The attack of about 30-40 men with shotguns and deer rifles (Tronnes), was led by Michael Sturdevant, a news reporter and tax commissioner for the Menominee Indian Tribe. On January 1st, 1975, members of the Menominee Warrior Society invaded and attacked the Alexian Brothers Novitiate, a mansion donated to the Alexian Brothers in 1950. The Menominee Warrior Society wasn’t willing to wait for that.
Mrs. Jeanie Peters, a wealthy widow, purchased the land that the Novitiate is on in 1940. Tension…

The group called itself the Menominee Warrior Society. Brando sat in on final negotiations between the Menominee Warrior Society and the Alexian Brothers, as did the Rev. On January 1, 1975 a group of Menominee men moved in and took over the Alexian Brothers Novitiate near Gresham, Wisconsin. They demanded that the Novitiate and property be turned over to the Menominee Reservation, claiming that federal law allowed them to retake the land once it was no longer used for religious purposes. The Menominee Warrior Society demanded a faster approach to ending tribal problems than the plan put forth by the MRC, and the Warriors made their demands public in January and February 1975 when they occupied the abandoned Alexian Brothers novitiate building in Gresham, Wisconsin.

The Menominee Warrior Society. The independent group was inspired by similar takeovers done by the American Indian Movement (AIM) at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee. A once-grand entrance to the mansion on the grounds of the former Alexian Brothers Novitiate stands amid years of neglect on the 181-acre property for sale for $2 million. His name was Quill Chevalier. James Groppi, a well-known civil rights leader from Milwaukee. One of the indicted warriors jumped bail and was living deep in the remote areas of the reservation.
His brother, Buddy, was one of the Warrior Society spokespersons. Posted on February 27, 2014 February 27, 2014 by Fred Klonsky – Bill Drew is a friend, long-time radical and activist.

On January 1, 1975, an armed group of Menominee Indians, called the Menominee Warrior Society, seized the property and took the caretaker and his family hostage. Responding to my post on Wounded Knee, he sends along a chapter from his memoir, Fortunate Son. Ultimately several members of the Menominee Warrior Society were convicted on charges of armed burglary. The Menominee Warrior Society claimed they had treaty rights to the property and wanted the Alexian Brothers to turn over the 64-room monastery to the Menominee for use as a hospital or school facility.