The Oneida Nation of Wisconsin (Modern Era)
The Oneida Population Today
There are currently 16,567 members of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, but the population statistics get murky from there. At one point there were a total of 12,101 Oneida in Wisconsin but only 4,473 living on tribal lands. These numbers are difficult to confirm as the Oneida have had problems with the census in the past. In 2020 only 7,325 members of the Oneida identified through the census. 11,813 Oneida are between the ages of 18 and 64 1,312 are 65 or older, and only 3,442 are under the age of 18. This age rage is not dissimilar to the population of the United States as a whole.
Economy
The Oneida reservation actively employs about 3,085 people, 58% being non-native and 42% native. These statistic make the Oneida nation the 5th largest employer in the Brown County of Wisconsin. The Oneida reservation is home to many businesses such as the Oneida Casino, the Thornberry Creek golf course, multiple grocery stores, livestock and agriculture businesses, and more.
Politics and Land
The Oneida Nation is run by the General Tribal Council. There is made up of the elected chair, vice chair, treasurer, five additional council members , and the entire population of enrolled Oneida who are of voting age. Tribal Council meeting must consist of the Chair and at lest 75 members. There are two meetings a year, one in January and one in July. At these meetings the present members vote on issues using a majority vote system. If it is called for, a two-thirds vote can overturn a previous issue.
Passed the allotment era, the Oneida nation has been buying back land withing the boundaries of the reservation. In the map shown, the red and orange areas are plots of land owned by the Oneida nation, full ownership in red and land in trust shown in orange. The total land purchases has expanded Oneida land ownership up to just under 42,000 acres of reservation lands, that's 63% of the 65,400 acres that make up the Oneida Reservation today.
Culture
The Oneida reservation has two traditional tribal schools. Oneida Nation Elementary School, for kindergarten through 8th grade, and Oneida Nation High School roughly 400 students are actively enrolled in the district, teaching the Oneida language as well as traditional medicine and culture. The Oneida language in particular is being widely supported and taught to the members of the community, encouraging Oneida to use it when they can to keep the culture alive. With some grants from the Administration for Native Americans, there have been regular session for the members to learn Oneida, done in association with the Cultural Heritage Center which also pushes for the revival of the Oneida language. Other efforts to preserves Oneida culture have been made by the Oneida Museum, created to educated the younger population and the general masses about the history of the Oneida nation.