Menominee
omǣqnomenēwak | |
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Big Drum, Native American Church | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Kickapoo |
The Menominee (
Federal recognition of the tribe was
The tribe regained federal recognition in 1973 by an act of Congress, re-establishing its reservation in 1975. It operates under a written constitution establishing an elected government. The tribe took over tribal government and administration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1979.
Overview
The Menominee are part of the
Menominee oral history states that they have always been here[5] and believe they are Kiash Matchitiwuk (kee ahsh mah che te wuck) which is "Ancient Ones". Their reservation is located 60 miles west of the site of their Creation, according to their tradition. They arose where the Menominee River enters Green Bay of Lake Michigan, where the city of Marinette, Wisconsin, has since developed.[4]
Their name for themselves is Mamaceqtaw, meaning "the people". The name "Menominee" is not their
Historically, the Menominee were known to be a peaceful, friendly and welcoming nation, who had a reputation for getting along with other tribes. When the Oneota culture arose in southern Wisconsin between AD 800 and 900, the Menominee shared the forests and waters with them.
The Menominee are a
The early French explorers and traders referred to the people as "folles avoines" (wild oats), referring to the wild rice which they cultivated and gathered as one of their staple foods. The Menominee have traditionally subsisted on a wide variety of plants and animals, with wild rice and sturgeon being two of the most important. Wild rice has a special importance to the tribe as their staple grain, while the sturgeon has a mythological importance and is often referred to as the "father" of the Menominee.[9] Feasts are still held annually at which each of these is served.[5]
Menominee customs are quite similar to those of the
The five principal Menominee
Culture
Traditional Menominee spiritual culture includes rites of passage for youth at puberty. Ceremonies involve fasting for multiple days and living in a small isolated wigwam. As part of this transition, youth meet individually with Elders for interpretation of their dreams, and to receive information about what adult responsibilities they will begin to take on following their rites of passage.[11]
Ethnobotany
Traditional Menominee diets include local foods such as Allium tricoccum (ramps, or wild garlic).[12] Boiled, sliced potatoes of Sagittaria cuneata are traditionally strung together and dried for winter use.[13] Uvularia grandiflora (bellwort) has historically been used to treat pain and swellings.[14] Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, ssp obtusifolium (rabbit tobacco) is also used medicinally. Taenidia integerrima (a member of the parsely family) is taken as a root infusion for pulmonary troubles, and as chew, the steeped root, for 'bronchial affections';[15] it is also used as a companion herb in other remedies because of the good smell.[16] They use Abies balsamea using the inner bark as a seasoner for medicines, taking an infusion of the inner bark for chest pain, and using the liquid balsam pressed from the trunk for colds and pulmonary troubles. They also use the inner bark as a poultice for unspecified illnesses.[17] They also apply gum from plant blisters to sores.[18]
History
The tribe originally occupied a large territory of 10 million acres (40,000 km2) extending from Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Historic references include one by Father Frederic Baraga, a missionary priest in Michigan, who in his 1878 dictionary wrote:
Mishinimakinago; pl.-g.—This name is given to some strange Indians (according to the sayings of the Otchipwes [Ojibwe]), who are rowing through the woods, and who are sometimes heard shooting, but never seen. And from this word, the name of the village of Mackinac, or Michillimackinac, is derived.[19]
Maehkaenah is the Menominee word for turtle. In his The Indian Tribes of North America (1952), John Reed Swanton recorded under the "Wisconsin" section: "Menominee," a band named "Misi'nimäk Kimiko Wini'niwuk, 'Michilimackinac People,' near the old fort at Mackinac, Mich."[8] Michillimackinac is also spelled as Mishinimakinago, Mǐshǐma‛kǐnung, Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go, Missilimakinak, Teiodondoraghie.
The Menominee are descendants of the Late Woodland Indians who inhabited the lands once occupied by Hopewell Indians, the earliest human inhabitants of the Lake Michigan region. As the Hopewell culture declined, circa A.D. 800, the Lake Michigan region eventually became home to Late Woodland Indians.
Early fur traders, coureur-de-bois, and explorers from France encountered their descendants: the Menominee,
First European encounter
In 1634, the Menominee and
Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a French Catholic clergyman, professor, historian, author and explorer, kept a detailed journal of his travels through Wisconsin and Louisiana. In 1721 he came upon the Menominee, whom he referred to as Malhomines ("peuples d'avoines" or Wild Oat Indians), which the French had adapted from an Ojibwe term:
After we had advanced five or six leagues, we found ourselves abreast of a little island, which lies near the western side of the bay, and which concealed from our view, the mouth of a river, on which stands the village of the Malhomines Indians, called by our French "peuples d'avoines" or Wild Oat Indians, probably from their living chiefly on this sort of grain. The whole nation consists only of this village, and that too not very numerous. 'Tis really great pity, they being the finest and handsomest men in all Canada. They are even of a larger stature than the
19th century
Initially neutral during the
The Menominee gradually sold much of their lands in Michigan and Wisconsin to the U.S. government through seven treaties from 1821 to 1848, first ceding their lands in Michigan. The US government wanted to move them to the far west in the period when Wisconsin was organizing for statehood, to extinguish all Native American land claims. Chief Oshkosh went to look at the proposed site on the Crow River and rejected the offered land, saying their current land was better for hunting and game. The Menominee retained lands near the Wolf River in what became their current reservation.[22] The tribe originated in the Wisconsin and are living in their traditional homelands.[5]
Menominee Indian Reservation
The Menominee Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Wisconsin. For the most part, it is conterminous with
The reservation was created in a treaty with the United States signed on May 12, 1854, in which the Menominee relinquished all claims to the lands held by them under previous treaties, and were assigned 432 square miles (1,120 km2) on the
After the tribe had regained federal recognition in 1973, it essentially restored the reservation to its historic boundaries in 1975. Many small pockets of territory within the county (and its geographically equivalent town) are not considered as part of the reservation. These amount to 1.14% of the county's area, so the reservation is essentially 98.86% of the county's area. The largest of these pockets is in the western part of the community of Keshena, Wisconsin. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the combined Menominee reservation and off-reservation trust land have a total area of 362.8 square miles (939.6 km2), of which 355.5 square miles (920.7 km2) is land and 7.3 square miles (18.9 km2) is water.[23]
The small non-reservation parts of the county are more densely populated than the reservation, with 1,223 (28.7%) of the county's 4,255 total population, as opposed to the reservation's 3,032 (71.3%) population in the 2020 census.[24][25]
The most populous communities are Legend Lake and Keshena. Since the late 20th century, the members of the reservation have operated a number of gambling facilities in these communities as a source of revenue. They speak English as well as their traditional Menominee language, one of the Algonquian languages.[26] Current population of the tribe is about 8,700.
Communities
- Keshena (most, population 1,268)
- Legend Lake (most, population 1,525)
- Middle Village (part, population 281)
- Neopit (most, population 690)
- Zoar (most, population 98)
Conflict over logging
The Menominee have traditionally practiced logging in a sustainable manner. In 1905, a tornado swept through the reservation, downing a massive amount of timber. Because the Menominee-owned sawmills could not harvest all the downed timber before it decomposed, the
The
20th-century termination era
The Menominee were among the Native Americans who participated as soldiers in World War II with other United States citizens.
During the 1950s, federal Indian policy envisioned termination of the "special relationship" between the United States government and those tribes considered "ready for
In 1954, Congress passed a law which phased out the Menominee reservation, effectively terminating its tribal status on April 30, 1961. Commonly held tribal property was transferred to a corporation, Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI). It had a complicated structure and two trusts, one of which, First Wisconsin Trust Company, was appointed by the BIA. First Wisconsin Trust Company always voted its shares as a block, and essentially could control the management operations of MEI.[27]
At the request of the Menominee, the state organized the former reservation as a new county, so they could maintain some coherence. The tribe was expected to provide county government functions but it became a colony of the state.[28]
The change resulted in diminished standards of living for the members of the tribe; officials had to close the hospital and some schools in order to cover costs of the conversion: to provide their own services or contract for them as a county. Menominee County was the poorest and least populated Wisconsin county during this time, and termination adversely affected the region. Tribal crafts and produce alone could not sustain the community. As the tax base lacked industry, the Menominee could not fund basic services. MEI funds, which totaled $10 million in 1954, dwindled to $300,000 by 1964.[29] Struggling to manage financially, the white-dominated MEI proposed in 1967 to raise money by selling off former tribal lands to non-Native Americans, which resulted in a fierce backlash among the Menominee.
It was a period of Indian activism, and community members began an organizing campaign to regain political sovereignty as the Menominee Tribe. Activists included Ada Deer, an organizer who would later become an advocate for Native Americans at the federal level as Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs (1993–1997). In 1970 the activists formed a group called the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Stockholders (DRUMS). They blocked the proposed sale of tribal land by MEI to non-Indian developers, and successfully gained control of the MEI board of directors. They also persuaded Congress to restore their status as a federally recognized sovereign tribe by legislation.[30][31]
At the same time, President Richard Nixon encouraged a federal policy to increase self-government among Indian tribes, in addition to increasing education opportunities and religious protection. He signed the bill for federal recognition of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin on December 22, 1973. The sovereign tribe started the work of reorganizing the reservation, which they re-established in 1975. Tribal members wrote and ratified a tribal constitution in 1976, and elected a new tribal government, which took over from BIA officials in 1979.
Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968)
During the period of termination, when the Menominee individually were subject to state law, in 1963 three members of the tribe were charged with violating Wisconsin's hunting and fishing laws on what had formerly been their reservation land for more than 100 years. The tribal members were acquitted. When the state appealed the decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the Menominee tribe no longer had hunting and fishing rights due to the termination act of Congress in 1954.
Due to the state court's ruling, the tribe sued the United States for compensation for the value of the hunting and fishing rights in the
In 1968 the Supreme Court held that the tribe retained its hunting and fishing rights under the treaties involved, and the rights were not lost after federal recognition was ended by the Menominee Termination Act, as Congress had not clearly removed those rights in its legislation. This has been a landmark case in Indian law, helping preserve Native American hunting and fishing rights.
Government
The tribe operates according to a written constitution. It elects a tribal council and chairman.
The Menominee developed the College of Menominee Nation in 1993 and it was accredited in 1998. It includes a Sustainable Development Institute. Its goal is education to promote their ethic for living in balance on the land.[32] It is one of a number of tribal colleges and universities that have been developed since the early 1970s, and one of two in Wisconsin.
Current tribal activities
The nation has a notable forestry resource and ably manages a timber program.
Since June 5, 1987, the tribe has owned and operated a
Notable Menominee
- Apesanahkwat – actor who starred in Babylon 5 and films
- Alaqua Cox - actress, Hawkeye & Echo
- Ada Deer – activist and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, 1993–1997
- Billie Frechette – lover of 1930s serial bank robber John Dillinger
- Mitchell Oshkenaniew – advocate for sovereignty and recognition by federal government[38]
- Chief Oshkosh (1795–1858) – chief of Menominee during period of land cessions and restriction to reservation within Wisconsin
- Sheila Tousey – actress, Thunderheart (1995)
- Ingrid Washinawatok – Co-founder, Fund for the Four Directions, indigenous activist; killed in 1999 in Colombia by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Notes
- ^ Brief History - About Us. The Menomonee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
- ^ Center for Menominee Language, Culture, and Art, Language Materials www.menomineelanguage.com/dictionaries-word-lists, Menominee Dictionary - English - Menominee Link (Archive) - Menominee, Menominee Person Pg. 144
- ^ History, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
- ^ a b Boatman, John (1998). Wisconsin American Indian History and Culture. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., p.37.
- ^ a b c "Menominee" Archived 2007-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, Indian Country, Milwaukee Public Museum
- ^ Campbell, Lyle (1997).American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.401, n.134
- ^ "Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Who are We?". Archived from the original on 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
- ^ a b Swanton, John R. (1952). Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Reprinted by the Smithsonian Institution, 1974, 1979, 1984, pp. 250–256.
- ISBN 978-0-87154-570-1.
- ^ "Menominee Clans depicted at UWSP", Pointer Alumnus, University of Wisconsin – Steven Point, Spring 2003, pp. 1 and 5, accessed 28 August 2012
- ^ "Menominee Culture", Indian Country Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Museum
- ^ Smith, Huron H. 1923 "Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians". Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:1-174 (p. 69)
- ^ Smith, Huron H. 1923 "Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians". Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:1-174 (p. 61)
- ^ Smith, Huron H. 1923 "Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians". Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:1-174 (p. 41)
- ^ Smith, Huron H., 1923, Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:1-174, page 56
- ^ Smith, Huron H., 1928, Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:175-326, page 250
- ^ Smith, Huron H., 1923, Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:1-174, page 45
- ^ Densmore, Francis, 1932, Menominee Music, SI-BAE Bulletin #102, page 132
- ^ Baraga, Frederic (1878). A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language. Montreal: Beauchemin & Valois, v. 2, p. 248.
- ISBN 0-299-10004-9.
- ^ Charlevoix., Pierre Francois Xavier de (1928). Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D. (ed.). Journal of a Voyage to North America in Two Volumes (Report). The Caxton Club.
- ^ The Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States, 95 Ct.Cl. 232 (Ct.Cl., 1941).
- ^ "2020 Gazetteer Files". census.gov. US Census Bureau. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
- ^ "2020 Decennial Census: Menominee County, Wisconsin". data.census.gov. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
- ^ "2020 Decennial Census: Menominee Reservation (reservation only)". data.census.gov. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
- ^ Menominee Language and the Menominee Indian Tribe (Menomini, Mamaceqtaw)
- ^ a b Patty Loew (2001). Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, pp. 31–34.
- ^ Nancy O. Lurie (1972.) "Menominee Termination: From Reservation to Colony," Human Organization, 31: 257-269
- ISBN 1-885931-01-8.
- ^ Indian Country Wisconsin Archived 2007-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, Milwaukee Public Museum, accessed 30 June 2008.
- ^ Nancy O. Lurie, (1971) "Menominee Termination," Indian Historian, 4(4): 31–43.
- ^ "Sustainable Development Institute » Research Education Outreach", College of Menominee Nation
- ^ Alan McQuillan, "American Indian Timber Management Policy: Its Evolution in the Context of U. S. Forest History," in Trusteeship in Change: Toward Tribal Autonomy in Resource Management, eds. R. L. Clow and I Sutton (University Press of Colorado, 2001): 73–102.
- ^ William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle; Remaking the Way We Make Things, New York: North Point Press, 2002, p. 88
- ^ Sustainable Management of Temperate Hardwood Forests: A Review of the Forest Management Practices of Menominee Tribal Enterprises, Inc. 1992. Scientific Certification Systems, Berkeley, CA.
- ^ Assessment of the Forest Management Practices of the Menominee Tribal Enterprises, Inc. 1994. Scientific Certification Systems, Berkeley, CA, and Smart Wood Certification Program. Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, Ashland, WI
- ^ About Us
- ^ "The Struggle for Self-Determination", History of the Menominee Indians since 1854, Britannica Encyclopedia online
References
- Beck, David R. M. (2005). The Struggle for Self-Determination: History of the Menominee Indians Since 1854. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
- Boatman, John (1998). Wisconsin American Indian History and Culture. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
- Davis, Thomas (2000). Sustaining the Forest, the People, and the Spirit. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York.
- Loew, Patty (2001). Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
- Nichols, Phebe Jewell (Mrs. Angus F. Lookaround). Oshkosh The Brave: Chief of the Menominees, and His Family. Menominee Indian Reservation, 1954.
- Skinner, Alanson (1921). Material culture of the Menomini. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
Further reading
- Nancy Lurie (1972), "Menominee Termination: From Reservation to Colony," Human Organization, 31: 257–269
- Nancy Lurie (1987), "Menominee Termination and Restoration," in Donald L. Fixico, ed., An Anthology of Western Great Lakes Indians History (Milwaukee: American Indian Studies Program): 439–478
External links
- Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
- Menominee Language Lessons
- The Menominee Clans Story at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
- Perey, "The Menominee Myth of the Flood – in Relation to Life Today", Anthropology.net
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- "Treaties between the United States and the Menominee", Menominee website
- "Menominee", Indian Country, Milwaukee Public Museum
- Mitchell A. Dodge papers on the Menominee Indian Tribe, MSS 1538 in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University