Tribal members wrote and ratified a tribal constitution in 1976, and elected a new tribal government, which took over from BIA officials in 1979. Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968) During the period of termination, when the Menominee individually were subject to state law, in 1963 three members of the tribe were charged with violating Wisconsin's hunting and fishing laws on what had formerly been their reservation land for more than 100 years. The tribal members were acquitted. When the state appealed the decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the Menominee tribe no longer had hunting and fishing rights due to the termination act of Congress in 1954. Due to the state court's ruling, the tribe sued the United States for compensation for the value of the hunting and fishing rights in the U.S. Court of Claims, in Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968). The Court ruled that tribal members still had hunting and fishing rights, and that Congress had not abrogated those rights. The opposite rulings by the state and federal courts brought the issue to the United States Supreme Court. In 1968 the Supreme Court held that the tribe retained its hunting and fishing rights under the treaties involved, and the rights were not lost after federal recognition was ended by the Menominee Termination Act, as Congress had not clearly removed those rights in its legislation. This has been a landmark case in Indian law, helping preserve Native American hunting and fishing rights. Government The tribe operates according to a written constitution. It elects a tribal council and chairman. The Menominee developed the College of Menominee Nation in 1993 and it was accredited in 1998. It includes a Sustainable Development Institute. Its goal is education to promote their ethic for living in balance on the land. It is one of a number of tribal colleges and universities that have been developed since the early 1970s, and one of two in Wisconsin. Current tribal activities The nation has a notable forestry resource and ably manages a timber program. In an 1870 assessment of their lands, which totaled roughly , they counted of timber. that has increased to . In the intervening years, they have harvested more than . In 1994, the Menominee became the first forest management enterprise in the United States certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC.org). Since June 5, 1987, the tribe has owned and