The River: We Must Honor the Past and its People

Cabela Walleye tournament fisherman near the mouth of the river, 2008.

Nearly two years ago, a ceremony honoring the Menominee Tribe marked the Menekaunee Harbor Restoration Project at the mouth of the Menominee River on the Marinette side.

The event honored the tribe's history and culture, which is inextricably woven with that of the Menominee River. Wild rice was planted at the mouth of the river. See a video here.

Menominee, as everyone learns in grade school here, means "wild rice people." On the Marinette side of the Interstate Bridge, you can see wild rice etchings in the stone railings that keep bridge users from tumbling into the river. Michigan, as I recall, declined to pay for etchings on its side of the bridge.

The harbor ceremony was an appropriate touch to the harbor project.

So it was a huge and rather unpleasant surprise when two Marinette alders opposed a move to restore language honoring the Menominee Tribal culture and history. Read more here.

The language was in the resolution the council reviewed on June 12, but had been removed by the time the council voted on July 6. Who removed it? Why was it removed? Why didn't some alders know about the changes until the meeting?

(To my knowledge, no explanation has been provided. But a government document that changes covertly should be questioned by taxpayers, news media and other elected officials. To date, I'm aware of only one person who questioned it.)

Back to the vote:

One alder said restoring the language wasn't necessary while the other apparently found the process confusing.

I'm left with two thoughts:

(1) Let's hope our local elected representatives aren't taking their cues from the misbehavior we are seeing in Washington.

2) We must continue to show respect for the real settlers of our country, the Menominees and other tribes. It is necessary. And it's not confusing.

This post is the last of three regarding the Menominee River and the Back Forty Mine.