Biography
John Perrote was a member of the Menominee Warrior Society and one of the leaders prosecuted after its 1975 takeover of the Alexian Brothers Novitiate. He was one of the five Warrior Society leaders charged with the most serious felonies. In the early hours of January 1, 1975, members of the Menominee Warrior Society — an armed group of younger Menominee men inspired by the American Indian Movement's actions at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee — seized the vacant Alexian Brothers Novitiate, a former Catholic monastery near Gresham, Wisconsin. Coming barely a year after the Menominee Restoration Act reversed the tribe's 1950s "termination," they demanded the unused estate be deeded to the impoverished tribe for use as a hospital or school, citing treaty and reversion rights. The 34-day standoff drew some 800–2,200 Wisconsin National Guard troops (deployed by Governor Patrick Lucey, who refused to order an assault) and the support of actor Marlon Brando, who called the occupiers "prisoners of war." About 39 Warriors surrendered on February 3, 1975 after the Alexian Brothers agreed to transfer the property for $1; the tribe never gained lasting possession of it.
By July 1976, Perrote had pleaded guilty in the Alexian Brothers Abbey prosecution and received a three-year prison sentence. The contemporary report does not establish when he physically entered prison or when he was released.
New American Movement, volume V number 9, May 1976, PDF page 10; New American Movement, volume V number 11, July–August 1976, PDF page 6.
