A summer tradition for the Menominee for the last 10 years returns again, but it will be doing so without its matriarch.
The Menominee pageant, where participants tell stories through pantomime, dance and audio recordings, will be performed July 29 at the Woodland Bowl in Keshena. This year’s show is titled “Timeless Teachings” and was written by the Menominee Pageant Players Guild. The show includes adapted versions of “A Sampling of Menominee Legends” from the Menominee Tribal Historical Office and “The Legend of the Dells,” written by the late Theresa Wescott.
The pageant program, which was revived in 2016 after decades of absence, received an added boost this year after it was recognized by the Smithsonian Institute and added to its Festival of Festivals — the only Wisconsin event to get that honor. The Smithsonian partnership, along with the Menominee Powwow Committee, the Wisconsin Arts Board and Taproot Artists and Community Trust, has allowed the College of Menominee Nation to purchase new lights and special effects equipment, along with a sound system designated specifically for the pageants.
“Timeless Teachings” will be the first time the pageant players have put together a show without any input from its matriarch, Grace “Bea” Corn. She passed away in 2025 before that year’s pageant was performed. Dawn Wilbur, Corn’s daughter, recalled how excited her mother was when it was announced that the Menominee pageants would return with a request for materials from past pageants.
“Not long before that, my cousin and my uncle had all of my grandpa’s papers,” Wilbur said, noting that it was decided that those papers should be stored at Corn’s home. “Oddly enough, one of the first boxes that we went through had the pageant stuff that my grandpa had back when he revived it years ago (in the late 1950s). When my mom saw that call, she said, ‘They’re having a meeting. Will you come with me?’ She gathered some of the files, and we came here to CMN. I could see the total excitement on Ryan (Winn) and Lloyd (Frieson)’s faces.”
Wilbur noted that, once the files were looked at, the people involved with reviving the pageants knew their mission would be successful.
“They had some archives, and they knew it could be done.” Wilbur said. “For me, it’s important to continue this in her name, to continue to be here and be a part of it. Watching these younger ones come forward and put their energy into it is very promising to me, and I know it was for my mother, too.”
The Smithsonian collaboration also allows the pageant to hire three interns to help prepare for the pageant. Jeremiah Moses Jr., who teaches Menominee language at Shawano Community High School, is serving as the coordinator for the Menominee language and the audio recordings. He said his main purpose in the position is to normalize speaking in the traditional tongue again.
“We were very intentional in the way we went about that,” Moses said. “I got a lot of freedom in how I was able to go about that, and I would consult with the group and make sure we were on the same page. We didn’t want to just reserve it to the areas of the play that are traditional stories and included language in the modern parts of the play, as well.”
Moses noted that being in the room with the actors when they were recording their lines for the audio system allowed him to make sure everybody was speaking their lines with the correct Menominee pronunciation.
“Not everybody can read Menominee as it’s written down in the script,” he said.
Mary Mault is another intern who is handling the administrative side of things and assists stage manager Melinda Cook. Mault handles the scheduling for rehearsals and Zoom meetings, along with coordinating all the actors, dancers and other roles the pageant needs to be a success.
“I’m kind of more comfortable with what I do because I’m not really an actor,” Mault said. “I kind of stay on the sidelines, which I like.”
Cedar Fernandez is interning to take the lead on set and prop designs. She said that she’s working to make this show seem like a zoom into individual scenes with the spotlight bringing all the attention to the action. Having more materials helps to make that a reality.
“We’re looking at expanding it more than we’ve done in previous years,” Fernandez said. “We’re still working through a lot of details yet, to be honest, though. As far as stage design, I’ve been around it, but I haven’t gone to this level of leadership on it.”
Winn, who teaches theater at CMN and has done extensive research on past pageants, is directing the show again this year. He said that this year’s show is based off stories recommended by the Menominee Historical Museum to be told during the summer months. From those, the pageant players were able to get four stories, along with an original song about the sturgeon.
“They have values that anyone, Native or non-Native, can benefit from hearing,” Winn said. “We tried to use those not only to perpetuate this wisdom but recognize, as we celebrate anniversaries and the passage of time, that wisdom remains.”
“Timeless Teachings” also marks another milestone as the Menominee celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Woodland Bowl, known mainly as its arena for most of the outdoor powwows but originally started as a space to perform the Menominee pageants whenever the Keshena Fair was held.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Dawn Wilbur performs a monologue during the 2025 Menominee Pageant production. (Contributed)
Grace “Bea” Corn, shown in a publicity photo for the original pageant productions, was the matriarch for the latest revival that started in 2016. She passed away in 2025. This year’s pageant, “Timeless Teachings,” will be dedicated to Corn and the work she put into pageants past and present. (Contributed)
