The Menominee Indians, or "wild rice people" as their name means, have lived for thousands of years in the region that is now called Wisconsin, and are the oldest Native American community that still lives there. But the Menominees' struggle for survival and rights to their land, from early times into modern, has been long and hard. David R. M. Beck, through interviews with tribal members, stories recorded by earlier researchers, and exhaustive archival research gives us a fuller account of the Menominees' early history than has previously been available. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the Menominees' traditional way of life was intensely pressured by a succession of outsiders. Native nations such as the Iroquois attacked other Native nations, forcing migration and dislocation; and Europeans such as the French introduced the fur trade to the area, causing a disruption in the traditional economy and way of life. And in the nineteenth century Americans poured into the Old Northwest and surrounded the Menominee. They overtook vast tracts of the Indians' homeland until the community was removed to a reservation in 1852.
Beck examines these crucial early centuries and events from the Menominees' perspective, showing how many individuals and leaders, in the trading era and after, worked diligently to survive. The story is a complicated one; some Menominees encouraged more radical cultural change while others and some non-Menominees aided the community in their struggle. Placing the Menominees at the center of their history, Beck provides the most complete history written on this enduring Indian nation. David R. M. Beck is an associate professor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana. He is the author of The Chicago American Indian Community, 1893-1988: Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Sources in Chicago.