The Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians received their federal recognition or reaffirmation of status in 1995 by Congressional legislation. Their homeland headquarters are in the post office hamlet of Fulton, MI which is near Athens, MI another small village in the southwestern region of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, 14 miles north of Battle Creek. They also maintain satellite offices in Grand Rapids, 110 miles north of Fulton/Athens which is approximately 55 miles from the Indiana border.

The 1999 BIA Labor Force report indicates the Huron Potawatomi has an enrollment of 447, larger now in 2001, but the latest tallies have not been reported. In 1999 the unemployment rate of enrolled tribal members was 41% and of those employed, 29% lived below the poverty guidelines.

The heart of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi is the 120 acres Pine Creek Reservation at Athens. The Pine Creek Reservation land base has an interesting history.

In 1839, the U.S. Army arrived in their lands to forcibly relocate these Potawatomi to Indian Territory (Oklahoma and Kansas). Some of the Huron Potawatomi fled to Illinois to avoid removal. In 1845 they returned to their home area in Michigan and eighty acres of land was PURCHASED by two tribal band leaders named Pamptopee and Moguago.

These two leaders also convinced the State of Michigan to donate another 40 acres of land to the Huron Potawatomi which the state did in 1848, and the combined 120 acres of Huron Potawatomi lands became held in trust by the State of Michigan as a State Indian Reservation, but not a federally established reservation.

The Huron Potawatomi also have purchased an additional 132 acres of tribally owned lands near the Pine Creek Reservation for tribal development purposes. Their service area includes the following Michigan Counties: Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Ottawa, Kent and Allegan. Some of these counties overlap with the service areas of thePokagon Potawatomi and Grand River Band Ottawa but that is to be expected since these three groups, along with Gun Lake Pottawatomi have long resided in fairly close proximity to one another.

The name Nottawaseppi Huron Potawatomi can be a bit confusing without clarification. They ARE NOT related to or connected to the Iroquoian Tribe called Hurons aka Wyandotte, original name Wendat (People of the Islands). TheWendat became known to the early French as Hure’ (the French word for boar), not a complimentary reference by any stretch of the imagination. In any case, they became known eventually in the United States as Hurons but presently as Wyandottes and in the U.S. They are now headquartered on their reservation in the northeastern Oklahoma northwestern Kansas, straddling the state borders. The Huron of Canada are not headquartered in Lorette, Quebec on their reserve where they are still known as Wendat.

Lake Huron takes it’s name from the Huron/Wyandotte/Wendat Tribe, as does Lake Erie from another Iroquoian Tribe, known as the Erie Indians. The word Nottawa means enemy in the Anishnabek language and the word sepee, seip or zeba means river, hence Enemy River or Huron River. The Nottawassepee River in Michigan flows in this region from a lake of that name in Calhoun County into St. Joseph County, where it meets the Rock and Portage Rivers to form the St. Joseph River, appropriately at small village known as what else, THREE RIVERS, Michigan.

The Huron/Wyandotte Indians did reside in Michigan however, initially at St. Ignace in circa 1650 to 1701, when then relocated to Fort Ponchatrain, now know as Detroit, founded by Antoine de Cadillac, 300 years ago on July 24, 1701. The lived in the greater Detroit area for about 30 years then some were “removed” to Oklahoma and the rest, returned to Quebec.

Immense fear and near annihilation by the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondoga, Seneca, Cayuga and Tuscarora) in 1849, force them to abandon their homelands along the St. Lawrence River in 1649. In 1650, over three-hundred left for Quebec and settled there and the remaining came west and settled at the Mackinac Straits area (St. Ignace).

Historically, and to a degree today, the Potawatomi of this region lived off the land. They grew corn beans, peas, squash, melons and other food crops during the long summer months growing season. In the winter months, they hunted for deer, elk, bear and beaver. Additionally, their villages were usually located along a river or stream so fish became important to their diet and means of subsistence as well.

They, like their Anishnabek (Neshnabek) Ottawa and Ojibwa kindred, also tapped the sap of maple trees for the making of maple sugar. Most of their village populations migrated annually, moving into open prairie lands of their original homelands in the summer and then to the woodlands in the winter.

The Potawatomi Bands in total in the U.S. and Canada were party to in whole or in part to a record number 41 treaties. In Michigan, the Huron and Pokagon Potawatomi were involved in 11 different treaties with the major land cession being the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. The name Chicago derives from the Potawatomi language referring to the wild onion or the animal skunk, hence chigog (skunk) or chicago, skunky-smelling or wild onion smelling.

The Treaty of 1833 was negotiated during the administration of Indian fighter (Old Hickory), President Andrew Jackson and the era of forced Indian Removal of tribes living East of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory (Oklahoma-Kansas). As such, the Nottawaseppi Huron Potawatomi were slated for removal as well.

Some of the Potawatomi Indians residing along the southern rim of Lake Michigan in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin made their escapes. More eastern located bands fled to Ontario, Canada, specifically to such locations as Kettle Point, Walpole Island and Manitoulin Island to live among their Anishnabek Ojibwa and Ottawa relatives for awhile. When Jackson’s presidency ended and the removal policy faded after 1842, some filtered back to their traditional Michigan homelands to reestablish themselves and some stay among their brethren in Ontario.

A few Potawatomi Bands residing in Northern Illinois and Southeastern Wisconsin, fled north in Wisconsin, finally settling in an area now known as Forest County, and they became the Forest County Potawatomi of Crandon, WI. Before long, some of the Forest County location Potawatomi moved again. This time into the now Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Menominee County, not yet ceded treaty lands and became known as the Hannahville Potawatomi.

Some did not escape from northern Indiana, southwestern Michigan and northern Illinois and were moved west. One group became known as the Prairie Band of Potawatomi of Horton, Kansas and another band became known as the Citizen’s Band Potawatomi of Oklahoma.

The Huron Band Potawatomi are predominately of the Methodist faith, while the Pokagon Potawatomi are for the most part Catholic. Their leader Leopold Pokagon, was successful in negotiating with government officials to allow his band of Potawatomi to remain in Michigan Territory. The band is now named after Pokagon. The Pokagon to this day, maintain a special relationship with The University of Notre Dame, the most prestigious Catholic university in the United States.

Like 09 other historic to Michigan Ottawa, Chippewa (Ojibwa) and Potawatomi bands, the Huron Potawatomi were not accorded the opportunity to reorganize in the 1930s pursuant to the terms of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Hence, they could not re-establish or reaffirm their federal tribal recognized status. After a long, arduous struggle they finally did so in 1995, following their Pokagon relatives who attained it in 1994 and then followed by their Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish (Gun Lake) Band Pottawatomi kin in 1998.

The two Michigan historic Indian bands still in the process of seeking federal recognition/reaffirmation of their status are the very large group of Grand River Bands Ottawa and the small single band group of Burt Lake Ottawa.

The Huron Potawatomi have adopted a tribal constitution, bylaws and corporate charter. They have made significant progress with the cementing of their tribal infrastructure and extension of program services to tribal member, despite little federal allocation assistance to do so.

They have endured however and keep making strides despite this situation. They have future plans for the operation of a gaming establishment and are the new member tribe of the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan. Their current membership is less then 500 in number is a fairly scattered geographic area, both rural and urban and therefore difficult to serve.

More are expected to move closer to their home base in Athens/Fulton by their Pine Creek Reservation lands when tribal services have been expanded. The Huron Potawatomi realize they can not expect to match the strides made by the 07 established Michigan tribes in only a few short-years. They understand that the established tribes, took 20-25 years to reach the point of development, infrastructure capabilities and deliveries of membership services that they currently enjoy.

Undoubtedly, they are willing to assist the Huron Potawatomi in any way that they can to accelerate their economic base development, et al, as well is the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan and other federal and state agencies and programs.

After 160 years of turmoil, waiting and hoping, the Potawatomi Indians are finally all federally recognized and have established home reservation land bases. Persistence and Tradition, has enabled them to endure.



Letter of Support for Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi

June 11, 2002

SAMHSA Programs

Center for Scientific Review
National Institutes of Health
Suite 1040
6701 Rockledge Drive MSC-7710
Bethesda, MD 20892-7710

RE:

Letter of Support for Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Grant Application GFA No. TI 02-005 (CSAT American Indian/Alaskan Native & Rural Community Planning Program)

Dear SAMHSA Program Application Review Staff:

May this correspondence serve as our enthusiastic letter of support for the application of our newest Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, Inc. membership federal tribe being the Nottawaseippi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. The tribe is headquartered in Fulton, MI, 325 miles from Sault Ste. Marie, MI and they received their Federal tribal status of reaffirmation/recognition in December, 1995 .

You can only imagine the help that this small, rural isolated and spread out Potawatomi tribe has needed since 1995, not only in tribal infrastructure development, the further enhancement and cementing of necessary tribal organizational organic documents, but most importantly, to secure desperately needed community services; in this case specifically for planning for additional program development in all aspects of behavioral health services/substance abuse services for tribal membership.

As the demographics section of their application Tribal Profile will attest, the Nottawaseippi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians has a tribal membership of circa 450 individuals spread out in a rural seven (7) county service area in extreme southwestern Michigan nearing the Indiana and Illinois border.

However, they have made great strides in the past seven short years since federal status, have a secure tribal government, keep on securing the employment of programmatic qualified staff and involving their membership in all phases of future community planning. We are confident, that the “Huron Potawatomi” with their can do attitude, ability to play quick catch-up with the more established tribes and historic will to persevere, can adequately administer this planning grant and reach their cited project goals and objectives, and very important to many being, the preparing for CARF accreditation.

Naturally, our ITC Behavioral Health Staff and other support organization employees will remain willing to assist the “Huron Potawatomi” with the successful completion of their endeavor in any way we can.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please advise. Your cooperation, as witnessed in the past, continues to be most appreciated by all of us in Michigan Anishnabek Country.

Respectfully,



SHARON L. TEEPLE, Executive Director
The Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, Inc.

cc:

Mr. Gilbert Holiday, Huron Potawatomi Tribal Chairperson
Mr. Mark Smit, Tribal Health Director
Ms. Colleen O’Brien, Tribal Behavioral Health Specialist