Amiskquew, a mid-19th century Menominee warrior, from
History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
The Menominee (also spelled Menomini; known as Mamaceqtaw, "the people," in their own language) are a federally recognized nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Tribe has a 353.894 sq mi (916.581 km²) reservation in the state. Their historic territory originally included an estimated 10 million acres (40,468.6 km²) in present-day Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The tribe has 8,700 members. They originated as a tribe in Wisconsin.
The tribe was terminated in the 1950s under federal 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 US 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 in an act of Congress, and re-established its reservation in 1975. They operate under a written constitution establishing an elected government. Their first government under it took over tribal government and administration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1979.
Menominee customs are quite similar to those of the Chippewa (Ojibwa), another Algonquian people. Their language has a closer affinity to those of the Fox and Kickapoo tribes. All four spoke Anishinaabe languages, part of the Algonquian family.
The five principal Menominee clans are the Bear, the Eagle, the Wolf, the Crane, and the Moose. Each has traditional responsibilities within the tribe. With a patrilineal kinship system, traditional Menominee believe that children derive their social status from their fathers, and are born "into" their father's clan. Members of the same clan are considered relatives, so must choose marriage partners from outside their clan. Ethnologist James Mooney wrote an article on the Menominee which appeared in Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), incorrectly reporting that their descent and inheritance proceeds through the female line. Such as a matrilineal kinship system is common among many other Native American peoples, including other Algonquian tribes.
Menominee mythology is rich with ethical meaning. It has many elements in common with the sacred literature and cultures of other Native American peoples. Traditional Menominee believe that the Earth forms a partition between the upper and lower worlds. The upper world represents good and the lower world represents evil. These two worlds are divided into several layers, the furthest being the most powerful. The Sun is at the highest level in the upper world, followed by the Thunder bird and the Morning Star, the Golden Eagles (symbols of war) and other birds, led by the Bald Eagle. The first level below the earth in the lower world is occupied by the Horned Serpent. The succeeding lower levels are the home of the White Deer, who helped create the Medicine Dance. The next level is that of the Underwater Panther. The lowest level is ruled by the Great White Bear.
Traditional Menominee use dreaming as a way of connecting with a guardian spirit in order to gain power. During the rite of passage at puberty, both boys and girls fast for days, living in a small isolated wigwam. The youths meet individually with Elders for interpretation of their dreams. The Elders inform the youths what responsibilities they will take on following their rite of passage.
MANIK
Kin 67: Blue Lunar Hand
I polarize in order to know
Stabilizing healing
I seal the store of accomplishment
With the lunar tone of challenge
I am guided by the power of self-generation.
The human learns through attempts to align patterns of intelligence with the experience of the patterns perceived in the phenomenal world. The same process that creates nature creates the human, since the human is nature.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2015-2016.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Svadhistanha Chakra (Kali Plasma)
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