Welcome to the Meskwaki Indian Settlement
Home of the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa
THE TRIBE TODAY
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A Federally recognized Indian tribe
Tribal name is Meskwaki or “Red Earth People”
Tribe is governed by an elected Tribal Council
Tribal Enrollment: 1,349
Owns approximately 7, 778 acres
A tribal court system
Tribal police system
Annual Pow Wow held in August
Employes over 1,300 people
Newsletter
TRIBAL PROGRAMS
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Tribal Administration
Tribal Health Clinic and Health Services
Healthy Start
Meskwaki Public Works
Facilities Management
Meskwaki Senior Services
Meskwaki Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center
Meskwaki Housing
Natural Resources
Higher Education Program
Meskwaki Family Services
Historical Preservation Dept./NAGPRA
Meskwaki Youth Program
Wellness Center
Diabetes Program
HISTORY
The Meskwaki are of the Algonquian origin from the Eastern Woodland Culture area. The language
spoken is the same dialect of the Sauk and Kickapoo. The tribe has been historically located in the St.
Lawrence River Valley, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. Meskwaki were called
“Renards” (The Fox) by the French – the tribe’s first European contact in 1666 – but have always
identified themselves as “Meskwaki”.
Meskwaki and Sauk are two distinct tribal groups. Linquistic and cultural similarities between the
two tribes have made them often associated throughout history. Terminology established by the United
States Government continues to treat the Sac & Fox as a single political unit despite their separate
identities.
Meskwaki fought against the French in what is called the Fox Wars (1701-1742). The Meskwaki
resistance of French rule was so effective that the French King signed a decree commanding the complete
extermination of the Meskwaki…the only edict of its kind in history of a Major European power officially
declaring war with all its resources and a full standing army on one particular American Indian tribe. The
Sauk and Meskwaki allied in 1735 to fend off Europeans and other Indian tribes. Both tribes moved
southward from Wisconsin into Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
After the Black Hawk War of 1832, the United States officially combined the two tribes into a
single group known as the Sac & Fox Confederacy for treaty-making purposes. Then a series of land
cessions under the name of “Sac & Fox”, the Sauk and Meskwaki lost all lands and ultimately were
removed to a reservation in east central Kansas in 1845.
But some Meskwaki remained hidden in Iowa with others coming back within a few years. In
1865 the State of Iowa enacted a law allowing the Meskwaki to stay. The U.S. government however tried
to force the tribe back to the Kansas reservation by withholding treaty-right annuities.
In 1857 the Meskwaki purchased the first 80 acres in Tama County. Ten years later the U.S.
finally began paying annuities to the Meskwaki in Iowa, an act which gave the Meskwaki a formal
identity as the Sac and Fox of Iowa. The jurisdictional status was unclear since the tribe then had formal
federal recognition with eligibility for BIA services but also had a continuing relationship with the State
of Iowa due to the tribe’s private ownership of land which was held in trust by the governor.
For the next 30 years the Meskwaki were virtually ignored by federal as well as state policies.
Subsequently, they lived a more independent lifestyle than other tribes confined to regular reservations
which were strictly regimented by federal authority. To resolve this jurisdictional ambiguity, in1896 the
State of Iowa ceded to the Federal Government all jurisdiction over the Meskwaki.
Owing to the noble sacrifices and vision of ancestors, the Meskwaki still remain…and even
thrive. Neither “New France” nor its French monarchy exist anymore.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bataille, Gretchen; David M. GTradwohl; and Charles L.P. Silet. The Worlds Between Two Rivers:
Perspectives On American Indians in Iowa, Iowa State University Press, Ames. 1978
Bonvillian, Nancy. The Sac and Fox Indians of North America, Chelsea House Publishers, New York
Philadelphia. 1995
Callender, Charles. “Fox”, Handbook of North American Indians, Northeast Edition Vol. 15. Smithsonian
Inst. Press, Washington D.C. 1978
Eby, Cecil. That Disgraceful Affair, The Black Hawk War: Norton Co., NY. 1973
Edmunds, R. David and Joseph L. Peyser The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France,
Norman: University of Oklahoma. 1993
Foley, Douglas E. Heartland Chronicles University of Pennsylvania Press. 1995
Hagan, William. The Sac and Fox Indians, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 1958
Jofee, Natalie. “The Fox of Iowa: in Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes, New York: D.
Appleton-Century. 1940
Oswalt, Wendall H.; Sharlotte Neely “The Mesquakie: Warriors and Farmers of the Woodland Fringe” in
This Land Was Theirs: A Study of the North American Indian, Mayfield Publishing Co., 1996
Torrence, Gaylord and Robert Hobbs, Art of the Red Earth People, The Mesquakie of Iowa, Univ. of
Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City. 1989
Zielinski, John M. Mesquakie and Proud of It, Kalona, Iowa. Photo-Art Gallery. 1976
Information compiled by the Historical Preservation Department – Fall 2006