Menominee

The Menominee (also spelled Menomini; known as Mamaceqtaw, "the people," in their own language) are a federally recognized nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Tribe has a 353.894 sq mi (916.581 km²) reservation in the state. Their historic territory originally included an estimated 10 million acres (40,468.6 km²) in present-day Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The tribe has 8,700 members. They originated as a tribe in Wisconsin.

The tribe was terminated in the 1950s under federal policy of the time which stressed assimilation. During that period, they brought what has become a landmark case in Indian law to the United States Supreme Court, in Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968), to protect their treaty hunting and fishing rights. The Wisconsin Supreme Court and the United States Court of Claims had drawn opposing conclusions about the effect of the termination on Menominee hunting and fishing rights on their former reservation land. The US Supreme Court determined that the tribe had not lost traditional hunting and fishing rights as a result of termination, as Congress had not clearly ended these in its legislation.

Menominee (automobile)

The Menominee was an electric automobile built in Menominee, Michigan by the Menominee Electric Manufacturing Company in 1915. This company mainly built commercial electric vehicles, but did make a limited number of electric cabriolets. The cabriolet had a 108-inch wheelbase, with a top speed of 20 mph, with a range of 50–60 miles on each charge. A price of $1,250 also included a recharging kit for the battery. Production had started in July 1915, but had ended by the end of the year.

See also

Other Early Electric Vehicles

References

Menominee, Michigan

Menominee is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 8,599 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Menominee County. Menominee is the fourth-largest city in the Upper Peninsula, behind Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, and Escanaba. Menominee Township is located to the north of the city, but is politically autonomous.

Menominee is part of the Marinette, WI–MI Micropolitan Statistical Area. Menominee and Marinette, Wisconsin are sometimes described as "twin cities." See Interstate Bridge (Marinette, Wisconsin – Menominee, Michigan)

History

Menominee was named after a regional Native American tribe known as the Menominee, whose name roughly translates into "wild rice," which they cultivated as a staple food. In historic times, this area was the traditional territory of the Menominee Indian Tribe. They were removed to west of the Mississippi River and now have a reservation along the Wolf River in North Central Wisconsin.

Menominee gained prominence in the 19th century as a lumber town; in its heyday, it produced more lumber than any other city in the United States of America. During this time of prosperity, the Menominee Opera House was built. It is being restored. In the 1910s a cycle car, the "Dudly Bug", was manufactured in Menominee. In the waning years of lumber production, local business interests, interested in diversifying Menominee's manufacturing base, attracted inventor Marshall Burns Lloyd and his Minneapolis company Lloyd Manufacturing, which made wicker baby buggies. In 1917 Lloyd invented an automated process for weaving wicker and manufactured it as the Lloyd Loom. This machine process is still in use today. In the 21st century, the economy of Menominee is based on manufacturing (paper products, wicker lawn furniture, and auto supplies) and tourism.