Menominee

The Menominee lived in Wisconsin and spoke a language in the Algonkian language family. Although other Indians call their tribe the Menominee, they refer themselves as Mamaceqtaw (Ma-ma-chay-tau) which means "the people." Other Indians called them Menominee because in their language it meant "wild rice" and wild rice was a very large food source in the tribe. The Menominee lived near Green Bay when a French explorer named Jean Nicolet arrived there in 1634. The French called the Menomineee: The wild oats people.

The Menominee hunted and owned small gardens. They planted corn, beans, and squash. They also ate wild rice and fish. They used birch bark canoes and dugouts.

The Menominee believed that the earth was an island separating the upper and lower worlds. Upper and lower world were divided into layers, the furthest was the most powerful. In the upper world the sun was at it’s highest point, and was followed by Thunderbirds and the Morningstar. The lowest layer was the home of the White Deer, which was a part of the Medicine Dance.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Native American tribes that were in Southern Michigan flew to Wisconsin because the approach of the Iroquois tribes from New York.

My Regalia

My regalia was made with fabric that looked like dyed buffalo hide and Native American looking cloth. I also used leather and bead fringe. At the top of my regalia there is leather, and right under it there is orange, pink, and brown fabric. I also made a belt. At the bottom there is bead fringe, and the rest is red.

Bibliography

Hartman, Sheryl Indian Clothing of the Great Lakes

Menominee Culture http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-54.html

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