10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 42 



The chief occupations of the Menominee are logging and lumbering, 

 which furnish work to nearly all able-bodied male Indians for seven 

 or eight months each year. During this "season," which lasts 

 from the time cold weather sets in until late in the spring, there is 

 but little idleness among the men who can work. But this period 

 is not without its dangers to their health. Those employed at log- 

 ging are frequently wet, while some use intoxicants more freely 

 during this time and expose themselves to the weather. As a result, 

 attacks of rheumatism often follow, which, in many instances, leave 

 those affected, with defective hearts. The proportion of those so 

 affected — principally with mitral insufficiency — is almost incredibly 

 large in this tribe, amounting to more than 30 per cent of the pojni- 

 lation. The lesions are found chiefly in men who have been engaged 

 in logging, but occasionally in women ; they were observed invariably 

 in one or more children of a family in which the father or mother 

 was affected with heart trouble for a time antedating the birth of 

 such children. However, the individuals thus afflicted have not 

 shown any greater percentage of tuberculosis than others. 



Farming is neglected on account of the work in the woods and saw 

 mills, yet all cultivate a little ground. (PI. 3.) The women occupy 

 themselves only with household duties and some gardening. 



In July, 1908, the Menominee owned about 165 cows. The milk is 

 used principally fresh, or in bread, or is eaten sour with addition of 

 sugar. None of these cows had ever been examined for tuberculosis. 

 Some of them, kept by the people who live in Keshena, the settlement 

 about the agency (pi. 1), were seen daily on the main street of the 

 village, browsing on grass which undoubtedly is often contaminated 

 by the expectorations of the health}^ as well as of the consumptives. 



In their general habits the Menominee are a mild, tractable, and 

 domestic people, who, under more favorable conditions, could soon 

 take their place among free citizens. Their main failing is drunken- 

 ness which, notwithstanding punishments and precautions, con- 

 tinues to prevail. Liquor is obtained surre])titiously from whites; 

 this consists of whiskey of inferior grade and occasionally of alcohol, 

 the latter more or less diluted. A creek near the reservation, which 

 conveniently furnishes water used by the Indians for dilution of alco- 

 hol, is already known as "Alcohol creek." The passion for strong 

 drink affects both mien and women. Its main causes are, in a few 

 cases, early dissipation, and in others, a craving for a stimulant of 

 some sort, due to lack of sufficient or proper nourishment. The 

 results are injurious, particularly as regards tuberculosis. 



The diseases most prevalent on the reservation, besides tuberculosis 

 and the above-named heart affections, are various disorders of the 

 respiratory apparatus, and rheumatism; malarial affections are com- 

 paratively rare. 



