The Meskwaki Settlement is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either ha ...
in
Tama County,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to ...
, United States, west of
Tama. It encompasses the reservation lands of the
Meskwaki Nation (federally recognized as the
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa
The Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa is one of three federally recognized Native American tribes of Sac and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples in the United States. The Fox call themselves ''Meskwaki'' and because they are the dominant people i ...
), one of three Sac and Fox tribes in the United States. The others are located in Oklahoma and Kansas. The settlement is located in the historic territory of the
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...
(Fox), an
Algonquian people. Meskwaki people established the settlement in 1857 by privately repurchasing a small part of the land they had lost in the
Sac and Fox treaty of 1842.
Government
The Nation operates a tribal school, tribal courts, public works department, and police force. As of 2009, there were about 1,300 members of this Meskwaki Tribe, of whom about 800 live on the settlement; non-tribal members, including spouses, also live on the settlement.
The
Meskwaki Casino Resort is located on the settlement and generates revenue for the welfare of the tribe. The tribe holds a large pow-wow at the settlement each year.
Legislation in 2018 restored the Meskwaki Nation's legal jurisdiction over tribal members within the settlement boundaries. The state of Iowa continues to exercise jurisdiction over pre-2018 legal cases and non-tribal citizens on tribal land.
History
The Meskwaki traded with French colonists of the Illinois Country but were forced west by competition in the 18th-century
fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mo ...
and later United States development pressures. In the early decades of the 19th century, the Meskwaki and Sac were being forced to cede land in Iowa and nearby areas to the United States and to move west of the
Missouri River, culminating in the
Sac and Fox treaty of 1842. Some Meskwaki people resisted
Indian removal
Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a des ...
, but they were initially unable to buy property because they were not considered citizens under Iowa law. In 1856, the Iowa state legislature passed a law permitting the Meskwaki to reside in Tama County, and Meskwaki people began to purchase land in 1857 with the state governor acting as a legal trustee.
Over the following 150 years, the Meskwaki gradually expanded the settlement by purchasing nearby lands. The lands entered into federal trust in 1896.
As the settlement was never formally incorporated as a city it has no official name, and was commonly called "Indian Town" or “Indian Village” into the 20th century. The anthropologist Duren Ward suggested the settlement be named "Meskwakia,"
but this name never caught on. The total lands owned by the tribe is called "Meskwakenuk" by the Meskwaki tribal government. In the 21st century, there are two other federally recognized Sac and Fox tribes, who have independent reservations and governments in present-day states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Geography
The Meskwaki Nation owns more than in parts of
Indian Village Township,
Toledo Township,
Tama Township, and
Columbia Township.
The settlement did not begin as an
Indian reservation
An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which i ...
in the traditional sense, because it was privately purchased by Meskwaki people rather than being reserved by treaty or federal legislation. However, a portion of the area gained federal reservation status after 1896.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
, of the Meskwaki Settlement had legal reservation status in 2020, and an additional were
off-reservation trust land
In the United States, off-reservation trust land refers to real estate outside an Indian reservation that is held by the Interior Department for the benefit of a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe. Typical uses of off-reservation trust ...
. The combined reservation and off-reservation trust land had a total area of , all of it land.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2020,
the population of Meskwaki Settlement (including both reservation and off-reservation trust land) was 1,142. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberP ...
was . There were 345 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the settlement was 85.9%
Native American, 2.9%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 0.3%
Asian, 0.2%
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...
or
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
, 0.3% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 10.5% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 8.8%
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties form ...
or
Latino of any race.
Education
The community is within the
South Tama County Community School District.
There is also the Sac and Fox Tribe-operated
Meskwaki Settlement School (MSS), a
PK-12 school. It was formed in 1938 as a merger of two Native American day schools. Typically settlement students attend the tribal school or South Tama County High School.
Notable Meskwaki
*
Ray Young Bear, writer
Elias Ellefson, "What it Means to be a Meskwaki": Ray Young Bear interview
''Des Moines Register
''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa.
History Early period
The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...
,'' 4 September 1994
References
{{authority control
Sac and Fox
Unincorporated communities in Tama County, Iowa
Unincorporated communities in Iowa
Algonquian peoples
1857 establishments in Iowa
Populated places established in 1857