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Tribal nation

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Also LTBB · Waganakising Odawak

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Harbor Springs highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Harbor SpringsLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeTribal nation
Founded1994-09-21
Coordinates45.4378° N, 84.9194° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinHarbor Springs
ErasIndigenous eraModern era
On this page
Locator map: Harbor Springs highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Harbor SpringsLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Tribal nation
Founded
1994-09-21
Coordinates
45.4378° N, 84.9194° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Indigenous eraModern era
Concepts
anishinaabe-odawacommunitygovernancetreaty-rightsheritageconservation
Within
Harbor Springs

Summary

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB), also called the Waganakising Odawak in the nation’s own materials, is a present-day sovereign Odawa government with a documented relationship to the Beaver Islands. LTBB’s official public history dates federal reaffirmation to 21 September 1994 under Public Law 103-324. Its constitution states that the nine historic Odawa bands included within the single governmental body include “the Beaver Islands.”

Beaver Island Master Plan (2023)

The 2023 Beaver Island Master Plan records present-day LTBB treaty-rights, Tribal Historic Preservation Office interest, land-use mapping, and tribal property in the archipelago. These are current institutional relationships, not evidence that LTBB is simply interchangeable with the treaty-era “Beaver Island Band”; that historical relationship remains an open research question.

Governance

LTBB’s own website states tribal membership at over 4,000, with a large share living within Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, and describes a historically delineated reservation area of approximately 336 square miles across those two counties, whose largest communities are Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Charlevoix. The nation is governed by a nine-member Tribal Council serving staggered terms, led by a Tribal Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, with Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. None of this describes Beaver Island as within the reservation’s own boundaries; the archipelago relationship recorded above rests on the constitution’s Beaver Islands band listing and on the Master Plan’s description of present-day treaty rights and land use, not on reservation geography.

The tribe’s own Tribal Code, Chapter 21, establishes a Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) that assumes duties under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 within the reservation’s exterior boundaries and fulfills the duties of a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) representative. That statute’s stated territory is the reservation in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, not Beaver Island specifically, but it identifies the THPO as LTBB’s own designated authority on cultural and historic-preservation matters — the office the Master Plan separately describes as engaged in identifying cultural resources on the island. That office, not any other source cited here, is treated as the authority on Beaver Island cultural and historic-preservation questions.

Township minutes additionally record a bounded 2024–25 service-contract relationship: St. James authorized signature of an LTBB-funded terrestrial invasive-species agreement in April 2024, and in February 2025 accepted LTBB’s request to terminate it. Those records do not show contract performance or replace the distinct treaty, cultural-resource, and land-use evidence above.

Documented island connections

Beyond the constitutional and land-use record above, the Beaver Beacon independently documents a sustained personal and institutional connection between LTBB and Beaver Island through Frank Ettawageshik, a potter and historian who taught as a visiting art instructor at the Beaver Island Community School and spoke repeatedly at the island’s Museum Week before and after becoming LTBB’s chairman. A 1995 Beacon item marks his election as chairman with a reflection on the shift from “Chief” to a democratically elected “Chairman”;1 a 1998 item recaps a Museum Week talk in which he “brought Indian history and culture to life, with tales from five generations of his family”;2 and a September 2005 item reports his reelection to a fourth term, running with Vice-Chairman William Denemy against Gerald Chingwa and George Anthony — described as “the historian of Beaver Island’s Indians” — by a vote of 753 to 344.3 An October 2005 item records Ettawageshik, as chairman, announcing a $250,000 federal grant for regional wolf management in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, an example of LTBB’s mainland governmental activity rather than an island-specific program.4

LTBB’s institutional presence also appears in island religious and ceremonial life. A January 2006 Beacon obituary records that LTBB Pipe Carriers Joe Mitchell and Tony Davis conducted a traditional Native American funeral service, at a Charlevoix funeral home, for an island-connected man, Alex Cornstalk;5 a June 2006 obituary records a “celebration of life,” with pipe ceremony and drum, held at LTBB’s own Tribal Council Center for another island-connected man, Bill Gasco.6 In July 2008, the Beacon’s coverage of the new Beaver Island Community Center’s inauguration week thanks “the Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bay Bands for their help inaugurating our new center,” alongside hoop dancing, flute and fiddle music, and a talk by High Island-descended Tom Peters.7 A March 2006 item separately names LTBB among the parties represented on a public panel addressing cement-kiln-dust contamination cleanup at Bay Harbor, evidence of LTBB’s standing as a regional environmental stakeholder rather than an island-specific record.8

Open questions

  • Which present-day legal instruments and tribal-authored histories should connect LTBB to the 1836 and 1855 treaty actors?
  • What public, consent-based sources document LTBB cultural-resource work on specific Beaver Island sites without exposing protected information?
  • How should LTBB’s treaty rights and service-area descriptions be represented separately from property ownership and local planning references?
  • Frank Ettawageshik, LTBB chairman across multiple terms and formerly a visiting art teacher at the Beaver Island Community School, has no article of his own here; his teaching and Museum Week appearances are a documented island connection independent of his tribal office.

See also

Sources

See the sources: block above. Footnotes cite the specific Beaver Beacon items checked directly against the held issue text.

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, August 1995, notes. ↩

  2. Beaver Beacon, September 1998, Museum Week recap. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, September 2005, “Former Island Potter Reelected.” ↩

  4. Beaver Beacon, October 2005, notes. ↩

  5. Beaver Beacon, January 2006, obituary of Alex Cornstalk. ↩

  6. Beaver Beacon, June 2006, obituary of Bill Gasco. ↩

  7. Beaver Beacon, July 2008, Community Center inauguration coverage. ↩

  8. Beaver Beacon, March 2006, community notes. ↩

The dated record

4 dated events · 2012–2023These years on the timeline →

Read the document

39 pages, rendered from the held scan.

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1
Page 1 of 39Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Constitution, adopted 1 February 2005, held local copy.Open the page image · Download this page
All 39 pages
  1. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 11
  2. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 22
  3. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 33
  4. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 44
  5. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 55
  6. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 66
  7. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 77
  8. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 88
  9. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 99
  10. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1010
  11. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1111
  12. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1212
  13. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1313
  14. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1414
  15. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1515
  16. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1616
  17. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1717
  18. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1818
  19. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 1919
  20. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2020
  21. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2121
  22. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2222
  23. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2323
  24. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2424
  25. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2525
  26. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2626
  27. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2727
  28. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2828
  29. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 2929
  30. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3030
  31. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3131
  32. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3232
  33. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3333
  34. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3434
  35. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3535
  36. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3636
  37. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3737
  38. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3838
  39. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians — p. 3939

Sources

  1. The tribe's own public history says federal recognition was reaffirmed on 21 September 1994 by Public Law 103-324, describes its government, and locates the historically delineated reservation area in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties.
  2. The nation's constitution calls the people Waganakising Odawak and lists the Beaver Islands among the nine historic Odawa bands included within the single governmental body. This is a present-day tribal statement, not a claim that every treaty-era label maps one-to-one onto the modern government.
  3. Held PDF of the tribal governing document. Its preamble names the Beaver Islands among nine historic Odawa bands and its Ogemuk list includes Payzhickwaywedung - Beaver Island; those are the nation's present constitutional statements and are not used to collapse the modern nation into the 1836 or 1855 treaty actor.
    documents · ltbb_constitution
  4. Community newspaper capture records the 1994 reaffirmation and directs readers to LTBB's own history and mission statement; it is corroborating local context rather than the primary authority.
    internet_archive · northern_light_2025
  5. Land Information Access Association, *Beaver Island Master Plan 2023*.
    Current planning source describes LTBB treaty rights, Tribal Historic Preservation Office interest in Beaver Island cultural resources, land-use mapping, and tribal property in the archipelago. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    internet_archive · beaver-island-master-plan-20231113
  6. The April 2024 minutes authorize signature of an LTBB–Township TIS contracting agreement; the February 2025 minutes record acceptance of LTBB's request to terminate that contract. These Board actions are evidence of a bounded service-contract relationship, not a statement of treaty rights, title, jurisdiction, cultural-resource work, or environmental outcome.
    governance · township_meetings · st-james-board · april-10-2024-approved-bf3106d275
  7. States tribal membership at over 4,000, a historically delineated reservation area of approximately 336 square miles within Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, and names Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Charlevoix as the largest communities within reservation boundaries. Also describes a nine-member Tribal Council with staggered terms, a Tribal Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, and Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. This is present-day institutional description; the reservation area is not itself claimed to include Beaver Island.
  8. The tribal governmental center is identified at 7500 Odawa Circle, Harbor Springs, Michigan 49740. The coordinate is an address-level point for the governmental center, not the boundary or centroid of the LTBB reservation and not a Beaver Island site.
  9. Returned the address-level point at longitude -84.919424348008, latitude 45.43776758734; this is retained here rounded to eight decimal places.
  10. The tribe's own statute establishes the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) to assume duties under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, within the exterior boundaries of the LTBB reservation, and to fulfill the duties of a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) representative. The statute's stated applicability is to the reservation's exterior boundaries in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties; it is not itself a jurisdictional claim over Beaver Island. It is cited here to identify the THPO as the tribe's own designated authority on cultural and historic-preservation matters, per the Beaver Island Master Plan's separate description of THPO interest in island cultural resources (see the Master Plan source above).
  11. Reports that Frank Ettawageshik, a former visiting art teacher and potter at the Beaver Island Community School, had become "the Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians," and reflects on the shift in terminology from "Chief" to "Chairman." The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1995-08_Beaver-Beacon
  12. Announces the 7th Annual Odawa Homecoming Pow Wow, August 1-2, 1998, at the Ottawa Indian Stadium in Harbor Springs, sponsored by LTBB and the Friends of the Pow Wow, and again identifies LTBB's chairman as the former Beaver Island Community School art teacher. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1998-08_Beaver-Beacon
  13. Recaps a Museum Week talk by "Frank Ettawageshik: Potter/Historian/Writer, and 'Chairman' of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians," who "brought Indian history and culture to life, with tales from five generations of his family." The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1998-09_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Beaver Beacon, September 2005, "Former Island Potter Reelected."
    Reports Frank Ettawageshik's mid-August 2005 reelection as LTBB Chairman for a four-year term, running with Vice-Chairman William Denemy against Gerald Chingwa and George Anthony ("the historian of Beaver Island's Indians"), by a vote of 753 to 344. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2005-09_Beaver-Beacon
  15. Beaver Beacon, October 2005, notes.
    Reports Ettawageshik, as LTBB chairman, announcing a $250,000 federal grant to study and control wolves in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties -- an example of LTBB's regional governmental activity, not specific to Beaver Island. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2005-10_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Beaver Beacon, January 2006, obituary of Alex Cornstalk.
    Reports that a traditional Native American funeral service for Alex Cornstalk was conducted at Winchester Funeral Home, Charlevoix, by LTBB Pipe Carriers Joe Mitchell and Tony Davis. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-01_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Beaver Beacon, March 2006, community notes.
    Names LTBB among the parties represented on a panel for a March 23, 2006 public forum on cement-kiln-dust contamination cleanup at Bay Harbor, alongside the U.S. EPA, Michigan DEQ, and other agencies -- regional environmental engagement, not Beaver Island-specific. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-03_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Beaver Beacon, June 2006, obituary of Bill Gasco.
    Reports a "celebration of life" for Bill Gasco held at the "Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians' Tribal Council Center" on May 8, 2006, with a pipe ceremony and drum. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-06_Beaver-Beacon
  19. Beaver Beacon, July 2008, Community Center inauguration coverage.
    Reports hoop dancing, flute and fiddle music, and a talk by High Island-descended Tom Peters as part of the new Beaver Island Community Center's inauguration, and thanks "the Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bay Bands for their help inaugurating our new center." No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2008-07_Beaver-Beacon

Added 31 July 2026 · revised 6 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/organizations/little-traverse-bay-bands-of-odawa-indians/, accessed [date], citing Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, “A Tribal History,” official website, retrieved 2026-07-31. (and 18 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-06. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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