File:Image from page 859 of "Bulletin" (1901).jpg

English: Title: Bulletin

Identifier: bulletin3011907smit Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Subjects: Ethnology Publisher: Washington : G. P. O. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image: 842 MENOMINEE [b. a. E. former Chippewa village on the e. bank of Saginaw r., in lower Michigan.—Sagi- naw treaty (1820) in U. S. Ind. Treat., 142, 1873. Menominee {meno, by change from mino, 'good', 'beneficent'; m/»,a 'grain','seed', the Chippewa name of the wild rice.— Hewitt. Full name Menominkvok inini- icok, the latter term signifying 'they are men'). An Algonquian tribe, the mem- bers of which, according to Dr William Jones, claim to understand Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo far more easily than they do Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, hence it is possible that their linguistic relation is near to the former group of Algonquians. Grignon (Wis. Hist. Soc.

Text Appearing After Image: AMI3KQUEW —MENOMINEE MAN. Coll., Ill, 265, 1857) speaks of the Noquet as a part of the Menominee, and states that "the earliest locality of the Menominee, at the first visits of the whites, was at Bay de Noque and Me- nominee r., and those at Bay de Noque were called by the early French Des Noques or Des Noquia." {^^e Noquet.) The Jesuit Relation for 1671 includes the Menominee among the tribes driven from their country—that is, "the lands of the south next to Michilimackinac," which is the locality where the Noquet lived when they first became known to the French. It is generally believed that the Noquet, who disappeared from history at a comparatively early date, were closely related to the Chippewa and were incor- porated into their tribes; nevertheless,. the name Menominee must have been adopted after the latter reached their his- toric seat; it is possible they were pre- viously known as Noquet. Charlevoix (Jour. Voy., ii, 61, 1761) says: "I have been assured that they had the same original and nearly the same languages with the Noquet and the Indians at the Falls." The people of this tribe, so far as known, were first encountered by the whites when Nicolet visited them, probably in 1634, at the mouth of Menominee r., Wis.-Mich. In 1671, and henceforward until about 1852, their home was on or in the vicinity of Menominee r., not far from where they were found l^y Nicolet, their settlements extending at times to Fox r. They have generally been at peace with the whites. A succinct account of them, as well as a full description of their manners, customs, arts, and beliefs, by Dr W. J. Hoffman, appears in the 14th Rep. Bureau of Eth- nology, 1896. In their treaty with the United States, Feb. 8, 1831, they claimed as their possession the land from the mouth of Green bay to the mouth of Mil- waukee r., and on the west side of the bay from the height of land l)etween it and L. Superior to the headwaters of Menominee and Fox rs., which claim was granted. They now reside on a reserva- tion near the head of Wolf r., Wis. Major Pike described the men of the tribe as "straight and well made, about the middle size; their complexions gen- erally fair for savages, their teeth good, their eyes large and rather languishing; they have a mild but independent ex- pression of countenance that charms at first sight. Although comparatively in- dolent, they are described as generally honest, theft being less common than among many other tribes. Drunkenness was their most serious fault, but even this did not prevail to the same extent as among some other Indians. Their beliefs and rituals are substantially the same as those of the Chippewa. They have usually been peaceful in character, sel- dom coming in.contact with the Sioux, but l)itter enemies of the neighboring Algonquian tribes. They formerly dis- posed of their dead by inclosing the bodies in long pieces of birchbark, or in slats of wood, and burying them in shallow graves. In order to protect the body from wild beasts, three logs were placed over the grave, two directly on the grave, and the third on these, all being secured by stakes driven on each side. Tree burial was occasionally prac- tised. The Menominee—as their name indi- cates—subsisted in part on wild rice {Zizania aquatica); in fact it is spoken of by early writers as their chief vegetal food. Although making such constant

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