On September 13, 2003 near Dowagiac, Michigan, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians experienced the misfortune of two fires which completely destroyed the administration office building and the maintenance building located on the tribe's property. Thankfully, no staff members were at the properties when the fire struck, and as arson is a possibility, the Michigan State Police's fire marshal division is investigating the cause of the fire.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, currently in the process of reacquiring a land base, is engaged in delivering distributing basic social services and assistance to its approximately 2,700 members, most of whom are concentrated in the area of Southwestern Michigan/Northwestern Indiana. (The name derives from Chief Simon Pokagon, a famous Native American lecturer during the 1850s)
Due to the fact that the tribe vital records were stored in UL-rated fireproof filing cabinets, come the following Monday after the fire, the tribal officers had at their disposal all the paperwork required to keep the business of the tribe running (as well as deal with the ensuing insurance investigation and assist the authorities with the criminal investigation.)
The decision to store the tribe's vital records in UL-rated fireproof filing cabinets can be attrubited to tribal leaders, who also had the foresight to ensure that the tribe instituted a policy of regularly backing up copies of it's vital records; as well as storing some records at different locations.
Mr. H. "Ted" Fenberbosch, Tribal Operations Officer, admitted that he was not 100% certain the fireproof filing cabinets would protect the contents stored within in the event of an actual fire. Once the salvage process began, however, Mr. Fenberbosch commented that "the cabinets worked wonderfully, and we wished we had more fireproof cabinets since not all the filing cabinets in the building were fireproof, and some valuable information was in fact lost to the blaze." |
