Menominee
The Menominee (/məˈnɑːməˌni/; Menominee: omǣqnomenēwak meaning "Menominee People",[2] also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as Mamaceqtaw, "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans officially known as the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Their land base is the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Their historic territory originally included an estimated 10 million acres (40,000 km2) in present-day Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The tribe currently has about 8,700 members.
For other uses, see Menominee (disambiguation).
Federal recognition of the tribe was terminated in the 1960s under policy of the time which stressed assimilation. During that period, they brought what has become a landmark case in Indian law to the United States Supreme Court, in Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968), to protect their treaty hunting and fishing rights. The Wisconsin Supreme Court and the United States Court of Claims had drawn opposing conclusions about the effect of the termination on Menominee hunting and fishing rights on their former reservation land. The U.S. Supreme Court determined that the tribe had not lost traditional hunting and fishing rights as a result of termination, as Congress had not clearly ended these in its legislation.
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.
Government[edit]
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[edit]
The nation has a notable forestry resource and ably manages a timber program.[33] In an 1870 assessment of their lands, which totaled roughly 235,000 acres (950 km2), they counted 1.3 billion standing board feet (3.1 million cubic metres) of timber. As of 2002 that has increased to 1.7 billion board feet (4.0 million m3). In the intervening years, they have harvested more than 2.25 billion board feet (5.3 million m3).[34] In 1994, the Menominee became the first forest management enterprise in the United States certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC.org).[35][36]
Since June 5, 1987, the tribe has owned and operated a Las Vegas-style gaming casino, associated with bingo games and a hotel. The complex provides employment to numerous Menominee; approximately 79 percent of the Menominee Casino-Bingo-Hotel's 500 employees are ethnic Menominee or are spouses of Menominee.[37]