The Meskwaki in Iowa: A story of persistence by Guest Writer, Jeff Morrison
A mannequin in traditional Meskwaki dress stands across from displays of photos and elements of Meskwaki history, including a depiction of a wickiup (center), Sunday, June 28, 2026, at the Meskwaki Cultural Center in Tama County, Iowa. Photo by author.
TAMA — The Meskwaki were targeted by the French, despised by a number of Northeast Woodlands tribes, and chased by the Americans, but one truth remained: They lived to pass on their traditions.
Three speakers on June 28 at the Meskwaki Settlement west of Tama shared the history of a tribe that came to Iowa a few decades before the Revolutionary War and has maintained a continuous presence since. This twice-delayed event was the last in the Iowa Department of Transportation’s America 250 Scenic Byway Road Trips series, connected here with the Iowa Valley Scenic Byway. Meskwaki Media has a video of the event on YouTube.
Throughout the presentations, and in displays at the Meskwaki Cultural Center & Museum next door, names familiar to Iowans appear: Black Hawk, Keokuk, Poweshiek, Grimes, and Grinnell.
Meskwaki tradition holds that the “People of the Red Earth” began in what is now Quebec. Over the centuries, the Sac and Fox tribes — at times together, sometimes separately — migrated into New England, New York, southern Ohio, the Detroit area, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and northern Wisconsin. In 1735 they crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa.
Almost a century later, land east of the Mississippi had been surrendered by treaty, something Chief Black Hawk refused to accept. In the Black Hawk War of 1832, the United States defeated Black Hawk and acquired the first chunk of Iowa. In southeast Iowa, Keokuk’s Reserve was awarded to the chief who advocated making peace with the Americans, but it didn’t last long. The Second Black Hawk Purchase of 1837 was a chevron-shaped strip of land that now contains Independence, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and Fairfield.
Kathy Gourley, a recently retired archaeologist, was the first speaker. “There are an incredible amount of resources that document the tribes in the 1830s and ’40s. There are travelers and explorers and accounts. There were artists who came and made paintings,” she said.
She explained the circumstances around many of the treaties. “The resource base is collapsing. Hunting and trapping and fishing are not very sustainable or very lucrative anymore. And so the tribe’s part was to sign a treaty, get an annuity, get some food stocks, get some facilities. The U.S. government will pay off the debts to the traders. If you don’t sign the treaty, then the family is likely to starve because there was not enough food.” In 1840, the annuity wasn’t paid out due to an argument about distribution. In 1842, settlers were so angry at not being able to move west that they shot at the government agent.
The Cession of 1842, which covered a significant part of central Iowa, dictated that the Meskwaki were supposed to leave the territory within three years. Although some relocated to a small reservation on the Kansas/Nebraska line, many stuck around, including people too ill to travel and some who evaded authorities. It’s this presence that provides the link between the past and the present.
“The Meskwaki, I think, are the most resilient people and had this incredibly traumatizing time in the 1830s and ’40s. And today, it feels like the tribe is thriving,” Gourley concluded.
Brennan Dolan (second from left), with the Iowa Department of Transportation, presents appreciation certificates to Johnathan Buffalo (left), Cindy Nagel (second from right) with Tallgrass Archaeology, and Kathy Gourley at the end of the “Iowa and the Meswaki Nation” event Sunday, June 28, 2026, at the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa. Photo by author.
Cindy Nagel, managing partner at Tallgrass Archaeology LLC, was next. She participated in an archaeological study of a village of Chief Poweshiek and Chief Wacochachi (a name with many spellings) near South Amana. The two chiefs joined up in 1839 and had a village of 500 to 1,000 residents.
Nagel was new to geophysical surveying, so the study was “kind of chaotic,” but they got some square pits and trenches dug in places likely to turn up artifacts. What they discovered were post molds that would have anchored wickiup housing. Wickiups had timbers arcing into a rectangular frame that was covered with thatch. Euro-American trade goods were also found at the site. Nagel explained that traders followed tribes, not the other way around.
The final speaker was Johnathan Buffalo, whose research “focuses on all things Meskwaki,” Iowa DOT cultural resources manager Brennan Dolan said. Buffalo has spent 30 years as the tribe’s historic preservation director.
Buffalo described the centuries of migration. In Michigan, the Meskwaki encountered both the French and tribes that were hostile to their presence. King Louis XV made it known to other tribes that he wanted the Meskwaki exterminated. The king told them, “I want their corn burned, their dogs killed, and their houses burned,” Buffalo said. Now migration was a matter of survival. The Meskwaki dispersed in different directions and later reunited west of the Mississippi.
Meskwaki historic preservation director Johnathan Buffalo gives a presentation about the history of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa on Sunday, June 28, 2026, at the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa. Photo by author.
“We have found peace, safety in this land. But why would you think Iowa? Because if you look at this land” — Buffalo gestured to the Great Lakes area on a map — “that’s a bioregion. What comes to Iowa ends up over there. So this is our bio region where we have lived for thousands of years. Within this land we found shelter, food, medicine, everything we needed. But now we are living at the edge of our bio region. We are still home because this is home to us.”
Other tribes relocated to Kansas were some of the same that had fought the Meskwaki. “We looked around, and we saw our own enemies sitting there, the same people that tried to kill us all. And we stopped, and we told those Indians, ‘We hate you. We hate you. We especially hate you. We’re going back to Iowa, and we’re going to live with white people.’”
In 1856, Gov. James Grimes supported legislation allowing the tribe’s presence in Iowa. The following year, farmer Isaac Butler sold the tribe 80 acres along the Iowa River. Then-state Sen. J.B. Grinnell was instrumental in making that happen.
Today, the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (its official name) has nearly 9,000 acres held in trust. The land is not a reservation, making it unique in the country. The relationship with the federal government, at times ambiguous and contentious, has evolved into a nation-to-nation status.
In some ways, Buffalo said, the Meskwaki people are typical Iowans and typical Americans, “but we are still Meskwaki.”
July 13 is celebrated as Proclamation Day, the anniversary of the day in 1857 that cemented the tribe’s presence in Iowa. Its meaning is a personal one for each member, Buffalo said. On that day of celebration and community, “It’s a good day to be a Meskwaki.”
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
Thank you to Jeff Morrison for this contribution and the entire Iowa DOT staff involved with putting on this America 250 Iowa Byways Roadtrip, speakers, and the Meskwaki Nation for sharing their story with us.
See you on the byways!
