Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Menominee logging operation had to focus on efficiency rather than max-
imizing Menominee employment. These operations were managed by Menominee
Enterprises, which, despite its name, included non-Indians on the board of direc-
tors and they often were in the position of casting the decisive vote. In 1968
Menominee Enterprises used several smaller reservation lakes to create a man-
made lake, Legend Lake, and sold shoreline lots to non-Indians. In this case, from
the perspective of most Menominees, the economic gains were far outweighed by
the loss of sovereignty over the lands and the decision triggered a storm of protest
and ultimately led to the restoration movement that achieved success in 1973 when
President Nixon signed the Menominee Restoration Act.
The logging operation is currently operated by MTE which is under control of the
Menominee Tribal Legislature (though the constitutional relationship between these
two independent entities is sometimes in dispute). MTE has won several awards for
its sustainable forestry practices, yet its current cutting practices have not always
been well received by the Menominee community. These practices include 40-
acre clear cuts and shelterwood cuts which look quite a bit like clear cuts. Many
Menominee people, including loggers, are disturbed by these cuts. They do not see
the rationale for abandoning selective harvest, they note that the heavier equipment
used for such cuts compacts the soil, they worry about the ecological consequences
of these practices and they find them aesthetically displeasing. When community
members object to MTE's practices they are often met with the counterargument
that “our practices are based on forestry science.”
This is a crude gloss of a troubled yet resilient history and we hope it will be
enough to enable the reader to see the shared historical experience that may be
functioning in the unfolding of the conversation. There are places in the utterances
in which we will clarify terminology using square brackets and italics. We begin
with Justin, 1 a tribal leader, who has been involved with forest policy issues for over
a decade.
Justin: There seems at this sort of moment in time, or in the last decade or two, a great
anxiety between science and the way traditionally the forest was managed, and how science
is somewhat taking a upper hand at the um, anxiety of a lot of tribal members and loggers
and stuff.
Justin begins by locating this issue in a particular moment in time, suggesting
that the current problems are different from past problems but are not unrelated.
He specifically locates this within the last 20 years or so. He casts science and
Menominee traditional practices and knowledge in an oppositional binary and sug-
gests that this binary is causing “a great anxiety.” The expression “great anxiety”
seems to index a historically infused emotion and perspective and it has the affect
of nominalizing anxiety. Justin goes on to characterize the anxiety by linking it
with issues of power and domination and locating it within the lives of commu-
nity members. Note that there is no balance or integration of science and traditional
management but rather science has the “upper hand.”
1 Here and elsewhere we use pseudonyms.
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