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3 THE HISTORY OF MENOMINEE MICHIGAN By Ronald DuFresne INDIAN DAYS Too few of the residents of Menominee realize what an interesting history the city has. This record is intended to sum up the whole history of what was one of the greatest lumbering towns in the Green Bay region. Mention is also made of Marinette and Menekau-- nee, both of which lie on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River opposite the subject of this paper. Both had much to do with the building up of Menominee. The Menominee Indians were the earliest inhabitants of the region, so far as is known. They had their village at the mouth of the river and their lodges spread out along the bay shore. At that time, the region was heavily wooded and game was plentiful. Sturgeon abounded in the local waters and constituted one of the principal articles of food, not only for the Menominees but also for Chippewa and other villages up the river. "Menomin,11 the wild rice which grew in the marshes near the river mouth was also important in the diet of the Menominees, and from this cereal they took their name. They were known to the early missionaries as a brave but peaceful people. In the traditions of the Menominees, there is known to have been but one battle waged between them and their Chippewa neighbors up the river. The trouble started when the Chippewas began calling the Menominees "Sturgeon Eaters." The Chief of the Menominees took this to be an insult which he could not stand for. He proceeded to build a dam across the mouth of the river to prevent the sturgeon ascending to the Chippewa and other villages. This caused great hardship to the Chippewas whose chief sent his son to request the removal of the dam. This emissary was sent home with an awl run through his scalp lock, a sure sign of war to the Chippewas. A huge war party was organized in the up-river villages and with "Sturgeon" as a war cry, they descended upon the Menominees in the stillness of a warm summer morning. For two or three hours, the battle up and down both sides of the river, with heavy losses on both sides and victory for the attackers. The chief of the Menominees was captured and tortured to death and the dam torn away,after which the Chippewas returned to peaceful life, with plenty of sturgeon in their part of the river. Today, there are few of the Menominees living and these are at the reservations at Keshena and Shawano, in Wisconsin, where they were moved in 1853. Eleazer S. Ingalls, in his "Centennial History of Menominee, Michigan" writing in 1876 says: "A few yet remain around Menominee, but their "mbered."j! the pines of their native forests, they cannot withstand the af of civilization and the time is not far distant when there will not be an Indian left on the Menominee to cherish the memory, or even preserve the name of the peaceful tribe that once roamed over the hunting grounds, proud in the freedom of savage life. THE EARLY MISSIONARIES The first white man known to have come into Green Bay was Jean Nicolet, that one-man expedition in the interest of Samuel Champlain, Governor of French Canada, in 163U. The object of his trip was to find and make friends with the Winnebago tribe, noted for their savagery and their refusal to endure close neighbors. It was also hoped that a passage to China might be discovered. In exploring Green Bay, Nicolet came across the Menominees which he described as having a lighter complexion and better figure than any of the Indians he had encountered in his many years in the wilds of Canada. He named them the Folles Avoines or wild-oats Indians.