Land Claims Distribution Trust Fund | Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

View Report (PDF)

In 1971, the Indian Claims Commission settled a 1948 case against the U.S. government by awarding the Michigan Chippewa and Ottawa Indians $10.3 million in just compensation for ceded lands. However, the settlement money could not exit Federal government coffers until the tribes decided on a distribution formula, and inter-tribal disagreements prevented its transfer for two and a half more decades. Appreciative of the benefits that this amount of money could generate for the disputing tribes, the Grand Traverse Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) undertook to bring the tribes to the negotiating table and begin work in earnest, including an expenditure plan that was imbedded in the Michigan Indian Claims Settlement Act. The Grand Traverse Band’s innovative spending program, the Land Claims Distribution Trust Fund, makes it possible for the tribal government to meet both short term pressure for per capita distribution and long-term fiduciary obligations.