to the Bay Mills Indian Community. The Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to provide assistance to tribes to protect and maintain the waters in and around their land. The EPA awarded a grant of $124,400 to the Bay Mills Indian Community of Michigan to implement water resource and non-point source programs to protect human health and the environment. The funding allows the tribe to continue efforts that establish and implement ongoing water pollution control programs. It also supports water quality monitoring, and community education and outreach. Economy Following changes in state and national laws to allow gaming casinos on tribal reservations, in the mid-1990s, the tribe started working with casino syndicator Michael J. Malik, Sr. and Detroit businesswoman Marian Ilitch to develop a casino. It wanted to generate jobs and revenue for reinvestment in education and welfare of tribal members. Originally Malik and his partners had proposed that the tribe, in partnership with Harrah's, build a casino in the area of Downtown Detroit referred to as Foxtown. In 1996 Michigan voters narrowly approved a ballot measure permitting three larger commercial casinos in Detroit, which would have provided too much competition. For almost a decade BMIC and its partners worked to pursue land claims in the Hay Lake/Charlotte Beach area on the eastern shores of Michigan's northern peninsula, believing that it had been denied adequate compensation from the federal government for lands it was forced to cede in the 19th century. BMIC wanted to trade such land in settlement agreements with the government for potentially more lucrative casino sites closer to population centers, such as Port Huron or elsewhere. BMIC representatives testified in hearings in Congress on this proposal in 2004. The voters of Port Huron approved the proposal for Bay Mills casino in 2001. While the agreements were signed by the Governor of Michigan and approved by the legislature, they stalled in Congress. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10th) has introduced HR. 831 and Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow had previously introduced S.2986 to support this project. The tribe later gained approval for a land deal at Brimley, Michigan, on Waiska Bay west of Sault Ste. Marie. Its Bay Mills Resort & Casino has 17,000 sq feet of casino space with 695 slots and 13 table games, 3 restaurants and 144-room hotel. Religion In Chippewa life, religion is an essential part. They believe that man is a part of the great natural