Latest news with #MenomineeNation
New York Times
3 days ago
- Science
- New York Times
Farming Was Extensive in Ancient North America, Study Finds
A new study has found that a thickly forested sliver of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is the most complete ancient agricultural location in the eastern United States. The Sixty Islands archaeological site is recognized as the ancestral home of the Menominee Nation. Known to the members of the tribe as Anaem Omot (Dog's Belly), the area is a destination of pilgrimage, where remains of the settlement date to as far back as 8,000 B.C. Located along a two-mile stretch of the Menominee River, Sixty Islands is defined by its cold temperatures, poor soil quality and short growing season. Although the land has long been considered unsuitable for farming, an academic paper published on Thursday in the journal Science revealed that the Menominee's forbears cultivated vast fields of corn and potentially other crops there. 'Traditionally, intensive farming in former times has been thought to be mostly limited to societies that had centralized power, large populations and a hierarchical structure, often with accumulated wealth,' said Madeleine McLeester, an environmental archaeologist at Dartmouth College and lead author of the study. 'And yet until now the assumption has been that the agriculture of the Menominee community in the Sixty Islands area was small in scale, and that the society was largely egalitarian.' The findings of the new survey indicate that from A.D. 1000 to 1600 the communities that developed and maintained the fields were seasonally mobile, visiting the area for only a portion of the year. They modified the landscape to suit their needs, by clearing forest, establishing fields and even amending the soil to make fertilizer. 'This may force scholars to rethink some ideas that are foundational to archaeological theory and to archaeology generally,' Dr. McLeester said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Officers: Treaty of the Cedars Historical Marker sign in Little Chute found on fire
LITTLE CHUTE, Wis. (WFRV) – After officers in Little Chute found a historical marker sign on fire Friday night, an investigation has been launched, including a possible cash reward for information. A Facebook post from the Fox Valley Metro Police Department states that around 7:15 p.m. on May 23, the Little Chute Fire Department and officers responded to the Treaty of the Cedars Historical Marker and found the historical marker sign on fire. Flames from fire pit spread to nearby building in Wisconsin, damage limited The sign, which is located near the intersection of West Main Street and Washington Street in Little Chute, describes the treaty made in 1836 where the Menominee Indian nation ceded to the United States about 4,000,000 acres of land for $700,000 (about 17 cents per acre). The area now contains the cities of Marinette, Oconto, Appleton, Neenah, Menasha, Oshkosh, Wausau, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, and many others. Body recovered from Wisconsin's Lake Monona during week-long search for missing boater Officers are asking anyone with relevant information to come forward and contact Officer Jack Schinke at (920) 788-7505, or email at If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact the Quad Communities Crime Stoppers by calling (920)788-9090. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MMIW report a casualty of federal purge of government data
Nancy Marie SpearsThe Imprint An oversight group launched five years ago outlined myriad ways Congress could better protect Indigenous people from going missing, getting killed or falling prey to human traffickers, with particular focus on tackling gender-based violence. Among the recommendations of the Not Invisible Act Commission were specific protections for foster youth, who end up lost at higher rates than their peers. The commission titled its report Not One More and detailed calls to action for multiple federal agencies — including the Departments of Justice and the Interior, Health and Human Services and the Administration for Children and Families. This year, legislators and policymakers were supposed to establish ways to better track the missing, and step up efforts to find them. But on Feb. 18, the 212-page, comprehensive set of findings and recommendations that 41 commissioners worked on for three years suddenly vanished from the U.S. Department of Justice website. 'I don't know who's going to carry the recommendations out,' said Kristin Welch, a Menominee Nation descendant and Not Invisible Act commissioner. Welch, founder and executive director of the Wisconsin-based Waking Women Healing Institute, reflected the doubts among many that life-saving measures may now be suspended. 'The report being removed doesn't inspire hope under this administration that the work is going to continue and be meaningful,' she said. The Not Invisible Act Commission report is one of countless previously public documents that have suddenly been taken down from federal websites since the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump. In his first month in office alone, thousands of government web pages were removed, a New York Times analysis found — including vital information related to many aspects of American life, from health and safety to veterans affairs, taxes and scientific findings. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment about why the Not Invisible report had been taken down, or whether the agency would move forward with the recommendations relevant to the department. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Indigenous youth are more likely than non-Native American kids to go missing from foster care. In a report examining a recent decade of data, the center documented nearly 3,000 such cases, 99% of which were ultimately resolved. But while the kids were off the radar, they were identified as 'endangered' — more likely to be engaging in risky behavior, struggling with mental illness and turning to drugs and alcohol. Trump signed the Not Invisible Act in October 2020, during his first term. In 2024, under President Joe Biden, top officials praised the intent of the act they said would 'resolve this longstanding crisis and support healing from the generational traumas that Indigenous peoples have endured in the United States.' Then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland underscored the issue. 'Addressing violent crimes against Indigenous peoples has long been underfunded and ignored, as a cause of intergenerational trauma that has affected our communities since colonization,' Haaland said in a press statement. 'Through historic efforts like the Not Invisible Act Commission, we're identifying recommendations created by Indian Country, for Indian Country. This will ensure that epidemics like the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Crisis and Human Trafficking are addressed with the resources they demand.' In its report, the commission called for the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study of American Indian and Alaska Native children missing from foster care and determine whether law enforcement is doing everything possible to find them. The department also 'must mandate that any foster care agencies receiving federal funding report immediately any missing Tribal juvenile to their corresponding Tribe,' it reported. It also recommended that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of Health and Human Services, 'develop and disseminate culturally appropriate, trauma-informed prevention programming' to keep runaways from becoming victims of trafficking, violence or the criminal justice system. Further, it stated Congress 'must appropriate funding to the ACF, which must integrate training on human trafficking, survival sex work, and intergenerational trauma.' 'Human traffickers prey on the vulnerable, often people who are young, homeless or in foster care,' the commissioners wrote. 'There must be outreach and help to interrupt this pattern.' The Biden administration's plan brought together tribes, federal agencies, law enforcement, social service providers, survivors and the relatives of Native people who've been trafficked, gone missing or were murdered — and plotted better coordination and support. Now, some tribal members who contributed to the report say the Trump administration is working to devalue Indigenous people and making already-difficult work even harder. Others said tribes would continue the search for missing loved ones no matter what — ensuring the feedback the commission received from won't be forgotten. 'I think about all those survivors and family members, and everything they had to go through to testify at these hearings in hopes those recommendations will be launched into action,' Welch said. 'It's a really big slap in the face to our relatives. We've seen it so many times by the federal government: this constant erasure, with no respect for our relatives, their pain and their trauma.' Another commissioner is Ruth Buffalo, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, composed of three affiliated tribes. She serves as the CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, which focuses on the search for missing and murdered Native Americans in her state, and preventing tribal children from entering the foster care system. Buffalo said she and others across Indian Country remain steadfast in their commitment to ensuring the Not Invisible recommendations are met. 'The community continues to lead these efforts, and the work doesn't stop because there's a different president in office,' Buffalo said. 'That just means we continue to push even harder to hold the elected officials accountable.' These concerns about missing and murdered Indigenous people are compounded by a new political landscape marked by mass firings of federal employees and efforts to deeply cut spending on social services. Many of the commission's recommendations would require additional federal funding. Tribal organizations including the National Congress of American Indians supported the recommendations produced by the Not Invisible commission. Last year, the Departments of Justice and the Interior, as well as the Health and Human Services department, released their response to the recommendations. The agencies committed to policy updates for additional law enforcement and investigative resources; improved funding for tribal, state and federal law enforcement; enhanced data collection; and better services to help victims and their families heal, among other goals. Some recommendations tackled inadequate internet access, particularly in Alaska, so tribes and villages can act quickly to search for a missing person. Others focus on relatives met with indifference by law enforcement who showed little interest and failed to follow up on their cases. 'I went … to the DA's office … to demand that I see some progress in my son's case. They couldn't even find my son's case,' a Northern California parent stated in the report. 'It was heartbreaking. The fact that they didn't know his name says that I'm not good enough.'
