Omāēqnomenēwak
People of the Wild Rice
Returning to Land and Place
Our story begins with the knowledge sharing of our Elders, who pass down what it means to live in a good way. They measure a good life by how we give back to our community, our relatives, and to our land. They remind us to return to the land and water to search for our wellness as these places hold memory of who we are and guide us back to balance.
We also acknowledge the challenges our community faces, which have too often removed us from our lands and disrupted our sense of belonging and purpose. We recognize that our young people are carrying the resilience of long-term healing for the land, people, and next generations. We are taking on the responsibility to carry the teachings we receive forward to them.
Buffalo Knowledge-Sharing Art
This icon shows a Buffalo mother facing her calf, linked by a circular line that flows from the mother’s heart to the calf’s and back. This line stands for the exchange of knowledge and influence between generations. The idea for this artwork comes from Menominee birchbark scrolls and petroglyphs, which show how knowledge and wisdom are shared across generations and expressed through the energy of life.
The design, along with our other Buffalo icons, is based on these visual traditions. The Buffalo shape, heart, flowing line, and cross-hatching all reflect how life, relationships, and knowledge are depicted in the scrolls. When creating this icon, we drew on these teachings and added our own artistic style to depict how non-human relatives are represented in stories and teachings.
The connection and cross-hatches in the icon are also inspired by a song once carried by a Menominee man. These teachings still guide us today.
Medicine Fish grew from a return to the lands and waters where healing through connections begins.
This vision first took shape through fly fishing; a simple yet powerful way for our youth to occupy time proactively during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, this time spent learning to cast and to listen to the river became an entryway into transformation. Returning to land and water opened space for young people to see themselves as capable, creative, courageous, and worthy of deep connection.
As those relationships deepened, so did responsibility.
In 2022, youth and mentors prepared the land for the return of Buffalo, reuniting the Menominee with our Pesāēhkiw relatives absent for more than 250 years and joining the InterTribal Buffalo Council. By 2023, Medicine Fish formally incorporated as a non-profit, and the first group of youth interns worked on fencing 80 acres of land, expanding to 160 acres in 2024.
Returning to the Natural Flow
In 2025, following the successful co-leadership of Buffalo rematriation between Medicine Fish & The Nature Conservancy to the Menominee Tribe, Medicine Fish turned their intentions back to the water, guided by the understanding that healing is ongoing and interconnected. A focus on restoring fish passage to the Wolf River became the next expression of this work, rooted in the same teachings that shaped its beginning.
Medicine Fish grew from a return to the lands and waters where healing through connections begins.
This vision first took shape through fly fishing; a simple yet powerful way for our youth to occupy time proactively during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, this time spent learning to cast and to listen to the river became an entryway into transformation. Returning to land and water opened space for young people to see themselves as capable, creative, courageous, and worthy of deep connection.
As those relationships deepened, so did responsibility.
In 2022, youth and mentors prepared the land for the return of Buffalo, reuniting the Menominee with our Pesāēhkiw relatives absent for more than 250 years and joining the InterTribal Buffalo Council. By 2023, Medicine Fish formally incorporated as a non-profit, and the first group of youth interns worked on fencing 80 acres of land, expanding to 160 acres in 2024.
Returning to the Natural Flow
In 2025, following the successful co-leadership of Buffalo rematriation between Medicine Fish & The Nature Conservancy to the Menominee Tribe, Medicine Fish turned their intentions back to the water, guided by the understanding that healing is ongoing and interconnected. A focus on restoring fish passage to the Wolf River became the next expression of this work, rooted in the same teachings that shaped its beginning.
How Energy Guides Us
Energy is woven through everything in our story. Energy is spirit, and spirit is energy. Through that understanding and connection to the 7th direction, we allow it to flow freely, to move and guide us back to ourselves and to something old and significant. No matter how we blend modern life, we carry on the old lifeways that open pathways to remember and reconnect, even to things we may not yet be aware of.
It was through this flow of energy and relationship that we found our way into conservation. This was not through change or design but by allowing the spirit of energy toward the people and places whose gifts guide and support us.
A New Path Guided by 7th Generation Teachings
We are guided by 7th Generation teachings, which remind us that every action we take today honors the wisdom of those who came in the generations before us, and strengthens the wellbeing of those who will come in the generations after. For us, this means restoring kinship within our community to create a place of love, where people feel valued, comfortable, and inspired.
We facilitate these values by connecting us/our people to land and waters, such as through fly fishing, which leads to building relationships with other tribal communities. In turn, the restoration of Intertribal kinship has helped bring our Buffalo relatives back to our homelands.
Timeline
How Medicine Fish Came into Being
The timeline follows the formation of Medicine Fish. Please visit our History page to learn how federal policy, industrial development, and forced assimilation reshaped Menominee lands, waters, and the lifeways of our people.
The Resilience of Our Young People
Our resilience as Mamāceqtawak, Movers of Life, comes from the strength and wisdom of our ancestors. It is our responsibility to ensure that the teachings we were given are passed down to our young people, who understand the world they are inheriting and their stake in the wellness of Grandmother Earth.
Our youth deserve the opportunity to learn, to be included in conversations that have too often excluded them, and to take part in decisions that affect their lives and their lands. We have found that their perspectives bring balance to how we build relationships and are essential in shaping the future of our efforts. They carry the awareness to learn, to act, and to lead in ways that keep our people’s teachings alive in the present.
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