THEATRE IN THE TIME OF TERMINATION: THE CULTURAL VALUES EMBEDDED WITHIN THE MENOMINEE PAGEANT PRODUCTIONS

Abstract

From 1937 to the 1970s, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin staged pageant theatre productions for tourists from across the United States. Applying the teachings embedded within the Menominee creation story, this dissertation examines the cultural reasons for the show’s production run which spanned the length of the tribe’s termination and restoration of their federal trust status. It illuminates how Menominee people cultivate specific spaces on their land, extend hospitality to their guests, share resources freely among the nation’s citizens, and use their theatre tradition to project their values into the public sphere. Guided by the oral histories and shared teachings of the Menominee community and written by the director of the Menominee Pageant revival productions, this dissertation puts media coverage, theatre scripts, and tribal documents into conversation to illuminate how Menominee theatre confronted the reductive narratives perpetuated about Native American people by staging their values during the imposition of one of the most disastrous policies in American history.