Menominee leads the nation in Army recruits

As our nation celebrated 232 years of independence over the weekend, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported a fascinating fact about the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. (That’s the paper’s photo of Menominee veterans on the right.) According to a Post-Dispatch analysis, Menominee County – which shares its borders with the Menominee Reservation – has provided more soldiers per capita to the U.S. Army over the past four years than any other U.S. county without a major Army installation.

Eighty-one Menominee tribal members are currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, with 19 of them deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The newspaper reports that Menominee youth are drawn to the military for a variety of reasons. It’s a chance to serve one’s country, to continue the Tribe’s proud cultural heritage and to find new opportunities amid the Tribe’s economic struggles.

The Post-Dispatch article, which also ran in the Wisconsin State Journal and was picked up by the Associated Press, talks more about the significant economic challenges facing the Menominee Tribe. It’s these kind of challenges – education, job-training, housing and more – that the Wisconsin Tribe’s proposed Kenosha casino would help address.

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