Menominee Indians

Mamaceqtaw
Chief Oshkosh, c.1859
Total population
8,700
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 (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 nation of Native Americans, with a 353.894 sq mi (916.581 km²) 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.

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 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 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.

The Menominee are part of the Algonquian language family of North America, made up several tribes now located around the Great Lakes and many other tribes based along the Atlantic coast. They are one of the historical tribes of present-day upper Michigan and Wisconsin; they occupied a territory of about 10 million acres (40,000 km²) in the period of European colonization. They are believed to have been well-settled in that territory for more than 1,000 years. By some accounts, they are descended from the Old Copper Culture people and other indigenous peoples who had been in this area for 10,000 years.