"Our Hope and Our Protection": Misko-biiwaabik (Copper) and Tribal Sovereignty in Michigan

In 2000 the Smithsonian denied the request of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to repatriate a three-thousand-pound copper boulder that was removed from the shores of Upper Michigan's Ontonagon River in 1843. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) consists of two historic bands of the Lake Superior Ojibwe: the L'Anse and Ontonagon bands. KBIC argued that the boulder was a sacred object utilized for purification by practitioners of Ojibwe Midewiwin prior to beginning ceremonies. The Smithsonian ruled that KBIC failed to provide evidence that the boulder was a sacred object as defined by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as it was not utilized directly in ceremonies.¹ NAGPRA was passed primarily to return human remains to Native communities. It is important to remember that the legislation only applies to publicly funded institutions. Despite this, the legislation has been relatively effective in the repatriation of human remains. However, the burden of proof for repatriation lies with tribes, not the institution housing the object. This has resulted in contestations over what constitutes "sacred" objects under NAGPRA, which defines them as "specific ceremonial objects which are needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present-dayadherents."²

If the federal government was truly committed to decolonization and tribal sovereignty, the burden would fall on the federal government to prove why it should keep objects when a tribe petitioned for repatriation; the tribe would then review the federal request. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and other tribes are sovereign nations and should be vested with the right to determine what should be returned to them. Linguistic evidence demonstrates that the Ojibwe viewed the Ontonagon boulder as a living being, which bolsters both the moral and specific legislative reasons why it should be returned. However, the Ontonagon boulder is not just an object in a discussion of tribal sovereignty. Many sources suggest that Ojibwe leaders saw the boulder as a source of their sovereignty. In the nineteenth century, leaders of the Ontonagon band consistently articulated to American officials that they saw copper as an important aspect of their sovereignty, calling it "our hope and our protection."

From its removal from Michigan in 1843 to the denial of the Smithsonian to repatriate it in 2000, the Ontonagon boulder tells an important story of how the Ojibwe experienced colonialism. Removal was central to American colonialism. It was not just people who were removed, but objects and resources were also separated from tribal homelands. During the time of the removal of the boulder, Ontonagon band leaders knew that what threatened Ojibwe sovereignty most was American desire for copper, not land. Most Ojibwe people were not directly evicted from their lands by white settlement during the era of treaty making. Instead, American desire to exploit Ojibwe resources such as copper posed the greatest threat to Ojibwe sovereignty during this time. While there was not widespread white settlement in Ojibwe territory in the decades following land cession treaties, the resources exploited in the region were critical for American expansion across the continent. Historian David R. Wrone argues:

They provided several of the essential ingredients for the industrial transformation of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century America. The ores of the Mesabi enabled the steel mills of Pittsburgh to flourish, the copper of the Keewnanh [sic] poured into wires made the telephone system possible. Power sites created paper mills, part of the industrial glory of Wisconsin. The lakes and fish offered a recreational paradise.³

Exploration of Upper Michigan's copper preceded and fueled American attempts to extend control over the lands of the Lake Superior Ojibwe. In the decades immediately following the Civil War, three-fourths of all copper produced in the United States came from Upper Michigan during an era when the United States produced half the world's copper. It all started with the removal of the Ontonagon boulder.

The ontonagon band and copper

The Ontonagon band was one of the...