The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan is a

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

people in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

named for a 19th-century Ojibwe chief. They were formerly known as the Gun Lake Band of Grand River Ottawa Indians, the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan, Inc.,Petition for Federal Acknowledgment of Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan
William L. Church, May 16, 1994. and the Gun Lake Tribe or Gun Lake Band."Tribal Council"
''Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi.'' (retrieved 18 Dec 2009) They are headquartered in

Bradley, Michigan Wayland Township is a civil township of Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,573 at the 2020 census. Communities Bradley is an unincorporated community situated just east of exit 61 off U.S. Highway 131 at . The ...

History

Ancestors of this mixed band belonged to the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

(Chippewa),

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, and Pottawatomi peoples, who lived around the Great Lakes in what became Canada and the United States. The tribes tended to be highly decentralized, with most people living in bands. Under pressure and encroachment by Europeans, there were substantial population losses among the tribes, and some of their people moved west into Minnesota. Others remained in rural areas of Michigan and Wisconsin. They all spoke

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( ; also Algonkian) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from ...

, part of a large language family extending from the Atlantic Coast and around the Great Lakes, and had some cultural similarities. Original members of the Gun Lake Band were survivors of these three tribes who gathered together in community near Gun Lake, Michigan.

Government

The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians were recognized as a sovereign nation by the United States' federal government in 1988. It has a written constitution and elected democratic government, consisting of several tribal council members. The current (3/6/23) Tribal Council is as follows: *Bob Peters, Tribal Chairman (Bradley District) *Jodie Palmer, Vice Chair (at-large District) *Jeff Martin, Secretary (Salem District) *Nicole Overbeck, Treasurer (Bradley District) *Phyllis Davis, Council Member (at-large District) *Ben Brenner, Council Member (Salem District) *Virginia Sprague-Vanderband (Bradley District)

Membership

The tribal council voted on rules for enrollment or membership in the tribe. As of 2009, the tribe's enrollment is open only to babies born to current tribal members."Member Services."
''Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi.'' (retrieved 18 Dec 2009) The tribe says they are "a body of mixed-blood Chippewa,

, and

Pottawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

" who trace their descent from the principal chief

Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish (also spelled with various transliterations as Mashipinashiwish, Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh, Mash-i-pi-wish , Mitch-e-pe-nain-she-wish, or Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish) was a hereditary chief of a Potawatomi Native Americans in t ...

. Under the Treaty of Chicago in 1821, the US government provided him and his followers with a reserve near

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

Reservation

The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Reservation () is located in Wayland Township, south of the city of

Wayland, Michigan Wayland is a city in Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,435 at the 2020 census. The city is located at the northwest corner of Wayland Township, but is politically independent. The city has also incorporated a ...

. Since being recognized, the tribe was assigned land in trust by the federal government in 2005."Overview P.L. 113-179"
Congress; accessed 27 November 2016 In 2009 under '' Carcieri v. Salazar,'' the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

ruled that the government could not take land into trust for tribes that were recognized after the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Congress in 2014 passed Public Law No: 113-179 (09/26/2014), a law to clarify that the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band's land trust assigned to them in 2005 could not be challenged in court under the United States Supreme Court decision of '' Carcieri v. Salazar.''

Tribal enterprises

The primary tribal enterprise is the Gun Lake Casino. The first phase was built in 2009 on part of the 147 acres in

Allegan County, Michigan Allegan County ( ) is a Counties of the United States, county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 120,502. The county seat is Allegan, Michigan, Allegan. The name was coined by Henry Rowe Schoo ...

that the tribe was given in January 2009 as a land base by the federal government."Ground broken on casino that Station will manage"
''Las Vegas Sun'', Amanda Finnegan, Sept. 18, 2009 It generated 750 jobs during construction. The tribe estimated that it would attract 60,000 guests annually to area hotels. The casino itself is currently a building site for a hotel as well. Further, they estimated the enterprise would bring 600 casino jobs. The tribe publishes a newspaper, called ''The Tribal Tribune.'' They provide cultural workshops on traditional practices, such as cradle fire from flint, tapping and processing maple sugar, creating

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

and

hemp dogbane ''Apocynum cannabinum'' (dogbane, amy root, hemp dogbane, prairie dogbane, Indian hemp, hemp dogsbane, rheumatism root, dogsbane, or wild cotton) is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows throughout much of North America—in the southern hal ...

cordage, snowsnakes or ''zhoshke'nayabo'', and black ash basketry, a traditional art form among Michigan tribes."Language/Culture."
''Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi.'' (retrieved 18 Dec 2009)

Education

The reservation is served by Wayland Union Schools.

Notable members

* Kelly Church, basket maker, birchbark bite, and Woodlands school painter *

Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish (also spelled with various transliterations as Mashipinashiwish, Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh, Mash-i-pi-wish , Mitch-e-pe-nain-she-wish, or Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish) was a hereditary chief of a Potawatomi Native Americans in t ...

, 18th- and 19th-century Potawatomi chief * Cherish Parrish, basket maker, birchbark biter

References

External links

Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi
official website
Potawatomi language materials provided by the tribeGun Lake Casino websiteNative Americans in Michigan Databases
Mainly Michigan website, includes "Durant Roll of 1908" and "Mt. Pleasant Indian School Register (1893 to 1932)" {{authority control Allegan County, Michigan American Indian reservations in Michigan Anishinaabe communities in the United States Anishinaabe reservations and tribal-areas in the United States Federally recognized tribes in the United States Great Lakes tribes Indigenous peoples in the United States Native American tribes in Michigan