Like many states, Wisconsin has had a contentious history between its native population and the neighboring communities that surround many tribal reservations.
In the Menominee language, “mawa-che-se-kwit” means “come together. And for a nearly five-week period at the start of 1975, two parties long at odds would come together at W9711 Butternut Road just outside of Gresham, Wisconsin, in an often forgotten chapter of the state’s history.
The property known as the Alexian Brothers Novitiate was originally built in 1939 as a home for Jennie Peters, the wife of Frank Peters who was an executive of the National Biscuit Company (known today as Nabisco). It was later donated to the Alexian Brothers organization in 1948 for use as a religious property. Following the Second Vatican Council, the group moved operations down to Chicago during the late 1960s and early 1970s. By 1975, only caretaker Joseph Plonka and his family were left on the slowly deteriorating property.
During that same period, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin had gone through the tumultuous process known as the Menominee Termination. The process was an attempt by the federal government to end native tribes’ status as sovereign nations, which from the onset drew the ire of the Menominee. In 1954, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution No. 108, which stated that termination would be the federal government’s ongoing policy. After eight years of study and analysis by the Wisconsin Legislature-created Menominee Indian Study Committee, termination was enacted in 1961 with the creating of Menominee County.
By the mid 1960s, the process was proving detrimental to the tribe, with its cash assets reduced from $10 million dollars in 1954 to $300,000 by 1964. It would take another nine years before President Richard Nixon would sign a bill to restore their status as a federally recognized tribe in 1973. While the restoration process had begun, many within the tribe still felt betrayed by the government, including Menominee Warrior Society members Michael Sturdevant and John Waubanascum Jr. They believed bureaucracy was not enough, aiming to make a point through a land grab. And the lonely abbey outside of Gresham would soon catch their eye.
On the night of New Year’s Day, 1975, some four dozen members of the Menominee Warrior Society stormed the property and took Plonka and his family hostage before allowing them to leave.
The National Guard formed a perimeter, and local police quickly cut off power and water to those on the inside. Negotiations were slow through January, and tensions were high. Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey wanted a quick resolution to the conflict, and was willing to send thousands of guardsmen to the perimeter to achieve that. On the other side, the Menominee Warrior Society had a motto of “deed or death”, and were prepared to commit the ultimate sacrifice to achieve their mission.

“Would they have been willing to die if it turned violent? Yeah, I think they would’ve,” says Al Bergstein, an IT consultant in the Seattle area who in 1975 was a 22-year-old photojournalist for the French news agency Gamma Press International. Bergstein received an invite to cover the standoff from another photographer who had been at the Wounded Knee Occupation in 1973.
As the standoff wore on, Bergstein recalls anger mounting within the surrounding community as road blockades continued. That anger led to overnight passes on snowmobile that included rounds of gunshots.
“I was under fire on a couple of occasions,” says Bergstein. “Every night the locals would drive up through the woods. I would say they were within 100 yards, and they were firing what I would consider to be semi automatic weapons. There was a lot of bullets flying around. I was like crouched down, behind the window wall, and bullets were ricocheting all over the room. It was really remarkable that no one got hit and hurt because the [Menominee] were returning fire to those guys. So it was remarkable that neither side had any casualties.”
Despite the gunfire between the occupiers and locals, shots were never exchanged between the National Guard perimeter and those inside the novitiate. Bergstein credits that fact to the negotiation tactics employed by Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Simonson, a Pittsville, Wisconsin native and an an officer during World War II with the Americal infantry division in the South Pacific.
“From what I saw, the colonel did not want this to escalate to violence. He was doing his best to keep the lid on the thing, and I think he was doing a good job, frankly,” says Bergstein of Simonson, who would later be named adjutant general in 1977 by Governor Lucey.

As national media attention on the standoff grew, outside parties would arrive to the area offering varying levels of support to the occupiers. Members of the American Indian Movement, including their leaders Dennis Banks, would not enter the property but would organize rallies from the outside. Milwaukee civil rights activist Father James Groppi would also lead rallies in support of the occupiers. But perhaps the biggest show of support came from actor and Native American activist Marlon Brando, who arrived largely unannounced to the property and went inside the structure to spend a night with the occupiers.
“There was a old pony that had been part of the family living in the novitiate. And the [Menominee] slaughtered it at one point to try and cook it up for food. And they joked with Brando that if he didn’t watch his P’s and Q’s he was going to wake up with a horse head in his bed.” says Bergstein, who slept on the floor across from Brando during his stay inside the novitiate.


But as January turned to February, both sides began to see that the longer the standoff played out, the more likely lives would be lost. The surrounding community was growing angry with perceived weakness on the part of Simonson and Governor Lucey; the latter committed additional National Guardsmen to the perimeter. Inside the building, food was scarce and resources were running thin.
An agreement would finally be reached on February 2nd, 1975, with the Menominee Warriors granted the novitiate for “$1 and other considerations”. The following day, 39 of the occupiers would be arraigned on various charges, but only three including Sturdevant would ever see prison. Notably, Simonson would serve as a character witness during Sturdevant’s trial, crediting him with also keeping a level head during the most heated moments of the standoff. Sturdevant would serve the years of his eight year prison sentence, then go on to work as a tribal tax commissioner and as a reporter for the Menominee Tribal News before his death in 2005.

The novitiate property would eventually be relinquished by the tribe before the year’s end. It also suffered damage from a fire in late 1975, and much of the monastery buildings surrounding the mansion would be left in ruins before being demolished in 2005. In the 50 years since, the property has changed hands multiple times, and currently is owned by the group Renewing Management, which is currently undertaking the task of renovating the mansion.

Special thanks to Al Bergstein, documentarian Kevin McKiernan, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the College of Menominee Nation for assistance on this story.
Hear the full interview with photographer Al Bergstein below: