Paper short abstract:

Forestry is a practice of asserting identity and belonging into the future. Examining forestry in Wisconsin shows how forestry entitles settlers to maintain a presence on Indigenous homelands, while for Menominee Nation, cultivating careful relations provides avenues for collective continuance.

Paper long abstract:

The College of Menominee Nation – Sustainable Development Institute places Menominee autochthony in the center of their sustainable development model. Considering Menominee autochthony and the importance of tending to forest resources for their collective continuance requires examining how settler claims to autochthony inhere to and are advanced by forestry. The evolution of forest management for Menominee Nation and the State of Wisconsin offers an important comparison in caring about and for forests.

By the late 1800s, Americans realized that to continue over-exploiting forests would undermine the settler project. It would mean that the settlers could not stay. Implementing forestry then could address the desire to extinguish Indigenous relationships to their homelands, while establishing meaningful ecological relationships for settlers to uphold their own claims to autochthony.

Simultaneously, the Menominee Nation was able to maintain control over their forests by astutely navigating U.S. attempts to terminate their sovereignty. The first federally mandated limits on timber extraction were specifically to protect Menominee forests and establish a tribally owned sawmill.

Engaging in forestry and restoration that is conscientious of and responsive to the self-determination of Native Nations requires interrogating stories of belonging to place. Forestry is not only about the material conditions of forest ecosystems – it is also a practice of asserting identity and belonging into the future. For the U.S., forestry entitles settlers to maintain a presence on Indigenous homelands. For the Menominee Nation, however, cultivating careful relations, reified through the actual practices of forestry provides avenues for collective continuance.