TRIBAL CUSTOMS OF THE MENOMINEE 

 INDIANS OF WISCONSIN 



By FRANCES DENSMORE. 



Collaborator, Bureau of American Ethnology 



The Menominee reservation, with its beautiful forests of pine and 

 rushing rivers, is located north of Shawano, Wisconsin. Here dur- 

 ing the summer of 1929 I continued my study of Indian music for the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology among the Menominee Indians. The 

 particular purpose of this season's work was to obtain additional in- 

 formation which would supplement the songs and other material col- 

 lected on two previous trips, and to obtain the correct form of proper 

 names and words pertaining to music. 



The old men and women of the tribe were again questioned, several 

 new informants were found, and a large gathering of Indians was 

 attended. At this gathering I witnessed the women's games of " dice 

 and bowl " and " double ball." The first name is said to have been 

 given to the Menominee by the spirit women who live in the eastern 

 sky, and the songs of its origin had already been recorded. The game 

 may be played as a pastime but is primarily a means of securing per- 

 sonal benefits promised by the spirit women in a dream. The action 

 consists in tossing upward a shallow bowl containing disks made of 

 bone, and the score is counted by the exposed surfaces (fig. 198). I 

 obtained a set of the game implements, which comprise eight round 

 disks, one flat disk representing the common turtle and one represent- 

 ing the head of the great " spirit turtle." 



The double ball game is played by several women on an open field, 

 each player holding a stick with which she tosses a pair of leather 

 pouches, commonly called balls. The players are divided into two 

 opposing sides, each seeking to toss the pouches across the other's goal. 



This gathering was held at the native village of Zoar and the 

 dances took place in the arbor-like lodge where I witnessed the Drum 

 Presentation ceremony in 1928. The drum (fig. 197) was suspended 

 on shorter stakes than those supporting the ceremonial drum, and 

 beneath it was a bowl-shaped hollow a few inches in depth. Thus the 

 earth served as a resonator for the drum. The singers were seated 

 around this drum, according to the Indian custom. 



The principal informant was Mitchell Beaupre (fig. 199), whose 

 Menominee name is Mowa'sa, commonly but inadequately translated 



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