 In the mid- to late @-@ 1940s , the Menominee tribe was considered by a government survey to identify tribes for termination , a process in which federal recognition of the tribe would be withdrawn and the tribe would no longer be dependent on the Bureau of Indian Affairs ( BIA ) to support them . The Menominee were thought to be a tribe that could be terminated because they were one of the richest tribes in the nation . The federal government thought that termination would allow the tribal members to be assimilated into mainstream American culture , becoming hard @-@ working , tax @-@ paying , productive citizens . In 1954 , Congress terminated the federally recognized status of the tribe with the Menominee Indian Termination Act . According to the terms of the Termination Act , the federally recognized status was to end in 1958 . The tribe and the state of Wisconsin successfully lobbied for a delay in the implementation of termination until 1961 . The tribe was opposed to termination for a number of reasons ; their concerns included the loss of tribal culture , the loss of land due to tax liens , the possibility of bankruptcy and loss of the tribal timber industry , and the lack of tribal members who were trained to run a county government . The state of Wisconsin was concerned that with no industry for the tribe to tax , the state would be responsible for the large financial outlay that would be required to maintain governmental operations for the former reservation . 
