The Menominee tribe is a Native American tribe from Wisconsin and Michigan. They were hunter-gatherers who built canoes and lived in huts during the summer and wigwams during the winter. They were involved in the fur trade and eventually ended up in the lumber business. They successfully sued the Bureau of Indian Affairs for mismanaging their forest lands and were able to reverse the loss of their reservation in 1973.
The Menominee are a Native American tribe from Wisconsin and Michigan in the United States. Their original home was primarily along the Menominee River, which runs through parts of both states. They speak an Algonquian language and their name comes from the Algonquian word for wild rice, which formed a large part of their diet. The Menominee tribe still lives in Wisconsin, where they have a 275,000-acre (111,288 ha) reservation.
In historical times, the Menominee tribe mainly lived as
hunter-gatherers, although they did grow some crops, including squash, corn, and beans. The men did most of the hunting and fishing, while the women of the tribe generally gathered various wild plant foods. In the summer they mostly lived in small huts covered with bark and during the winter they lived in wigwams.
The Menominee tribe was quite mobile, generally moving to different areas throughout the year as food required. They built canoes out of birch bark, which they used to fish for sturgeon, a large part of their diet in the summer. During the winter, hunting became a more important source of food and they generally left their riverside settlements and moved into the forest. Bows and arrows were their main hunting tools, while deer and small game were the main targets, although buffalo were also occasionally hunted.
Several other Indian tribes took refuge in the Wisconsin area for various reasons. With the addition of European settlers, the Menominee were driven from their territory. This led to wars and epidemics which greatly reduced the overall population of the tribe.
The Menominee tribe made their first contact with Europeans through a French missionary named Jean Nicolet in 1634. Partly because of this, they chose to become French allies and were soon heavily involved in the fur trade. The tribe generally maintained its ties to the French until the conclusion of the French and Indian War. During the War of 1812, they sided with the British against the United States.
In the early 1800s, the tribe began selling their lands to the United States and by 1854 had given up all but a small reservation of their territory. The Menominee initially attempted to make money in agriculture, but eventually ended up in the lumber business, which proved prosperous for them. There was a time during the early 1900s when the tribe accused the Bureau of Indian Affairs of mismanaging their forest lands and the Menominee were able to successfully sue the group for $8.5 million. US dollars (USD).
In 1961, a law was passed that removed federal jurisdiction from the Menominee reservation area, effectively making it a regular county in Wisconsin. This caused major problems for the Menominee, in part because some of their facilities could not meet the standards of some Wisconsin state laws. The troubles eventually escalated into an economic crisis, but the Menominee were able to reverse the situation in 1973 when they successfully lobbied for passage of a law that would restore their reservation.
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