Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Indians in the 20th Century
In the United States, the federal government recognizes Indian tribes as independent and sovereign powers. Sovereignty is the right of a nation or group of people to be self-governing. Indians are United States citizens and also citizens of their tribes. Like other Americans, Indians are subject to federal laws, but they are not always subject to state laws because Indian reservations are held in trust by the federal government. A government-to-government relationship exists between each sovereign tribe and the U.S. government. Today, eleven federally recognized Indian tribes call Wisconsin home (the Brothertown tribe filed a petition for recognition in 1996... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | A Menominee superintendent discusses changes on the reservation, 1935 |
| Menominee lands are threatened with allotment, 1925 |
| The Oneidas claim land in New York |
| An examination of treaty rights in Northern Wisconsin, 1989-1990 |
| "Indian News" from the Voice of the Winnebago, 1931-1949 |
| Menominee Vocabulary, 1893 |
 | Athletic shoes embellished with a traditional artform |
| Anti-spearfishing concrete walleye decoy |
 | An Indian commission examines treaty rights and racism, ca. 1989 |
| Conditions on Wisconsin Indian reservations, 1909-1910 |
| A survey of Milwaukee's Indian population, 1962 |
| The Human Rights Commission surveys Wisconsin Indians in 1966 |
| Excerpts from a tribal cookbook |
| Conditions in Wisconsin Indian communities in 1929 |
| A Ho-Chunk grammar textbook, 1945 |
| A modern dictionary of the Menominee language |
| Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892 |
| Report on the Menominee at Termination, 1958 |
| A Tourist Brochure for Shawano and the Menominee Indian Reservation, ca. 1925 |
| A Tourist Brochure for Marinette Co., ca. 1923 |
 | The Killing of Chief Joe White (Gishkitawag), 1894 |
 | Pictures of the Ojibwe in the 19th and 20th centuries. |
| Pictures of the Menominee in the 19th and 20th centuries. |
| Pictures of the Ho-Chunk in the 19th and 20th centuries. |
| Pictures of the Potawatomi from the 1820's to the 1920's |
 | Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930 |
| A Long Ho-Chunk Vocabulary, 1880 |
| Brief Potawatomi Language Vocabularies, 1920-1932. |
| Alfred Bridgman's English-Menominee word list from the 1870s |
| Frank Bridgman's Menominee vocabulary, 1878 |
| Testimony taken at Hayward, Wisconsin, April 23 & 24, 1934 |
| Suburban high school students try to interpret Menominee culture in 1936 |
| A 1961 soil survey of the Menominee Indian Reservation |
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