Celebrating Native American Heritage Month with the Menominee: The Mamaceqtaw
Tribal Chair Gena Kakkak has been involved with the Menominee tribal government since her youth.
by Jonathan Gramling
The Menominee Reservation is located about 50 miles northwest of Green Bay. The Menominee’s term for themselves is Mamaceqtaw, which means the “Ancient People.” The Menominee have always lived on their ancestral lands, never relinquishing the land they still live on to Europeans.
In terms of acreage, it is the largest Indigenous reservation east of the Mississippi River. Due to the termination of its tribal rights in the 1950s — which were later restored in 1973 — There is privately owned land on the reservation that forms the basis of Menominee County, Wisconsin’s 72nd county. It is easy to tell where the reservation begins and ends in this area of Wisconsin. Just follow the treeline. The reservation is the area with dense forest as the lands surrounding it were cleared for farm land.
It’s been a busy day for Gena Hakkak, the tribal chairwoman of the Menominee Nation. We almost had a chance to interview her a couple of times to no avail until near the end of our stay on the reservation, she was able to squeeze us in for a few minutes between appointments.
We met a couple of months earlier when Kakkak came to Madison to celebrate Ada Deer’s 88th birthday, 10 days before Deer passed away. With issues pressing, Kakkak was still gracious as she made the mental as well as physical space for our interview. Kakkak is busy because she is the head of a sovereign nation.
“As the chair, I act as the president of the nation,” Kakkak observed. “It’s equivalent to the President of the United States because we are a sovereign nation. We are our own nation. So the chairperson is like the President of the United States.”
The tribal chair is a part of a nine-member legislature that is elected by the enrolled tribal members each January and then reorganizes itself on February 9th each year. It is the legislature that selects the executive committee and the nation’s leader, the tribal chair.
Kakkak does not come across as a politician who is serving as chair to further her own political career. Rather she was very deliberative in deciding whether or not to put her hat in the ring to be the chair.
“It was a decision that I did not make lightly,” Kakkak said. “I put a lot of thought into it. I struggled with coming to terms that I would be sitting here. I didn’t know if I had put in enough work. I was recently reelected for my second term. I’m going into my fourth year. I did a lot of praying, asking for the guidance and the strength to make sure that I could lead the tribe in a good way.”
In the end, Kakkak had the experience that the Menominee Nation needed.
“One of my very first jobs becoming an adult was in our tribal chair’s office,” Kakkak said. “That was before I started having a family. Things that I did within that role have always stuck with me. And so previously I have been in our school district for the last 13 years. I’ve always been active. I attended our tribal council meetings. I began being active sitting on different committees within our tribal government. I think it just came to a time in my life where I said, ‘Okay, we need to make sure that the underrepresented people had a voice in our tribal government.’ That is what kind of pushed me and led me into that. It was a family decision because it impacts the family. It does take a lot of time away from our families. I still have little ones at home. I still have mom duties. And so that decision had to be made with my family. ‘Should I run? Should I go and try it?’ I have a supportive family. They all said yes. And so I gave it a try and they liked me. I have been on the executive council in the roles as the vice-chair and the secretary. I think that also helped me stepping into this role giving me that transition in.”
Kakkak and the legislature face a multitude of problems as they guide the Menominee Nation.
“Our tribe has 8.700 tribal members,” Kakkak said. “And we do have our on-reservation casino that does help with revenue for our tribal budget. But our tribe is growing so much, our tribal operations have grown much slower. We have numerous departments that try to meet the needs and interests of membership. We are ranked the lowest county in Wisconsin for our poverty level, the health issues, our AODA issues and other issues. I think we have about 4,000 of our members who live on the reservation. The others live all over the world.”
It is said that the Menominee are poor monetarily — don’t let the presence of a casino fool you — they are rich in resources. Yet Kakkak still has to work hard to make the finances of the tribe work.
“With any position, there are challenges,” Kakkak said. “What I have been learning, probably the most difficult for me, is trying to make sure that our needs are being met with the limited resources that we have. I have a great team in place that I depend on. We have a great grant writer team in place that really is a group of Menominee women who are culturally connected and they really put their hearts into writing those grants. We are grant-dependent for our programs and our services. We do have a lot of good things to offer. But we still struggle with funding. We try and be self-sufficient as much as possible. With the grants that we do get, we have to follow the regulations that are with any grant. I think that has been the most difficult, to make sure that the responsibility that I feel to make sure that our members’ needs are met.”
And as a sovereign nation, Kakkak also has to work to maintain that sovereignty.
“We make sure that we protect our resources,” Kakkak emphasized. “We make sure that we protect our space. That’s our responsibility as tribal leaders. We make sure that we protect our membership. I think our sovereignty is always being threatened. I think we need to make sure we protect our sovereign rights whether it be maybe child welfare or natural resources or a whole range of issues.”
And as a nation with only 8,700 people, the Nation needs to always ensure that the generations coming up understand the Menominee Nation and what it is about, much like Kakkak learned as a young adult.
“We do have new, younger legislators who are coming in,” Kakkak said. “And I think that just goes with part of our responsibility. ‘Now it’s our turn.’ And that keeps it going. We do have long-term legislators who stay on. And when their terms are done, we need that next generation to step up and start helping make those decisions. We are taught our mission at a very young age and it carries them forward.”
The Mamaceqtaw are here to stay because they never left.