Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

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Tribes lead effort to restore aquatic ecosystems

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The Crystal River near Glen Arbor in Leelanau County is one of the central features in a new documentary film to be screened on WCMU Public Television at Noon on Sunday, Oct. 2. Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems shines a light on Michigan’s first indigenous-led, multi-agency collaborative created to restore and protect the ecology of streams and rivers across the entire region. Led by the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruitbelt Collaborative includes more than a dozen nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies working together to remove blockages to the natural flow of water in Michigan’s streams and rivers—often called “the arteries of mother earth.”

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Pow Wow Postcards

Late August is the time when Peshawbestown in Leelanau County typically hosts its annual Pow Wow, a vital part of Native culture. A social gathering, it’s a time to dance, to feast, and to share stories. Vendors sell their crafts, children dance and spectators gather and watch the dancers move to the beat of the drum. The colors swirl and the Native pride is palpable. These photos featuring past Pow Wows were taken by Minnie Wabanimkee, a Native artist and photographer.

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“If she hadn’t been in the car, she would be alive today” — COVID-19 claims 30-year-old Native American

A few days before she died of the Coronavirus on November 23, Maryan Rochel Petoskey sat up in her bed on the COVID-19 ward at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and looked in both directions. Through a clear greyish tarp that separated her from others, Maryan told her sister Donna that she could see rows and rows of beds on either side. A member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians who lived on the Peshawbestown reservation, Maryan Rochel Petoskey was 30 years young. She was the third victim of COVID-19 in Leelanau County, and the first person under age 60 to die of the pandemic.

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Free COVID tests offered Wednesday at Sleeping Bear Dune Climb

In a unified effort to make COVID-19 testing more accessible to our region, the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department, Honu Labs, Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians are joining forces to offer no-cost, drive-thru COVID-19 testing to the public on Wednesday at the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb.

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Slow down, stop racism, fight for equity

“We have a geographic implicit bias right here in our county, where the highway was built upon a village,” said Melissa Petoskey on Aug. 19 as cars zoomed by on M-22, seemingly unaware that they were driving through a tribal reservation between Suttons Bay and Northport. Petoskey is the human relations executive for the Grand Traverse Band. “There’s no reduction in speed limit here. We’re the only village in Leelanau County without a reduction in speed.

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Leelanau Essentials—the workers who keep us safe during the pandemic. Meet the Grand Traverse Band Family Health Clinic staff

We reached out to Mari Raphael, a registered nurse at the Grand Traverse Band Family Health Clinic and a tribal member, to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting life for the tribe. The Leelanau Sands Casino is closed, and the tribe will begin furloughing workers next month. Nevertheless, the indispensable Family Health Clinic remains open.

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Leelanau Historical Society features “History of the Odawa people”

JoAnne Cook of the Grand Traverse Band will speak on the “History of the Odawa Anishinabek people from the Grand Traverse Region” on Tuesday, July 25, at 4:30 p.m. at the Leelanau Historical Society’s Norbert Gits Family Gallery (inside the museum), located at 203 E. Cedar Street in Leland.

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Living legacy: Hank Bailey’s relationship to the land

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About a block up the road from the old Cannery down on the shore in Glen Haven, Henry “Hank” Bailey gets out of a white Lexus in front of an abandoned, turn-of-the-century building that looks like it used to be a store. The whole village is deserted and sad. Glen Haven today is a bleak little shore-side ghost town in the bright sunlight. It’s the off-season, middle of May, the leaves on the trees are in delicate shades, fuzzy-looking and babyish in their newness.

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Derek Bailey vs. Allen O’Shea on progressive issues

With this year’s primary election upon us and voters casting ballots on Tuesday, Aug. 7, we reached out to Derek Bailey and Allen O’Shea — two progressive Democrats who are vying to oppose incumbent Republican Ray Franz for Michigan’s 101st House seat in the November election.

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Crunching Derek Bailey campaign’s numbers

Our online story yesterday about a poll released by the Derek Bailey campaign that reportedly puts him in the lead one week before the Democratic primary apparently ruffled a few feathers, and raised questions, among Leelanau County Democrats.

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