After a delicious lunch at the Menominee Casino Resort, our group proceeded to the Menominee Cultural Museum. There, we were met by Rebecca Alegria, the Menominee Cultural Planner, and she provided us with a guided tour through the museum’s exhibits.
The main display area for the museum consists of a single, large room so nobody was expecting we would spend the next 2 ½ hours enthralled by the history, traditions, and stories that Rebecca would share with us, but that is exactly what happened.
The tour began with a display funded by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Prior to a recent planned project to expand and re-route Highway 47, the DOT first completed its mandatory archaeological survey of the project area. This survey uncovered the remnants of Menominee villages that included two large hearths used to cook sturgeon. The yearly harvest of sturgeon as they proceeded up the Wolf River to spawn was and still is a major cultural event for the Menominee.
The museum display chronicled this history and included a replica of the world-record 297 lb. sturgeon which was caught within the area. The Menominee faced similar challenges to those faced by other Wisconsin tribes as they fight to retain their treaty rights to harvest sturgeon. On April 19, 2014, the tribe will host the 21st Annual Sturgeon Feast and Celebration Powwow at the Menominee Indian High School in Keshana.
Next, our tour progressed through various display cases in the room. Many of these contained articles of clothing such as moccasins, belts, leggings, vests, and other ceremonial regalia. Nearly every item was decorated with intricate beadwork. Rebecca was not content simply to point out these objects and move on. Every piece of clothing had a story to tell. Everything embodied some deeper cultural meaning, and she explained those to us. These were often things she herself had learned from tribal elders.
For example, a visiting elder informed her that the leggings on display were made from the fabric from old flour sacks and the belt holding them up was the tie for the sack. Also, she had been puzzled by why the beaded image of a water lily appeared on the apron for a man’s ceremonial outfit until she learned from another elder that water lily roots were used in traditional Menominee medicine to prevent prostate cancer. Such traditional lore is not found in textbooks; one can only understand fully the objects on display by listening to tribal members.
Other items on display included portraits of famous Menominee leaders like Oshkosh, several war clubs, a cradle board from 1886, and a set of beautiful wooden statues representing the five tribal clan animals of crane, eagle, bear, wolf, and moose. The oldest item on display was the actual medal presented to Chief Tshekatshakemau (“The Old King”) by British emissaries in 1778. It was incredible to see such an important piece of history.
As a final bonus to the tour, Rebecca took us into the conference room at the back of the museum to show us the amazing handmade conference table. It had sturgeon carved around its edge, and the bases of its legs were shaped like eagle talons. The centerpiece featured a carved bear and the footprints of each of the five clan animals. It was an impressive work of art. The conference room walls were also lined with portraits of tribal elders from the 1970s. Some of these were World War II veterans, and Rebecca showed us an image of the medal cast by the U.S. Mint to commemorate the Menominee code-talkers who participated in the war.
We all immensely enjoyed our visit to the Menominee Cultural Museum. It was certainly much more than any of us expected, and we are all very indebted to Rebecca for the incredible tour she gave us.
-Eric Tollefson