Siege and Survival
Siege and Survival

Author: David Beck

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2002-01-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780803213302

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The Menominee Indians, or "wild rice people," have lived for thousands of years in the region that is now called Wisconsin and are the oldest Native American community that still lives there. But the Menominee's struggle for survival and rights to their land has been long and hard. ø David R. M. Beck draws on interviews with tribal members, stories recorded by earlier researchers, and exhaustive archival research to give us a full account of the Menominee's early history. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the Menominee's traditional way of life was intensely pressured by a succession of outsiders. Native nations attacked other Native nations, forcing their dislocation, and Europeans introduced the fur trade to the area, disrupting the traditional economy and way of life. In the nineteenth century Anglo-Americans poured into the Old Northwest and surrounded the Menominee; as a result the Menominee people were confined to a reservation in 1854. ø Beck examines these crucial early events from an ethnohistorical perspective, adding Menominee voices to the story and showing how numerous individuals and leaders in the trading era and later worked diligently to survive. The story is a complicated one: some Menominees encouraged radical cultural change, while others?as well as some non-Menominees?aided the community in its struggle to maintain traditions. Beck provides the most complete written history to date of this enduring Indian nation.

Good Seeds
Good Seeds

Author: Thomas Pecore Weso

Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society

Published: 2016-07-26

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 0870207725

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In this food memoir, named for the manoomin or wild rice that also gives the Menominee tribe its name, tribal member Thomas Pecore Weso takes readers on a cook’s journey through Wisconsin’s northern woods. He connects each food—beaver, trout, blackberry, wild rice, maple sugar, partridge—with colorful individuals who taught him Indigenous values. Cooks will learn from his authentic recipes. Amateur and professional historians will appreciate firsthand stories about reservation life during the mid-twentieth century, when many elders, fluent in the Algonquian language, practiced the old ways. Weso’s grandfather Moon was considered a medicine man, and his morning prayers were the foundation for all the day’s meals. Weso’s grandmother Jennie "made fire" each morning in a wood-burning stove, and oversaw huge breakfasts of wild game, fish, and fruit pies. As Weso grew up, his uncles taught him to hunt bear, deer, squirrels, raccoons, and even skunks for the daily larder. He remembers foods served at the Menominee fair and the excitement of "sugar bush," maple sugar gatherings that included dances as well as hard work. Weso uses humor to tell his own story as a boy learning to thrive in a land of icy winters and summer swamps. With his rare perspective as a Native anthropologist and artist, he tells a poignant personal story in this unique book.

Menominee Drums
Menominee Drums

Author: Nicholas C. Peroff

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780806137773

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In 1961, the U.S. government terminated the Menominee Indians’ federal status as a recognized tribe, including rights to a self-governed reservation. The Menominees were not the only tribe subject to this injustice; the government’s action was part of its larger policy of termination, which aimed to assimilate all Native Americans into larger American society. For the Menominees, as well as for other tribes, the result was devastating; in addition to their loss of land, Native peoples lost their livelihoods, assets, and very identities. In Menominee Drums, Nicholas C. Peroff explains how termination evolved and how it affected the Menominees. He also tells the astounding story of how the termination was reversed. Through an organized campaign called DRUMS, the tribe was able to regain its status of federal recognition.

Indian Nations of Wisconsin
Indian Nations of Wisconsin

Author: Patty Loew

Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society

Published: 2013-06-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0870205943

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From origin stories to contemporary struggles over treaty rights and sovereignty issues, Indian Nations of Wisconsin explores Wisconsin's rich Native tradition. This unique volume—based on the historical perspectives of the state’s Native peoples—includes compact tribal histories of the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oneida, Menominee, Mohican, Ho-Chunk, and Brothertown Indians. Author Patty Loew focuses on oral tradition—stories, songs, the recorded words of Indian treaty negotiators, and interviews—along with other untapped Native sources, such as tribal newspapers, to present a distinctly different view of history. Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, Indian Nations of Wisconsin is indispensable to anyone interested in the region's history and its Native peoples. The first edition of Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal, won the Wisconsin Library Association's 2002 Outstanding Book Award.

Making a Difference
Making a Difference

Author: Ada Deer

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0806165952

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2019 National Native American Hall of Fame Inductee This stirring memoir is the story of Ada Deer, the first woman to serve as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Deer begins, “I was born a Menominee Indian. That is who I was born and how I have lived.” She proceeds to narrate the first eighty-three years of her life, which are characterized by her tireless campaigns to reverse the forced termination of the Menominee tribe and to ensure sovereignty and self-determination for all tribes. Deer grew up in poverty on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, but with the encouragement of her mother and teachers, she earned degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Columbia University. Armed with a first-rate education, an iron will, and a commitment to justice, she went from being a social worker in Minneapolis to leading the struggle for the restoration of the Menominees’ tribal status and trust lands. Having accomplished that goal, she moved on to teach American Indian Studies at UW–Madison, to hold a fellowship at Harvard, to work for the Native American Rights Fund, to run unsuccessfully for Congress, and to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs in the Clinton administration. Now in her eighties, Deer remains as committed as ever to human rights, especially the rights of American Indians. A deeply personal story, written with humor and honesty, this book is a testimony to the ability of one individual to change the course of history through hard work, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to social justice.

Native People of Wisconsin, Revised Edition
Native People of Wisconsin, Revised Edition

Author: Patty Loew

Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0870207512

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"So many of the children in this classroom are Ho-Chunk, and it brings history alive to them and makes it clear to the rest of us too that this isn't just...Natives riding on horseback. There are still Natives in our society today, and we're working together and living side by side. So we need to learn about their ways as well." --Amy Laundrie, former Lake Delton Elementary School fourth grade teacher An essential title for the upper elementary classroom, "Native People of Wisconsin" fills the need for accurate and authentic teaching materials about Wisconsin's Indian Nations. Based on her research for her award-winning title for adults, "Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Survival," author Patty Loew has tailored this book specifically for young readers. "Native People of Wisconsin" tells the stories of the twelve Native Nations in Wisconsin, including the Native people's incredible resilience despite rapid change and the impact of European arrivals on Native culture. Young readers will become familiar with the unique cultural traditions, tribal history, and life today for each nation. Complete with maps, illustrations, and a detailed glossary of terms, this highly anticipated new edition includes two new chapters on the Brothertown Indian Nation and urban Indians, as well as updates on each tribe's current history and new profiles of outstanding young people from every nation.

Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf
Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf

Author: Raymond Kaquatosh

Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society

Published: 2014-09-05

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0870206508

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A rare first-person narrative of a young Wisconsin Menominee, the son of a medicine woman, who grew up with a wolf as his companion.

How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century
How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century

Author: Louis V. Clark (Two Shoes)

Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society

Published: 2017-01-26

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 0870208160

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In deceptively simple prose and verse, Louis V. "Two Shoes" Clark III shares his life story, from childhood on the Rez, through school and into the working world, and ultimately as an elder, grandfather, and published poet. How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century explores Clark’s deeply personal and profound take on a wide range of subjects, from schoolyard bullying to workplace racism to falling in love. Warm, plainspoken, and wryly funny, Clark’s is a unique voice talking frankly about a culture’s struggle to maintain its heritage. His poetic storytelling style matches the rhythm of the life he recounts, what he calls "the heartbeat of my nation."

The Miami Indians
The Miami Indians

Author: Bert Anson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1970

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780806131979

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One of the small group of tribes comprising the Illinois division of the Algonquian linguistic family, the Miamis emerged as a pivotal tribe only during the French and British imperial wars, the Miami Confederacy wars of the eighteenth century, and the treaty-making period of the nineteenth century. The Miamis reached their peak of political importance in the Indian confederacies which blocked the Northwest Territory in the 1790's and during the War of 1812. Their title to much of the present state of Indiana enabled them to make advantageous treaties and delay emigration until the late 1840's. The tribe's 1846-47 emigrations produced two branches, the Indiana group and the Kansas-Oklahoma group, which have maintained political co-operation in spite of deep-seated cultural antipathies and dispossession. Their solidarity has been rewarded by success in their suits before the United States Court of Claims. This account spans the years from 1658 to the present, emphasizing the occasions on which the Miamis were a decisive influence on the course of American history.

City Indian
City Indian

Author: Rosalyn R. LaPier

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0803248393

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In City Indian, Rosalyn R. LaPier and David R. M. Beck tell the engaging story of American Indian men and women who migrated to Chicago from across America. From the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to the 1934 Century of Progress Fair, American Indians in Chicago voiced their opinions about political, social, educational, and racial issues. City Indian focuses on the privileged members of the American Indian community in Chicago who were doctors, nurses, business owners, teachers, and entertainers. During the Progressive Era, more than at any other time in the city’s history, they could be found in the company of politicians and society leaders, at Chicago’s major cultural venues and events, and in the press, speaking out. When Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson declared that Chicago public schools teach “America First,” American Indian leaders publicly challenged him to include the true story of “First Americans.” As they struggled to reshape nostalgic perceptions of American Indians, these men and women developed new associations and organizations to help each other and to ultimately create a new place to call home in a modern American city.