Charles Dawes served as Second Chief of the Ottawa Tribe from 1962 to 1990. In that time, he helped organize the Ottawa Labor Day Powwow and promoted the restoration of the Ottawa language. Dawes worked with remaining conversant speakers to record and preserve the Ottawa language, and in 1982, he published an Ottawa-English Dictionary.

During the 1970s, Dawes played a major role in the campaign to regain federal recognition for the Ottawa Tribe. In 1976, he testified before the American Indian Policy Review Commission and opposed both termination and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ use of blood quantum. At the 1978 celebration of the restoration of the Ottawa, Modoc, Wyandotte, and Peoria tribes, Dawes gave the keynote address titled “Now the Death Song Can Stop.”

As Chief, Dawes supported new business ventures, including the Otter Stop convenience store, but Dawes believed his most important work was serving as a ceremonial and spiritual leader for the Ottawa people.