Oneida Nation of Wisconsin
The Oneida Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Oneida people in Wisconsin. The tribe's reservation spans parts of two counties west of the Green Bay metropolitan area. The reservation was established by treaty in 1838, and was allotted to individual New York Oneida tribal members as part of an agreement with the U.S. government. The land was individually owned until the tribe was formed under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
Under the Dawes Act, the land was allotted in 1892 to individual households. The nation kept control of most of the land until sales were allowed in the early 20th century, when members were often tricked out of their property. They used the land for farming and harvesting timber. As of 2010, the nation controlled about 35 percent of the land within its reservation and is working to reacquire the rest.
In 1988 the nation established the state's first modern lottery, known as Big Green. Since the late 20th century, the nation developed the gaming Ashwaubenon Casino on its property, which is generating revenue for economic development and welfare. Of the more than 16,000 members, roughly half live on the reservation.
History
The Oneida Nation is an Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking nation who relocated to northeastern Wisconsin beginning in the 1820s. The Oneida were one of the original Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, with ancestral homelands in present-day New York. During the early 1800s, the state of New York and land speculators forced the Oneida to sell large portions of their lands, reducing their homeland from approximately six million acres to only 32 acres by the 1830s.Relocation to Wisconsin and the Menominee land dispute
In 1821, a delegation led by Eleazer Williams, an Episcopalian missionary of Mohawk descent, arrived in Green Bay backed by the Episcopal Church and the federal government. Williams had a plan to create a Christian "Indian empire" in the West with himself as leader. Williams negotiated with the Menominee and Ho-Chunk for approximately 860,000 acres. The following year, another delegation negotiated a second treaty claiming an additional 6.72 million acres on the western shore of Lake Michigan.The Menominee and Ho-Chunk immediately protested both treaties. They argued that none of their principal chiefs had been present at the 1821 or 1822 treaty councils, that the interpreter at the 1822 treaty had misinformed them of the terms, and that they had only intended to allow the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown to reside on the land—not to transfer ownership. Federal records preserve Menominee and Ho-Chunk testimony: "We never intended to sell any land," "None of our chiefs were present," and "We were deceived about what the treaties said."
The Menominee and Ho-Chunk protested so strongly that the United States Senate refused to ratify either the 1821 or 1822 treaty. This set off an eight-year dispute, with the Menominee and Ho-Chunk on one side and the Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Brothertown on the other. The federal government mediated the conflict and negotiated a series of three compromise treaties in 1831 and 1832, in which the Menominee agreed to cede 500,000 acres of land to the Oneida. The federal government subsequently reduced this cession to only 65,400 acres in 1838, which constitutes the current boundaries of the Wisconsin Oneida reservation.
Reservation era
By a treaty in 1838, the Oneida accepted a reservation, and chief Daniel Bread negotiated to ensure that the land was to be held communally by the tribe. By 1838, approximately 654 Oneida lived on the new reservation. A small group of Oneida remained on the reservation in New York, while others later moved to Ontario, Canada.The federal government opened Wisconsin for settlement by Euro-Americans in 1834, and soon settlers flooded the region. In 1845, Wisconsin territorial governor Henry Dodge asked the Oneida to trade their Wisconsin lands for land west of the Mississippi. Some Oneida were willing to move farther west, but Orchard Party leader Jacob Cornelius refused to negotiate any new removal, and the Oneida stayed in Wisconsin.
Oneida activists from Wisconsin and New York such as Laura Cornelius Kellogg would make continual efforts to uphold Indian land claims.
20th century
Great Depression
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration organized the Federal Writers' Project, which produced state guides and also helped preserve much of Oneida culture. Its Oneida Language and Folklore Project gathered hundreds of stories and material about their culture.Termination period
In the period between World War II and The Sixties the US government followed a policy of Indian Termination for its Native citizens. In a series of laws, attempting to mainstream tribal people into the greater society, the government strove to end the U.S. government's recognition of tribal sovereignty, eliminate trusteeship over Indian reservations, and implement state law applicability to native persons. In general the laws were expected to create taxpaying citizens, subject to state and federal taxes as well as laws, from which Native people had previously been exempt.On August 13, 1946, the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, Pub. L. No. 79-726, ch. 959, was passed. Its purpose was to settle for all time any outstanding grievances or claims the tribes might have against the U.S. for treaty breaches, unauthorized taking of land, dishonorable or unfair dealings, or inadequate compensation. Claims had to be filed within a five-year period, and most of the 370 complaints that were submitted were filed at the approach of the 5-year deadline in August, 1951.
On 1 August 1953, United States Congress issued a formal statement, House Concurrent Resolution 108, which was the formal policy presentation announcing the official federal policy of Indian termination. The resolution called for the "immediate termination of the Flathead, Klamath, Menominee, Potawatomi, and Turtle Mountain Chippewa, as well as all tribes in the states of California, New York, Florida, and Texas." All federal aid, services, and protection offered to Native people were to cease, and the federal trust relationship and management of reservations would end. Individual members of terminated tribes were to become full United States citizens with all the rights, benefits and responsibilities of any other United States citizen. The resolution also called for the Interior Department to quickly identify other tribes who would be ready for termination in the near future.
A January 21, 1954 memo by the Department of the Interior advised that a bill for termination was being prepared including "about 3,600 members of the Oneida Tribe residing in Wisconsin. Another memo of the Department of the Interior memo entitled Indian Claims Commission Awards Over $38.5 Million to Indian Tribes in 1964, states that the Emigrant Indians of New York are "".
In an effort to fight termination and force the government into recognizing their outstanding land claims from New York, the three tribes began filing litigation in the 1950s. As a result of a claim filed with the Indian Claims Commission, the group was awarded a settlement of $1,313,472.65 on August 11, 1964. To distribute the funds, Congress passed Public Law 90-93; 81 Stat. 229; Emigrant New York Indians of Wisconsin Judgment Act and prepared separate rolls of persons in each of the three groups to determine which tribal members had at least one-quarter "Emigrant New York Indian blood." It further directed tribal governing bodies of the Oneidas and Stockbridge-Munsee to apply to the Secretary of the Interior for approval of fund distributions, thereby ending termination efforts for these tribes. With regard to the Brothertown Indians, however, though the law did not specifically state they were terminated, it authorized all payments to be made directly to each enrollee with special provisions for minors to be handled by the Secretary, though the payments were not subject to state of federal taxes.
Reservation
The Oneida Reservation comprises portions of eastern Outagamie and western Brown counties. The shape of the reservation is an angled rectangle directed to the northeast, laid out along the Fox River, which runs in the same direction. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the reservation has a total area of, of which is land and is water.Only about, or slightly over 35% of the Oneida Reservation, was tribally-owned as of 2010. Most of the reservation passed out of tribal ownership due to federal policies of allotment in the late nineteenth century, allowing a large non-native population to settle within the reservation boundaries. Much of the east side of the reservation has been incorporated into the city of Green Bay and villages of Hobart and Ashwaubenon. The west side of the reservation contains the unincorporated community of Oneida. The Oneida Nation is actively working to reacquire more land within its reservation boundaries.