The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Michigan, commonly shortened to Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians or the more colloquial Sault Tribe, is an indigenous community located in what is now known as Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tribal headquarters is located within the major city in the region, Sault Ste. Marie, which was originally known as Bawating by residents of the region prior to Europeans arriving in the mid-to-late 1600s. Bawating, sometimes seen written as Bahweting, is an Ojibwe word meaning The Gathering Place.
The Sault Tribe operates its own government, with regular elections for chairperson and council members to represent the tribe's five regions throughout seven counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tribe's current chairman is Aaron Payment, elected by the largest majority in the tribes modern history.
The Sault Tribe was accorded federal recognition by memorandum of the United States federal government Commissioner of Indian Affairs on September 7, 1972. Land was first taken in trust for the tribe by deed dated May 17, 1973, and approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on March 7, 1974. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs formally declared the trust land to be a reservation for the tribe on February 20, 1975 with notice published in the Federal Register on February 27, 1975.
While the tribe was not federally recognized until the 1970s, the Sault Band has existed for hundreds of years. The first treaties with the United States in 1820 were signed by chiefs whose signatories identified them as members of the Sault Band. The tribe has lived in the Great Lakes region for at least a millennium.
Since formal recognition in 1972, the tribe has expanded considerably and counts approximately 40,000 members on its rolls. Today, many Sault Tribe members live off-reservation in the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1979 a resolution was passed allowing Mackinac Band members to enroll, thus doubling the number of members. More than 51 percent of today's Sault Tribe consist of Mackinac Bands. Some Mackinac Band members continue work on receiving their own federal recognition.
The modern tribal organization has its roots on Sugar Island in the St. Mary's River between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Sault Tribe consists of more than 20 bands.
The tribe operates five casinos under the Kewadin name in Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, Manistique, Christmas and Hessel. The Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace locations are located near tribally-owned and managed hotels. The tribe formerly operated Detroit's Greektown Casino until the Michigan Gaming Control Board voted 4-0 at a special meeting in June 2010 to transfer ownership from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to new investors. Despite that setback, the tribe is currently considering the development of another downstate casino in Romulus.
The tribe also operates six health centers for its members with locations in Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, Manistique, Munising, Newberry, Hessel. The tribe also has emphasized education for its youth, offering several college scholarships for its members, and helped found the Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe Public School Academy in Sault Ste. Marie. The school was renamed in 1998 to honor Lumsden, a late tribal leader who helped develop the tribe's first housing, education and health programs.
Other tribal endeavors include the Chi Mukwa (Big Bear) Recreation Center, which holds Olympic and NHL-size ice rinks, a basketball court, a volleyball court and aerobics and fitness areas in Sault Ste. Marie and two Midjim convenience stores, one in Sault Ste. Marie and the other located in St. Ignace, which offer discounts on gasoline for tribal members.
The tribe also operates its own police department, tribal court, and publishes a monthly newspaper, Win Awenen Nisitotung, which in Ojibwe means he/she/or one, who well or fully understands. The newspaper is also commonly referred to as the Sault Tribe News.
Famous quotes containing the words tribe and/or indians:
“I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets in America. But to celebrate them is to be silent about the people who sit and sleep underneath them, the homeless poor who are hauled away by the city like trash, except it has no place to dump them. To speak of one thing is to suppress another.”
—Lisel Mueller (b. 1924)
“The Indians invited us to lodge with them, but my companion inclined to go to the log camp on the carry. This camp was close and dirty, and had an ill smell, and I preferred to accept the Indians’ offer, if we did not make a camp for ourselves; for, though they were dirty, too, they were more in the open air, and were much more agreeable, and even refined company, than the lumberers.... So we went to the Indians’ camp or wigwam.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)