Menominee termination (1954-1973)

What happened

In the Treaty of Wolf River (May 12, 1854; 10 Stat. 1064), the Menominee ceded the lands assigned to them under an 1848 treaty (Article 1) and, in Article 2, the United States gave them a tract on the Wolf River in Wisconsin "for a home, to be held as Indian lands are held." The Supreme Court later noted that the lands were chosen because they had abundant game and that the treaty let the Menominee keep their way of life, including hunting and fishing.

Congress passed the Menominee Termination Act in 1954 (68 Stat. 250). As the Supreme Court describes it, the Act's stated purpose was "orderly termination of Federal supervision over the property and members" of the tribe. The tribe's property was to be transferred to a tribal corporation or trustee by April 30, 1961. The Menominee submitted a plan that created a Wisconsin county from the former reservation and a corporation called Menominee Enterprises, Inc., and Wisconsin passed laws folding the area into its county system.

In Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968), the Court held that the Termination Act did not abolish the tribe's treaty hunting and fishing rights, declining to read it as "a backhanded way" of abrogating them. In 1973 Public Law 93-197 (87 Stat. 770), which Congress titled the Menominee Restoration Act, repealed the termination sections. This is context for a termination statute, and the Court's 1968 ruling is the adjudicated part: it protected the treaty hunting and fishing rights, not the reservation's legal status.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error