Menominee Indian Reservation

Menominee Indian Reservation
Indian Reservation

Tribal headquarters
Menominee Indian Reservation

Location of the Menominee Indian Reservation within Wisconsin

Coordinates: 45°00′19″N 88°42′41″W / 45.00528°N 88.71139°W / 45.00528; -88.71139Coordinates: 45°00′19″N 88°42′41″W / 45.00528°N 88.71139°W / 45.00528; -88.71139
Area
 • Land 916.58 km2 (353.894 sq mi)

The Menominee Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in northeastern Wisconsin held in trust by the United States for the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. For the most part it is conterminous with Menominee County, Wisconsin and the town of Menominee.

It has numerous small pockets of territory that are not considered to be part of the reservation. These pockets amount to 1.14 percent of the county's area; the reservation takes up about 98.86 percent of the county's area. The largest of these pockets is in the western part of the community of Keshena. A section of the reservation is located in the town of Red Springs, in Shawano County, Wisconsin.[1] The reservation has a plot of off-reservation trust land of 10.22 acres (4.14 ha) in Winnebago County to the south, west of the city of Oshkosh. The reservation's total land area is 353.894 square miles (916.58 km2), while Menominee County's land area is 357.960 square miles (927.11 km2).

The non-reservation parts of the county are more densely populated than the reservation, with 1,337 (29.3%) of the county's 4,562 total population, as opposed to the reservation's 3,225 (70.7%) population in the 2000 census.[2] (The plot of land in Winnebago County is unpopulated.) The most populous communities are Legend Lake and Keshena. The Menominee operate a number of gambling facilities.

Communities

Education

The Menominee founded the College of the Menominee Nation, a tribal college, in 1993. It was accredited in 1998. The main campus is in Keshena. The people speak English as well as the Menominee language, part of the Algonquian language family.[3]

Economy

Casinos

In 2013 the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approved plans of the Menominee Nation to build a casino at the former Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha, Wisconsin.[4]

Cannabis

An amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill authorized cultivation of industrial hemp. In addition, some states have authorized sale of medical cannabis, or marijuana.

In August 2015 the Menominee Indian Reservation held a vote on proposed measures to legalize medical and/or recreational cannabis. The Menonimee have the only American Indian reservation which falls only under federal law, rather than under the Wisconsin law per Public Law 280. They are sovereign on their reservation. [5] The Menominee planted what they say is industrial hemps.

In October 2015, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided the reservation, taking or destroying 30,000 plants. The Menominee said these were industrial hemp plants, cultivation of which was authorized by federal law.[6] The DEA contends it was marijuana.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Wisconsin Department of Transportation-Shawano County map
  2. ↑ Menominee Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Wisconsin United States Census Bureau
  3. ↑ Menominee Language and the Menominee Indian Tribe (Menomini, Mamaceqtaw)
  4. ↑ BIA approves tribe's proped Kenosha casino
  5. ↑ Spivak, Cary (2015-08-16). "Menominee tribe prepares for vote on legalizing marijuana". Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2015-08-20.
  6. ↑ Staff, "Agents seize marijuana plants on Menominee tribal land", Journal Sentinel staff, 23 October 2015
  7. ↑ Steven Nelson,, "DEA Raid on Tribe's Cannabis Crop Infuriates and Confuses Reformers", US News and World Report, 26 October 2015, accessed 21 December 2015
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