Siege and Survival: History of the Menominee Indians, 1634-1856U of Nebraska Press, 2002 M01 1 - 294 pages 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. |
Contents
Menominee Country Becomes | 25 |
Sovereign Alliances | 48 |
Diminishing Fur Trade and Illegal Treaties | 73 |
Menominee Resources under Siege | 96 |
Civilizing Influences | 117 |
A Dissolving Tribal Economy | 142 |
Intensifying Encroachments | 159 |
The Battle for a Homeland | 174 |
Reclaiming a Piece of the Homeland | 187 |
Siege and Survival | 201 |
261 | |
279 | |
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Common terms and phrases
American André annuity payment August bands Bay and Prairie Bloom Bonduel Calhoun Carron Cass ceded chiefs Chien Papers Chunks claimed clan Collections SHSW Commissioner of Indian council culture Documents Relating Ewing Father Fox River frame French Régime fur trade Green Bay Grignon Historical Society History Ho Chunks Huebschmann hunting Indian Affairs Indian Treaties inee Interviews with Menominee Journal Kappler Keesing Kellogg Lake Poygan Lake Winnebago Letters Received lived Mackinac Manypenny Mazzuchelli Medill Menom Menominee country Menominee Historic Menominee Indians Menominee land Menominee leaders Menominee River Menominee Tribal Menominee's Mesquakies Michigan mission missionaries Montreal nations Negotiation of Ratified Oconto River Ojibwes Oshkosh Ourada Potawatomis Prairie du Chien Ratified and Unratified reel reported Senate SHSW Archives Sir William Johnson Society of Wisconsin Stambaugh sturgeon Subagent Territorial Papers tribal members Trowbridge U.S. government United Unratified Treaties Upper Great Lakes wild rice Wolf River wrote York Indians