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Treaty

Menominee at Falls of Wolf River, Wisconsin (1854)

The 1854 Treaty of Wolf River let the Menominee stay in Wisconsin, trading their 1848 western lands for a Wolf River reservation.

Signed
May 12, 1854
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 805,000 acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 282,000 acres
Promises
1 of 1 broken or only partly kept
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On May 12, 1854, at the Falls of Wolf River, Wisconsin, Superintendent Francis Huebschmann and the Menominee chiefs, headmen and warriors signed articles amending the 1848 treaty. That treaty had promised the Menominee land west of the Mississippi, at Crow Wing, in exchange for their Wisconsin lands. The 1854 preamble says that, "upon manifestation of great unwillingness on the part of said Indians to remove," the President had consented to their staying temporarily on the Wolf and Oconto Rivers.

Now the Menominee ceded the lands assigned to them in 1848, and the United States gave them a tract on the Wolf River, townships 28, 29 and 30 in ranges 13 to 16. That is 24 miles by 18 miles. The Supreme Court later wrote that the treaty set aside land for the Menominee "for a home, to be held as Indian lands are held."

Congress passed the Menominee Termination Act in 1954. In 1968 the Supreme Court held that the tribe's hunting and fishing rights under the treaty "survived the Termination Act of 1954." In 1973 President Nixon signed the Menominee Restoration Act, restoring the reservation, according to Encyclopedia.com. In 1856 the Menominee ceded a tract for the Stockbridge-Munsee.

What was promised, and what happened

  • Partly kept

    Land set apart for the Menominee as a home, to be held as Indian lands are held. (Treaty of Wolf River)

    signed the Menominee Restoration Act, restoring tribal status to the reservation encyclopedia.com

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. upon manifestation of great unwillingness on the part of said Indians to removeTreaty with the Menominee, 1854 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. survived the Termination Act of 1954Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404 (1968)
  3. signed the Menominee Restoration Act, restoring tribal status to the reservationMenominee, Encyclopedia.com
  4. the United States desire to locate said Stockbridges and Munsees near the said line in the western part of the said reservationTreaty with the Menominee, 1856 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  5. whereby the United States had set aside land for the Menominees "for a home, to be held as Indian lands are held."Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404 (1968)

Research notes. Encyclopedia.com is a reference summary, not a primary source. The 1968 Supreme Court opinion notes that the 1954 Termination Act did not become fully effective until 1961. The 1848 treaty had guaranteed not less than 600,000 acres west of the Mississippi. The Wolf River tract is described by townships, 24 by 18 miles; the treaty states no acreage for it.

What the treaty did to the land

About 805,000 acres given up. about 282,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1838

    Land lost

    About 436,000 acres ceded to the United States by the The several tribes of New York Indians

    By Treaty of Buffalo Creek with the New York Indians, 1838

    area 246

  2. 1838

    Land lost

    Part of the land ceded by the The several tribes of New York Indians

    By Oneida (First Christian and Orchard Parties) at Washington, DC (1838)

    area 246

  3. 1848

    Land kept

    About 805,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Menomini

    By Menominee at Lake Powawhaykonnay, Wisconsin (1848)

    area 321

  4. 1854

    This treaty

    About 805,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Menomini. About 436,000 acres named in the record. About 282,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Menomini

    The 1854 Treaty of Wolf River let the Menominee stay in Wisconsin, trading their 1848 western lands for a Wolf River reservation.

  5. 1856

    Land record

    About 65,000 acres named in the record

    By Stockbridge and Munsee at Stockbridge, Wisconsin (1856)

    area 403

  6. 1856

    Land lost

    About 65,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Menomini

    By Menominee at Keshena, Wisconsin (1856)

    area 403

  7. 1871

    Land lost

    Part of the land ceded by the Menomini

    The 1899 record: “All except 18 sections of their reserve to be appraised and sold”

    area 403

  8. 1954

    Law

    Menominee Termination Act

    The 1954 Menominee Termination Act ended federal supervision of the tribe, but the Supreme Court held treaty hunting and fishing rights survived.

  9. 1954

    Promise broken

    Menominee termination (1954-1973)

    Congress voted in 1954 to end federal supervision of the Menominee despite their 1854 treaty home; Congress repealed that law in 1973.

  10. 1968

    In court

    Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States

    Menominee hunting and fishing rights under the 1854 Treaty of Wolf River survived the 1954 Termination Act, the Court held in 1968.

  11. 1973

    Land returned

    Menominee restoration to reservation status

    On April 22, 1975 Interior accepted a deed returning the Menominee's roughly 200,000 acres to reservation status, after a 1973 restoration law.

The law behind it

The legal ideas behind the decisions, and related records without a date. Court cases and laws with a date are in what happened next, above.

  • Legal doctrine

    abrogation

    Abrogation is Congress overriding a treaty: Lone Wolf (1903) allowed it, but modern courts require clear evidence Congress chose to break the treaty.

  • Legal doctrine

    canons of construction

    Courts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.

  • Legal doctrine

    reserved rights

    Treaties are 'a grant of right from' tribes, not to them: reserved hunting and fishing rights survived cessions, statehood and even termination.

  • Legal doctrine

    termination

    Congress moved in 1953 to end federal supervision of tribes; the Supreme Court later held the Menominee Termination Act left treaty hunting rights intact.

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-menominee-1854-0626reference work
    Treaty with the Menominee, 1854 May 12, 1854. | 10 Stats., p. 1064.

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.