with
other tribes. The 17 percent of dually enrolled MBPI members are
divided among three other federally acknowledged tribes. The membership
of MBPI is composed principally of persons who are not members of any
acknowledged tribe. Therefore, this final determination affirms the
conclusion of the proposed finding that MBPI meets criterion 83.7(f).
MBPI met criterion 83.7(g) for the proposed finding. No comments or
new evidence was submitted pertaining to this criterion. Consequently,
this final determination confirms that MBPI meets criterion 83.7(g).
This determination is final and will become effective 90 days from
the date of publication, unless a request for reconsideration is filed
pursuant to Sec. 83.11. The petitioner or any interested party may file
a request for reconsideration of this determination with the Interior
Board of Indian Appeals (Sec. 83.11(a)(1)). The petitioner's or
interested party's request must be received no later than 90 days after
publication of the Assistant Secretary's determination in the Federal
Register (Sec. 83.11(a)(2)).
[[Page 56938]]
Dated: October 14, 1998.
Kevin Gover,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 98-28438 Filed 10-22-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-02-P
