Beginning in 1934, the federal government in practice
withdrew financial support for Indian tribes in Michigan. This action
occurred because the federal government assumed that it treaty and
legislatively based
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Govenor William Comstock |
responsibilities towards Indians in Michigan
would be fulfilled by the state government. The basis for this belief
was a document commonly referred to as the "Comstock Agreement."
In the early 1930's, as the federal government
prepared to abandon the Indian School it had operated in Mount Pleasant,
the state expressed an interest in taking over the buildings and
property. Negotiations ensued and in 1934 Congress passed the necessary
legislation to transfer the property from the federal government to the
state. As part of this transfer of land and buildings, then Michigan
Governor William Comstock wrote to the Secretary of the Interior:
As Governor of the State, in accepting this
grant [of the Indian School] I acknowledge the condition that the State
of Michigan will receive and care for in State institutions Indians
resident within the state on entire equality with persons of other races
and without cost to the Federal government.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs believed that, by
virtue of this letter, the Bureau's role in Michigan was reduced to
little more than serving as a custodian of Indian lands. The federal
government took the position that in return for the Mount Pleasant
School, Michigan would make good on all the other practical and
financial obligations that the federal government owed Indians in the
state. For a period of nearly thirty years, however, state government,
in practice, did little or nothing to assume the responsibilities the
Comstock agreement seemingly transferred to the state.