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.”
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. The graph does not infer that LTBB is simply interchangeable with the treaty-era “Beaver Island Band”; that historical relationship remains an open research question.
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?
Sources
- Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, “A Tribal History,” official website, retrieved 2026-07-31.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.
- Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Tribal Code of Law and Constitution, codified through 1 March 2024.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.
- Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Constitution, adopted 1 February 2005, held local copy.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
- “History of LTBB and GTB Tribes,” *Northern Islander*, May 2025.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.
- 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.