By P.G. Misty Sheehan and Pat Stinson. Photos courtesy of the Chandler family.
Hard work. Perseverance. Honesty. Integrity. These attributes describe Margaret Bailey Chandler (1929-1997), who encouraged these values in her nine children: Bonnie, Sandra, Thomas, Robert, Mary, Dale, Timothy, Jeffrey and Janette. Her enduring legacy goes beyond Margaret Chandler’s children, however.
Those qualities led Chandler, at 21, to be elected secretary of Unit 7 of the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association (NMOA) in 1950, the same year she married Dale G. Chandler. As stated by her granddaughter, Valerie Chandler, on the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame website:
“For the next 20 years, she recorded and retained the unit’s meeting minutes, notes, and event information: documentation that would prove valuable to the sovereignty cause. She also traveled the state at her own expense to meet with other native leaders, keeping herself and her people well informed.”
During that time, according to her granddaughter, she also made sacrifices.
“My grandma did whatever it took to seek reaffirmation for our people, even if it meant long hours away from family,” Valerie Chandler said. “She did (the same) in her personal life too by working hard to can foods for the large family of 11 and making meals stretch so they were all fed.”
Margaret Chandler’s leadership
NMOA Unit 7 was an administrative unit created to draw attention to the problems the Ottawa Tribe faced in Benzie, Mason, Wexford and Manistee counties. Specifically, the organization worked to re-establish the rights that were granted them by the United States government in treaties made in the 1800s. The treaties promised them sovereignty, monies, and lands containing their ancestral hunting and fishing grounds.
As NMOA Unit 7 secretary, and in other roles, she met with native members around the state to educate, build consensus, obtain funding, alleviate member hardships and provide social events to strengthen ties. She chaired the Indian education program. Her actions on the genealogical committee helped define an Ottawa as a person with at least one-fourth native blood, and she kept records of tribal members through her work on the Enrollment Committee.
float in the 1995 Manistee National Forest Festival Parade. The tribe was the
Grand Marshal in recognition of its September 1994 Federal Reaffirmation.
The culmination of Chandler’s life’s work took place in late 1994, when President William Clinton signed into law Bill 1357 reaffirming the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians as a sovereign nation. Chandler was then seated on the Tribal Council of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.
Chandler wanted the tribe to preserve the land around Indian Village, just outside Brethren along the Manistee River, where she was raised. It was returned to the Ottawa in 1996. As described in “Our People, Our Journey: The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians” by James McClurken, Chandler was honored the same year with an eagle feather plucked from over an eagle’s heart “for all the work and dedication she gave from her heart to protect and preserve the tribe.”
In 2009, Margaret Bailey Chandler was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her leadership on behalf of the Ottawa people in the Manistee area.
Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
Since reaffirmation, the tribe has reacquired thousands of acres of land, worked on environmental concerns, improved members’ quality of life and taken steps to preserve Ottawa culture. These actions were made possible, in large part, by the persevering spirit of this remarkable woman.
A family’s memories
By Pat Stinson and P.G. Misty Sheehan
During her childhood, Margaret Chandler lived in Indian Village outside Brethren and rode in a horse-drawn sled to Brethren School.
In the 1930s, Margaret, her parents and siblings participated in an “Indian Village” set up temporarily for the Manistee Forest Festival. She later remarked to family that it was like “being on display” for the tourists, adding that it was just her family’s way of life and they didn’t know any other.
According to Margaret’s granddaughter, Valerie Chandler, Margaret’s mother Elizabeth Bailey was sent to an Indian boarding school, where she was abused for her Indian heritage.
“I do like to think my grandmother’s perseverance came from her mother, because of the abuse and harshness, yet she continued on and did not let that experience change her entire life,” Valerie said. “Elizabeth taught her children, including my grandma, how to make the best of what they had in order to survive.”
To protect them from the same treatment, Elizabeth “didn’t fully teach our traditions and culture to her children.”
Elizabeth did teach her grandson, Thomas (Margaret’s third child), one traditional craft, basketmaking, and he taught some of those skills to his niece, Valerie.
Though she didn’t make baskets, Margaret enjoyed Native American beadwork and taught Valerie this skill.
“And she gave me my Native name,” Valerie said. “… I feel honored to have that connection with her.”
Margaret was a catechism teacher at St. Bernard Church in Irons and belonged to the Spirit of the Woods Music Association. She gardened, cooked, canned and liked to pick blueberries.
Valerie said her grandmother worked hard, despite a kidney disease that required daily dialysis, and that “afterwards she would go to meetings, even if by wheelchair…”.
She conducted business by phone on the day she died because, to her, hard work was its own reward.
Asked if Margaret’s children or grandchildren followed in her footsteps by taking on leadership roles, Valerie said her grandmother’s daughter, Sandra, is retired from serving in the U.S. Air Force. Margaret’s son, Dale, granddaughter Joan, and late granddaughter Georgia all became registered nurses. Valerie is currently the tribe’s tax officer.
“Mom passed on to us that it was important to be honest in our dealings,” said her daughter, Sandra Alford, “and she wanted to be known for her honesty and integrity!”
P.G. Misty Sheehan is a retired professor of humanities and a former executive director of the Benzie Area Historical Society Museum.
FOR MORE ABOUT MARGARET CHANDLER, AND OTHERS, READ:
Celebrating notable Native Americans
The pen that built bridges and helped preserve a culture
Positively Supaman
The Art of Flintknapping
