Menominee Indian Reservation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Menominee Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in northeastern Wisconsin for the Menominee. For the most part it is co-extensive with Menominee County and the town of Menominee. However, there are many small pockets of territory within the county (and its geographically equivalent town) that are not considered to be part of the reservation. These pockets amount to a fairly small 1.14 percent of the county's area, so that, essentially, the reservation is only about 98.86 percent of the county's area. The largest of these pockets is in the western part of the community of Keshena. Furthermore, the reservation has a plot of off-reservation trust land of 10.22 acres in Winnebago County, to the south, west of the city of Oshkosh. The reservation's total land area is 916.581 km² (353.894 sq mi), while Menominee County's land area is 927.111 km² (357.960 sq mi). The non-reservation parts of the county are actually much more densely populated than the reservation, with 1,337 (29.3%) of the county's 4,562 total population, as opposed to the reservation's 3,225 (70.7%) population in the 2000 census. (The plot of land in Winnebago County is unpopulated.) The most populous communities are Legend Lake and Keshena.

Contents

[edit] History

The reservation was created in a treaty signed on May 12, 1854 in which the Menominee relinquished all claims to the lands given to them under previous treaties, and were assigned 432 square miles (1,120 km²) on the Wolf River. An additional treaty signed on February 11, 1856 carved out the southwestern corner of this area, creating a separate reservation for the Stockbridge and Munsee tribes. These are the same boundaries in existence today.

In 1954, Congress passed a law which phased out the Menominee reservation, effectively terminating its tribal status on April 30, 1961. The Klamath tribal lands in Oregon were also terminated around the same time. Menominee tribal property had been transferred to a corporation called Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI) and the area of the former reservation became a new county. The plan was a failure, resulting in diminished standards of living for the members of the tribe, forcing the closure of the hospital and some schools.

MEI funds, which totaled $10 million in 1954, dwindled to $300,000 in 1964. A 1967 plan by MEI to raise money by selling off former tribal lands to non-Native Americans resulted in a fierce backlash. Former tribe members organized themselves into a group called the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Stockholders (DRUMS). This group successfully fought for control of the MEI board of directors and lobbied Congress to restore their status as a federally recognized tribe.

The lobbying was successful, resulting in a bill signed by Richard Nixon on December 22, 1973 which recognized the tribe again and started them on the path towards reforming a reservation. The reservation was reformed in 1975, a tribal constitution was signed in 1976 and the new tribal government took over in 1979.

[edit] Communities

[edit] References

[edit] External links