Community columnist: Overdue tribal status will validate Brothertown heritage

The recent controversy about our community’s diversity initiative puts an interesting spin on a story that’s unfolding in Fond du Lac County.

It involves the Brothertown Indians, who, you may be surprised to learn, were the first permanent settlers in this area. The Brothertown Indians first became a tribe in 1769, when seven Christian- and English-speaking tribes organized and moved to land in upstate New York.

They tried to make a life there, but the encroachment of Europeans pressured them to move West. With the Oneida and Stockbridge tribes, they moved to Wisconsin, arriving by ship at the port of Green Bay in five groups, between 1831 and 1836. A total of 560 people eventually settled here.

As with many stories about Native Americans, the tale here gets complicated, with treaties agreed upon by tribes overridden by the continued demand of white settlers for land and resources.

When in 1838 the United States mandated that all Native Americans move west of the Mississippi, the Brothertown members made a stand. They owned land, had established businesses and decided they weren’t moving anymore.

The United States’ reaction to this decision was to declare that the Brothertown Indians were now U.S. citizens. This sounds like a good thing, but as so often happens when our government takes action, there was an unintended consequence. As citizens, the Brothertown were no longer considered a tribe by the U.S. government.

They stayed here and welcomed the first white settlers, the Pier family. They provided lumber and labor for the Pier family’s log house, built near the current site of Giddings and Lewis.

They built the first sawmill and grist mill in the area, and hauled logs to Neenah and Oshkosh across the lake, contributing to the early growth of those communities. The tribe now owns less than an acre of its original land, but their descendants have continued to live and thrive here as part of the mainstream culture.

They never stopped regretting the trade-off of citizenship for tribal identity. In the 1970s when the United States established a process for doing so, the Brothertown Nation petitioned to have their federal tribal status restored. It has been a long and arduous process and most of the members who initially were involved in it have passed on. But the tribe has persevered.

Thirty years later the Brothertown Indian Nation is very close to achieving federal recognition as a tribe. They have received notice that their petition has been “activated.” They have submitted all the required documentation, and they are hopeful that within a year they will be once again a tribe in the eyes of the federal government.

Tribal status will entitle them to some federal education benefits, but the most important benefit will be the recognition and validation of their rich culture and history as a distinct native people.

You probably know someone in our community who is a Brothertown member. The tribe numbers around 3,300 people, with 2,000 in Wisconsin. The largest concentration of Brothertown members is here in Fond du Lac County. They have truly assimilated, but rightly wish to maintain their cultural identity, just as do those of us of Irish or German heritage.

Imagine how the history of our county would be different had the Brothertown Indians not welcomed diversity when the Pier family showed up.

The Brothertown Indians recognized and took advantage of the economic benefits of working with the newcomers to grow our young community. We should all celebrate when they finally are restored to full tribal status.

I, for one, hope to be invited to the party.

Maggie McCullough is a community columnist and member of The Reporter Editorial Board.