Last summer, the director of the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Sabrina Motely, and the curator for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Sojin Kim, travelled to Wisconsin to view the annual Menominee Pageant and soon found themselves cast as extras in the show. Having learned about this venerated tradition from pageant veteran Karen Ann Hoffman, the two women had front row seats to this showcase of Menominee stories, drums, dancing, and community building. Following the performance, the Pageant Players Guild was invited to be a part of the 2026 special event, “Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals.” With approximately 40 gatherings around the country, the event will be the only one held in the Badger State. As the United States marks its semiquincentennial year, it’s appropriate that the country honors the culture of a Native nation that both preceded it and continues to be a vibrant part of its diversity. 

Inviting others to partake in Menominee culture is the tribe’s custom. Since at least 1874, visitors have traveled to Keshena to hear oration and witness the staging of tribal stories. In 1936, the famed Woodland Bowl amphitheater was constructed by an all-Native crew, and the following year the first pageant was produced. Expanding to become the highlight of the annual fair that drew thousands of people to Menominee land, the initial pageants’ run extended into the 1970s, as they shared the pantomime of stories, live music, and dance exhibitions with all who attended. At the request of Menominee elders, College of Menominee Nation revived the dormant artform in 2016, and has since staged both classic and newly written scripts as the kick-off to the contest powwow weekend. While planning for the show begins a year in advance, the event makes space for returning and first-time performers, with extras and dancers joining the cast right up until showtime.

What makes America great is not its politics but rather its highest ideals, which are what should be highlighted whenever milestones are mentioned. This year’s pageant is titled Timeless Teachings, and it’s a dramatization of stories that the Menominee Tribal Historic Office shares with us. With connecting scenes that form a cohesive narrative around community responsibility, the tales emphasize values that include selflessness, humility, bravery, and the importance of protecting those who are less fortunate. Its morals are accessible to all audiences, but they are not showy or patronizing in their delivery. Rather, the plot showcases aspirations that should resonate across Turtle Island. Truth be told, the show is not only a lesson in American values, but an affirmation of the pre-American values that have found traction within these lands since time immemorial.

It’s regretful that the story of the United States of America’s revolutionary founding is too often told as if the nation we know today was uplifted entirely by non-Native men, when the reality is that its origin narrative is incomplete without the contributions of Native people. If the focus is solely upon the colonists who wore the tricornered hats, issued decrees, and led armies, then one overlooks the invaluable aid of women like Oneida Nation citizen Polly Cooper. Cooper is the reason George Washington’s army survived the harsh winter at Valley Forge, as she prepared the corn her people provided to nourish the starving troops. Some of Cooper’s descendants now call Wisconsin home. So too does the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians tribal members Hendrick Aupaumut and Jacob Konkappot Jr. who took up arms in support of the fledgling nation, with the latter having “won the notice” of George Washington. These three Americans and their Native nations should be rightly remembered this year alongside others who have perpetuated values such as selflessness, humility, bravery, and the protection of those who are less fortunate. Citizens of both the Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee can be counted among the performers in this year’s Menominee pageant, emphasizing that those values are still shared by their nations.

This July, the Menominee Nation will do what it always does—stage an event hospitable to people of all demographics, which could include those of you reading this column. The director of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Clifford Murphy, noted that “the 250th anniversary is a time to celebrate our extraordinary cultural democracy, to visit with the people, places, and traditions within it, and to contemplate our shared future.”

If you are in the Woodland Bowl at dusk on the night the pageant is staged, you’ll be a witness to a heritage that spans generations. It will be a show produced by elders, adults, students, and youth who collectively share Menominee teachings in both English and their tribe’s ancestral language. You will note that while the calendar has marked the passage of time, the values held dear are unchanging. The Menominee Pageant Players Guild is honored to be a part of a celebration that doubles as a perpetuation of a time-honored tradition. We promise a production that will be fitting of the United States’ semiquincentennial year, staged in one of the most cherished venues the country has to offer.

Ryan Winn, PhD, teaches in the Liberal Studies Department at College of Menominee Nation. 

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in the Inquisitive Academic or any other opinion columns published by the Tribal College Journal (TCJ) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TCJ or the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. 

References

College of Menominee Nation. (2026). The 2026 Menominee Pageant. https://www.menominee.edu/community-landing/pageant26

Passion, K. (2026, June 26). 2 Revolutionary War Veterans Buried in Northeast Wisconsin. The Shawano Leader, 3.  

Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. (2026, June 17). She Walked Over 200 Miles in the Snow to Feed a Starving Army. The Oneida Nation Has Remembered Polly Cooper for 250 Years. Smithsonian. https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/she-walked-over-200-miles-snow-feed-starving-army-oneida-nation-has-remembered-polly-cooper