Menominee

The Menominee call themselves Mamaceqtaw, “the people,” while their better-known name comes from an Ojibwe expression for “wild rice people.” Their homeland extends across the forests and waterways west and north of Lake Michigan. Menominee tradition places their origins where the Menominee River enters Green Bay; wild rice and sturgeon hold important places in their foodways and traditions.

French explorers and fur traders met the Menominee in the seventeenth century. Accounts of Jean Nicolet's arrival place them among the peoples gathered near Green Bay in 1634. The French traveller Charlevoix visited a Menominee village in 1721, recording its position near a river mouth. During the War of 1812, the Menominee allied with British and Canadian forces and took part in fighting around Mackinac.