Menominee Restoration Act

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The Menominee Restoration Act was signed by President Richard Nixon December 22, 1973. The Act returned federally recognized sovereignty to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, restored tribal supervision over property and members, as well as federal services granted to American Indian tribes. The Act officially repealed the Termination Act of 1954. It also called for the establishment of the Menominee Restoration Committee that would be responsible for drafting a new tribal constitution and serving as interim authority until an officially elected tribal government was put into place. In addition, all Menominee Indians born after termination would be added to the tribal roll.[1]

Restoration came about as a result of years of poor social and economic conditions that followed the Menominee Termination Act of 1954. Following termination all Menominee tribal property was transferred to a new corporation, Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI) and the reservation became a new county for Wisconsin; Menominee County. The least populated and poorest county in Wisconsin, Menominee County was unable to fund the taxes needed to support social services such as schools, utilities, and the area hospital. A local lumber mill was the area’s main source of employment and it was not able to employ all Menominee. Standards of living and services for Menominee had been significantly lowered and ultimately led to conditions that inspired activism within the community.[2]

Some of the first activism began when the Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Stockholders (DRUMS) was formed with James White and Ada Deer as leaders in the fight against a proposed land development of Legend Lake, a non-Indian owned artificial lake and housing property plan.[3] The selling of land as economic stimulus to non-Indians was a direct result of poor economic conditions that the Menominee had been living in since termination. After successfully stopping the land development, DRUMS would later begin the fight to reverse termination and regain status as a federally recognized and sovereign Indian tribe. Originally in opposition to MEI, members of DRUMS eventually gained positions in MEI offices where they would begin lobbying Congress for Menominee restoration.[4]

The Menominee Restoration Committee headed by Ada Deer, was given the responsibility of administering the affairs of the Menominee Tribe on April 23, 1975. In the following year the tribal roll was reopened, a tribal police force was instituted, law and order codes were written, a public school district was established, control of hunting and fishing rights were restored, and a grant was given by the federal government to build a health clinic. Finally in 1979 the first nine member Tribal Legislature was elected under the new Menominee Indian Tribal Constitution.

[edit] See also

  • Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
  • Menominee Termination Act of 1954
  • Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI)
  • Legend Lake
  • Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Stockholders (DRUMS)
  • James White
  • Ada Deer

[edit] References

  1. ^ Francis Paul Prucka ed., Documents of United States Indian Policy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000) 2650267
  2. ^ Indian Country. "Menominee Termination and Restoration." <http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-97.html
  3. ^ Indian Country. "Menominee Termination and Restoration." <http://www,mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-97.html
  4. ^ Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians.(Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press, 1986) 371-373

[edit] Additional Reading

Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians

David R.M. Beck, Siege and Survival: History of the Menominee Indians 1634-1856

David R.M. Beck, Struggle for Self Determination: History of the Menominee Indians Since 1854

Nicholas Peroff, Menominee Drums: Tribal Termination and Restoration, 1954-1974