Hours

The Enrollment Office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. Closed for lunch daily from noon - 1:00, also closed for most federal holidays.

Enrollment Status

In February 1998, the membership rolls for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe closed to all adults. Minor children (under the age of 18) of full bonifide Tribal members could still enroll during the closure.

On January 3, 2005 the Board of Directors reopened the membership rolls to Special Case Exceptions (Special Enrollment). There was a new criteria that one would have to fall under, along with the original criteria as outlined in the Tribal Membership Ordinance. The deadline to apply for the Special Enrollment was August 20, 2005, when the membership rolls closed again to all adults. The membership rolls are still closed to this day, except to the minor children of enrolled members. During the Special Enrollment period, there were 4,569 applications.

The Enrollment Department is currently in the last stages of the Special Enrollment application process. Of the 4, 569 applications received between January 3, 2005 and August 20, 2005, there are still a couple hundred applications remaining that will require extensive research; however, the majority of this long process is over. The staff expects to have the remainder of the applications complete by August 2007. If you have not yet heard from the Enrollment staff via U.S. mail regarding your application, you may wish to contact the Enrollment office to check the status of your application. If you moved during the process and did not update your address with the Enrollment Department it is possible you did not receive your notification of whether you were accepted as a member or not.

There has been no announcement made by the Board of Directors that the membership rolls will reopen in the future. Should that happen, it will be made public on this website as well as the Sault Tribe newspaper.

About

The Enrollment Department was established in the early 1950s, and was the Tribe's first membership service program. The department was formed to document membership so the Tribe could petition the U.S. government for federal recognition. Since then, it has documented and certified the Tribe's 29,000 members. Members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians must trace a lineal decadency from an ancestor on the 1910 Durant Census Roll. Acceptable documents include birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, and baptismal records. The department is located in the Tribe's Health and Human Services Center.

Contact:

2428 Shunk Rd.
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
(906) 632-8552, 635-3396 or toll free - 1-800-251-6597
Fax: (906) 632-1648

Staff:

• Linda Smith, Tribal Registrar lsmith@saulttribe.net
• Julie Yacuone, Enrollment Coordinator jyacuone@saulttribe.net
• Melissa Morehouse, Enrollment Clerk: Enrmelis@saulttribe.net

Eligibility for Enrollment:

To enroll a minor child at least one biological parent must be enrolled with the Sault Tribe as a full bonifide member. Simply submit a copy of the child's courthouse birth certificate (or state copy), social security number, and current mailing address. You may mail or fax this information to the enrollment office, or drop it off in person. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for the child's tribal card to arrive in the mail.

Must be a direct lineal descendant of one of the base rolls used to determine membership into the Sault Tribe. When tracing to the 1910 Durant Census Roll, one must trace to either the Sault Ste. Marie or Mackinac Band. (There are 4 different bands on the Durant Roll — the other 2 being Traverse and Grand River.) Must be able to document each generation with one of the following documents: birth, death, marriage, or baptismal certificate.

Base Rolls:

• 1910 Durant Census Roll

• 1870 Annuity Payment

• Garden River Annuities roll dated 1846 - 1925

Research Resources:

Books

"Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, 1870-1909" The author has arranged this book by "band", and uses such sources as the 1855 Ottawa and Chippewa Annuity Roll, the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Annuity Roll, per capita rolls, and the goods and supplies lists.,., paper,. Click here to purchase this book at amazon.com

Geneaologist for hire

Note: The following Genealogist does not work for the tribe. Their research does not necessarily guarantee enrollment into the Sault Tribe.

Heather Armstrong

Heather offers an affordable fee based genealogy research service. Heather states her goal is assisting family researchers, with finding the missing pieces needed to solve the mysteries of their family tree puzzle.

Heather specializes in Native American/Aboriginal families in the Sault Ste. Marie areas, the north shore of Lake Superior between Gros Cap and Batchawana Bay. Also available are select resource services for the county of Chippewa County,

Specialized areas of research include; 1861 - 1901 Algoma District censuses, surname files, newspaper death notices / obituaries, band annuity rolls, cemetery research, Ontario Registered births, marriage and death vital records, and more.