Menominee

Menominee

omǣqnomenēwak
Chief Oshkosh, c.1858
Total population
8,700[1]
Regions with significant populations
Wisconsin,  United States Menominee Indian Reservation
Languages
English, Menominee
Religion
Catholic, Big Drum, Native American Church
Related ethnic groups
Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Kickapoo

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.

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.