Saginaw Chippewa descendants seek recognition as a tribe

Monday, January 6, 2014  

Descendants of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan are seeking federal recognition as a new tribe.

The group includes some people who have been recently disenrolled from the tribe. They have already met with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to discuss reorganizing as a new entity.

“We were not terminated by an act of Congress or a treaty,” Ben Hinmon, a former tribal council member whose late grandmother was removed from the rolls, told The Mt Pleasant Morning Sun. “Reaffirmations simply means we are recognized as an historical tribe by the federal government.”

The group's members are descendants of the Swan Creek, Black River and Saginaw bands of Chippewa Indians. Some of their ancestors tried to gain recognition under the Indian Reorganization Act shortly after 1934, the paper said.

Get the Story:
Banished tribal members seek federal recognition (The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun 1/4)

William Masterson: Saginaw Chippewa Tribe disavows history (11/11)
Judge from Saginaw Chippewa Tribe approves disenrollments (11/5)
Judge for Saginaw Chippewa Tribe delays enrollment decision (10/31)