Roland W. Reed — Every Picture Tells A Story
How a man from Wisconsin imagined the Indigenous peoples of the Plains
In 1875, two (white) children fell in the Fox River, near Omro, Wisconsin. A third child was standing on the riverbanks, helpless and terrified, as he watched his friends fighting for their lives.
His name was Roland W. Reed and he lived with his family nearby, in a log cabin along a trail popular among the Menominee tribe. His father, a Civil War veteran, was a farmer. His mother took care of the house and the couple’s six children.
Reed’s friends eventually survived the swirling waters of the Fox River, only because they were rescued by three men of the Menominee tribe. Among them, there was their legendary leader, Chief Thundercloud (not the actor). Reed witnessed the whole thing — his friends’ near-drowning, the Menominee jumping into the river, the rescue. Chief Thundercloud became his hero.
Today, the Menominee people, known as the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, are a federally acknowledged tribe, which means that they are recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and so is their land base, the Menominee Indian Reservation.
