Raymond Bial

The Menominee (Lifeways) Raymond Bial

The traditions of Menominee culture including origin stories, the relationship of the people to the land and forests, their camps and villages, their daily life, and its cycles in the longer time frame. Chapters cover dwellings, hunting, fishing and gathering, gardening traditions, clothing and jewelry, handicrafts, and even a couple of traditional recipes (wild rice and venison stew). Discussion of beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies, including games and gambling, has Bial's unmistakable stamp of his fascination with lifeways. Throughout the book, Bial's gift of photographing objects that speak for their makers is well utilized. As the author moves into the realm of modern Menominee life, the book covers the battle over logging rights and the tribe's official "termination" in 1961, when the tribe became a corporation and was plunged into irretrievable poverty. Bial admirably covers a lot of factual territory in a readable and engaging way. His treatment of various controversies involving the government's poor management of tribal land articulates the controversies in detail. Throughout the book, he uses the past tense when speaking of the old lifeways, knowing that the reader might otherwise assume the tribal members still live this way. The change to present tense in the New Ways chapter emphasizes that the Menominee still are with us. Brief mention is made of the tribe's being the first to open a casino, the first tribally owned medical clinic, and one of the earliest tribal colleges. Raymond Bial is an acclaimed photoessayist for children. Four of his books were chosen as Notable Books in the Field of Social Studies by the NCSS. "No single book can comprehensively portray the intricate and varied lifeways of an entire tribe, or nation. I only hope that young people will come away with a deeper appreciation for the rich tapestry of Indian culture-both then and now-and a keen desire to learn more about these First Americans." -Raymond Bial