Title: Ada Deer Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1969-1978

Creator:

• Deer, Ada Elizabeth, 1935-

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 120

Quantity: 0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Biographical newsclippings and general correspondence of Ada Deer, a Menominee Indian leader who was a founding member of DRUMS, a lobbyist to restore federal aid and reservation status to the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin, and Menominee tribal chair (1975-1977).

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0120

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Ada Deer was born on August 7th, 1935 and grew up on the Menominee Reservation in northern Wisconsin. In l953, she won the tribal college scholarship and attended the University of Wisconsin, where she earned a B.A. in social work in 1957. She went on to receive a master's degree from Columbia University in 1961. Deer spent two years as a social worker in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York City, then worked for three years as the director of the Edward F. Waite Community Center in Minneapolis. She also worked as a coordinator of community services for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Minneapolis. In 1969, she accepted a position as the Director of the Upward Bound program for minority students at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. In 1970, she moved to Madison to attend law school.

In part through her mother, Constance Deer, an outspoken opponent of termination, Ada Deer, during her year at Superior, became aware of the hardships suffered by the Menominees after the termination of reservation status in 1961, and became an activist for Menominee rights. Deer and members of her family hired Joseph Preloznik, a Madison attorney, and Wisconsin Judicare, a legal organization, and won a court action which caused Menominee Enterprises, Inc. (MEI) to open its books to the rest of the tribe. In 1970, Deer helped to form DRUMS (Determination, Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders). Deer was elected to the voting trust of MEI. Deer took a leave from her law studies and moved to Washington, D.C. to lobby for Menominee restoration. In 1973, Congress passed the Menominee Restoration Act, which became effective in 1975. Deer served as tribal chair from 1975 to 1977.

In 1977, Deer was hired as an instructor by the U.W.-Madison School of Social Work, where she helped to develop the Native American Studies Program. In 1978, she was a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

The collection is a small group of materials collected by Deer during her activities as a lobbyist for Menominee restoration, tribal chairperson, and instructor at U.W.-Madison. The collection is divided into three sections: Clippings, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous Material.

The Clippings document Deer's activities from 1969 to l974 and include information on her early career, her education and experience as a social worker, and her work as a lobbyist for Menominee restoration. The Correspondence is entirely incoming, and it dates from l976 to l978. Included is information from organizations concerned with the welfare and advancement of Indians and other minorities, offers of speaking engagements, requests for Deer to endorse candidates for public office, requests for assistance from individual Indians in their dealings with the Menominee tribe, and personal correspondence from other Indian rights activists.

Miscellaneous Material includes a 1971 report prepared by Deer and other members of DRUMS on the effects of termination on the Menominee; and materials regarding Americans for Indian Opportunity, a national organization headed by LaDonna Harris.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the National Committee to Save the Menominee People and Forests, Washington, D.C., 1974, and Ada Deer, Madison, Wisconsin, 1979. Accession Number: M74-365, M79-113

Processing Information

Processed by Deb Shapiro, 1990.

Box   1 Folder   1	Clippings, 1969-1974
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2-5	1976-1977
Box   1 Folder   6	Whitehouse Fellowship Program, 1977
	Miscellaneous Material
Box   1 Folder   7	Effects of Termination on the Menominee, by DRUMS, 1971
Box   1 Folder   8	Americans for Indian Opportunity, 1977