The Menominee Indians, an Algonquian-speaking woodland tribe, reside on the Menominee Reservation in northeastern Wisconsin. As descendants of Copper Culture people, an ancient indigenous cultural tradition, they are Wisconsin's oldest continuous residents and one of the few tribes east of the Mississippi that inhabit part of their ancestral land. Menominee—the name was conferred on them by the Ojibwas and refers to the manomin (wild rice) that (along with sturgeon and maple sugar) was a staple in their diet—referred to themselves as Mamaceqtaw (pronounced ma-ma-CHAY-tua), meaning "the People Who Live with the Seasons."
Menominee land once consisted of 9.5 million acres stretching from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. The modern 235,000-acre reservation, established in 1934, is home to nearly thirty-five hundred of the tribe's seventy-five hundred enrolled members. The reservation is the largest single tract of timberland in Wisconsin, with an abundance of lakes, streams, and wildlife. The Wolf River, designated for protection in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, winds its way through the reservation.
In a.d. 800 the Winnebago tribe began its migration from the South onto Menominee lands. Later the Potawatomis and several other tribes arrived from the East. The centuries just prior to European contact saw the arrival of the Sauk and Fox Indians. Jean Nicolet, the first European to visit what is now Wisconsin, arrived in 1634 near Green Bay, thus beginning European encroachment into Menominee territory. By 1820 sixty settlers resided on Menominee lands; forty years later their number had increased to over a million.
A structured clan system ensured the tribe's survival amid this influx of newcomers. Five principal clans—Bear, Eagle, Wolf, Crane, and Moose—were divided into various phratries and subphratries, each with specific obligations.
Although the clan system provided for a warrior society, the Menominee were considered peaceful. Though they sided with the British in the Revolutionary War, the Menominee were not always opposed to American actions. In 1810 the Menominee chief Tomah declined Tecumseh's invitation to join his Indian confederacy against the Americans. In the War of 1812, however, the Menominee fought alongside the British. In 1832, under Koshkenaniew, they participated with the Americans in the Black Hawk War, which drove the Sauk and Fox Indians from Wisconsin. In the American Civil War, a primarily Menominee regiment fought for the Union.
With the establishment of Fort Howard near Green Bay, Fort Michilimackinac in upper Michigan, and forts at Lake Poygan and Prairie du Chien, the tribe was always aware of the threat of force. From 1817 to 1856, a series of statutes and treaties with the federal government transferred Menominee land to European refugees and immigrant New York Indians. The first treaty, in 1817, was one of friendship; in it the Menominee were promised federal protection. Subsequent treaties involved land cessions at an average of 13.5 cents per acre, while a later agreement established the present reservation "for a home to be held as Indian lands are held." In 1854 a treaty was negotiated for the Menominee by an appointed leader, who cooperated with the Americans but stoutly resisted the government's proposed removal to Crow Wing, Minnesota. A final treaty, in 1856, set aside a portion of the tribe's land for New York's Stockbridge-Munsee Indians. Despite these concessions, however, the demand for Menominee land did not end.
In 1854, Wisconsin lumber barons lobbied for the unilateral purchase of Menominee land. The tribe was able to halt this land sale in 1871, when it obtained permission to harvest "dead and down" timber on the land, thereby using property that whites had wanted to be considered "vacant." The Menominee turned increasingly to forestry, reasoning that their timber resources could sustain them into the future. Their arguments regarding their dependence on timber enabled the tribe to survive the allotment period with their lands intact. In 1909, the U.S. Forest Service constructed the Neopit Sawmill on Menominee land; profits from the sawmill eventually supported a hospital, a clinic, schools, and other social programs for the Menominee. In 1935, the tribe charged federal authorities with forest mismanagement and sued the United States. Sixteen years later, in 1951, it was awarded $8.5 million in compensation.
In the 1950s the Menominee government consisted of a twelve-member advisory council, and a general council in which all adult members had one vote. These councils were advisory to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On August 1, 1953, House Concurrent Resolution 108 decreed that certain tribes were sufficiently acculturated and prosperous that their federal status could be terminated; the states in which they were located would assume jurisdiction over them. Among the tribes so identified were the Menominee.
Termination was accelerated when the Menominee requested a per capita payment of one thousand dollars toward the amount owed to them as a result of their forest-mismanagement suit. In 1953 Congressman Melvin Laird introduced a House bill for the per capita payment; it passed. The bill's Senate counterpart, introduced by Joseph McCarthy, did not fare as well. Senator Arthur Watkins (Utah) broke the deadlock by attaching a termination provision to the payment bill. In 1954 Watkins informed the Menominee that they had three years to prepare for termination. In their general council, the Menominee, believing they were simply voting for their per capita payments, actually voted for termination. In May 1961, termination took effect: the tribal roll was closed, the sawmill became a state-chartered corporation, taxes were required, and the once-prosperous reservation became Wisconsin's seventy-second and poorest county. During the next few years the Menominee lost identity, livelihood, land, and assets. Modest prosperity turned into severe poverty.
Unable to pay property taxes, Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI) began to sell the tribe's former holdings. A grassroots movement led by a young Menominee social worker named Ada Deer stopped the land sales and reversed termination. The Menominee Restoration Act, signed by President Nixon on December 22, 1972, redesignated the Menominee a federally recognized tribe. The campaign thrust Deer into the national spotlight and contributed to her eventual appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs in 1993, by virtue of which she became the first Native American woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the 1990s, the tribe has relied on its timber resources for its economic well-being. Lawrence Waukau, a tribal member and the president of Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE), has declared that the forest is more productive today than it was in 1909. Under MTE's policy of sustained development, timber harvesting is limited to 25 million board feet annually. New trees are planted regularly to provide for the future. With its forestry and its casino, hotel, and bingo operations, the tribal government provides hundreds of jobs for tribal members and others from surrounding communities.
Menominee gaming, conducted since 1986, has supported the growth of the tribal government and community. A bus system was introduced in 1983. Recent construction has included a library, a day-care center, an elementary school addition, expansion of the Head Start program, a residential facility for the elderly, a senior-citizen center, tribal-college buildings, office renovation, a hotel, a bingo hall, youth centers, a traditional ceremonial building, and a new village—including sewer and water facilities for 150 homes.
Special events are the annual powwows: the Menominee Powwow, held during the first weekend in August; and the Veterans Powwow, held over Memorial Day weekend. Menominee Restoration Day, December 22, is celebrated annually. Other attractions drawing outsiders to the Menominee Reservation are river rafting and the tribe's Logging Camp Museum, which houses the largest collection of logging tools in the world. The Menominee welcome visitors but are careful to inform them that hunting, fishing, the harvesting of plants, and access to the forest are the exclusive rights of the Menominee people.
Felix, M. Kessing, The Menomini Indians of Wisconsin (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1939); Nicholas C. Peroff, Menominee Drums: Tribal Termination and Restoration, 1945-1974 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982); Deborah Shames, ed., Freedom with Reservation (Madison, Wisc.: National Committee to Save the Menominee People and Forests, 1972).
S. Verna Fowler
Menominee
College of the Menominee Nation
Keshena, Wisconsin
