Terry Nigh

Deed or Death Terry Nigh

As we travel back down the timeline to 1970, America had just closed its history book on the Attica riots. The Kent State University tragedies and then the Jackson Riots screamed out new headlines. The Native American takeovers of Alcatraz and Wounded Knee were still freshly opened gashes-not to mention the famous American War in Vietnam. However, there happened to be a minute slice of American history that became played down, tossed on the back burner and forgotten as time ran away. This was the final Indian takeover that brought about Indian casinos. This biography of John Waubanascum, one of the leaders of the Menominee Warrior Society, showed why the young tribal natives chose the motto, "Deed or Death"; and how John unintentionally become a war hero during the Vietnam War. The warriors were within their rights to take the building unused and land in accordance to an ancient forgotten Wisconsin treaty. This account is told in the local timber wolves' point of view, since they shared their land with the Natives and suffered through the bitter war of the Alexian Brother's Catholic Novitiate Takeover in Gresham, Wisconsin, back down the timeline in 1975.