The Meskwaki Nation's Story of Survival, Land and Sovereignty in Iowa

(A herd of bison in a snowy, open landscape with rolling hills in the background.)

[Johnathan Buffalo, Historic Preservation Director, Meskwaki Museum] We understood ownership, at least temporary ownership of area, hunting ground. We never use that system of “ownership” until we purchased the land.

(Aerial view of a winding river through a snowy, forested landscape with partially frozen water and leafless trees.)

[Eric Zimmer, Author, Red Earth Nation] At that time it was 80 acres of land. 250 Meskwaki people shared that tract of land for the first several years before they started adding more and more property to the settlement’s land base.

(A historical photo of Indigenous people standing in front of a dome-shaped structure.)

The word Meskwaki, translates to People of the Red Earth, or Red Earth People. Red Earth Nation, Kind of hits the different themes of the book. So indigenous history, environmental history and political history is all kind of baked into the title.

(A paperback book titled "Red Earth Nation, A History of the Meskwaki Settlement" by Eric Steven Zimmer)

(On-screen text: "ORIGIN & BELONGING Land Identity")

[Johnathan] We believe we were created on this continent out of red earth. Part of our genetics is the earth. We are part of the earth, and the earth is part of us.

(A vintage black and white photograph of four Indigenous children, dressed in traditional attire with intricate patterns.)

And we consider our world a gift from our creator. This is our environment, and we have lived here for thousands and thousands of years. The dirt that we were made of is here.

(On a map of the northeast United States and Quebec, Canada, a red dot appears near Lake Saint-Jean, approximately 250 miles north of the Vermont border.)

It's from this continent, Lake Saint-Jean area. Then over time, we migrated down to Connecticut area and eventually to New York. Then in Ohio and Michigan. Wisconsin, then into Iowa. This is home for us.

(A timeline appears on screen, "Pre-1600 Origin & Identity," "1701 Fox Wars Resistance to French Expansion.")

(On-screen is a portrait of King Louis XIV of France wearing an elaborate outfit with a high lace collar and an ornate coat. It is captioned "King Louis XIV of France, 1643-1715.")

[Narrator] In the early 1700s the Meskwaki resisted French expansion in a series of brutal wars.

(On screen text: "1701—1716, The Fox Wars Part 1, French forces and allied Native nations laid siege to Meskwaki strongholds, resulting in devastating losses.")

[Johnathan] When the Europeans came, we could have been exterminated. 98% of the human population died in North and South America. And this picture, this one of them pictures where the eyes follow you.

(Johnathan points to a picture of King Louis XV of France, 1715-1774, in the Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum.)

Every time I walk by, I glance at that picture and I tell them, "We won. You're gone. You're extinct. But my people are still here."

(On-screen text: UPHEAVAL & SURVIVAL Population Changes)

[Eric] Archeological, anthropological, historical evidence suggests there were, you know, 4 to 5000 Meskwaki people, four or five hundred years ago. Meskwaki oral traditions say that number was much higher. What we do know is that it had collapsed by the 1730s. When you look over the last 400 years, there are only two periods in which the Meskwaki nations population stabilized and grew. And both of those periods were when they had a strong foothold and a presence in Iowa.

(A historical graph showing population changes from 1600 to 2000. The x-axis represents years from 1600 to 2000, and the y-axis represents population, ranging from 250 to 22,000. At the graph's start, the population peaked at 22,000 around 1600, labeled as the "Highest Oral Tradition Estimate." A sharp decline follows, dropping to 250 by the end of the 1700s, marked as "1733 End of the 'Fox Wars.'" The population slightly rises and falls until 1900, noting the "Renegade Period" in 1845-1856 and a spike to 250 in 1780-1845 for "Formal Residence in Iowa." A small dip around 1901-1902 is labeled as the "Smallpox Epidemic." From 1857 onward, a steady increase is noted with "Recovery on the Settlement. The graph credits "Red Earth Nation.")

[Narrator] In 1804, a treaty with the United States began the large scale loss of Meskwaki land. Millions of acres were ceded under pressure, setting in motion decades of dispossession.

(A portrait of William Henry Harrison, noted as a U.S. Territorial Governor and Treaty Negotiator, dressed in a formal uniform with gold embroidery.)

(On-screen text: "1804, The Treaty of St. Louis. Signed by five Sauk and Meskwaki representatives who lacked authority to cede tribal lands. Treaty of St. Louis 51 million acres")

[Eric] That 1804 treaty, you know, falsely and legally unified the Sauk and Meskwaki nations. The federal government, for the purposes of setting them up to be dispossessed, claimed that they were one single tribe.

[Narrator] In 1832, a conflict known as The Black Hawk War accelerated removal from the Midwest.

(Portrait of Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. He has a composed expression, wearing traditional attire with a fur-trimmed, light-colored garment and decorative necklaces.)

(On-screen text: 1832 — The Black Hawk War — Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, led a group back across the Mississippi River to their homeland in Illinois. U.S. militia forces responded with war and land cessions.)

(A historical map labeled "Black Hawk Purchase 1 & 2, 7.25 Million Acres," showing parts of eastern Iowa, with highlighted areas in green and yellow indicating land cessions.)

[Johnathan] Black Hawk went back and to harvest their corn, and then the militias got involved because they wanted to move west. They wanted to destroy the Sac & Fox, militarily. So they use Black Hawk’s (war) as an excuse to accomplish that.

(A painting titled "Black Hawk & Five Other Saukie Prisoners" by George Catlin. It depicts six Native American men standing in a row. They are dressed in traditional attire made of natural materials, with some wearing feather headdresses. The men have distinct facial features and expressions, and the four on the right have a similar red-painted hairstyle.)

[Narrator] By 1842, new treaties forced the Meskwaki west to Kansas.

(On-screen text: "1842 — Final Iowa Land Cessions — Sauk and Meskwaki leaders signed a treaty ceding their remaining Iowa lands and agreeing to relocate west of the Missouri River by 1845."

(Painted portraits of Chief Keokuk, labeled as a Sauk leader, and Chief Poweshiek, labeled as a Meskwaki leader.)

[Eric] The federal government had brought, you know, leaders from the Sauk and Meskwaki nations to the treaty table to negotiate what would become the last of the removal treaties that forced, both nations, legally out of Iowa. Members of both tribes, and certainly the leadership folk understood what was bearing down on them.

(An historical map illustrating the land cessions of the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes in Illinois and Iowa. The map is colored to show different land treaties and cessions from 1804 to 1842. The areas are marked with different colors for each treaty: peach for the 1804 Treaty by the US creating the united "Sac and Fox Tribe," purple for the 1824 Mixed-Race Reserve, gray for the 1830 Neutral Strip, orange for the 1832 Black Hawk Purchase, yellow for the 1836 Keokuk's Reserve, red for the 1837 Second Black Hawk Purchase, and dark gray for the 1842 Removal Treaty. The map shows key locations such as Des Moines, Dubuque's Mines, Iowa City, Prairie du Chien, and Saukenuk/Rock Island, with rivers marked, including the Des Moines, Rock, and Illinois Rivers.)

[Narrator] Removal separated families from homelands along the Iowa River and beyond.

[Johnathan] By ‘46, only one fifth of Meskwakis were actually in Kansas. We kind of like, never left. So if we never left. When did we return?

(On-screen text: "WESTWARD NO MORE Holding Ground")

[Johnathan] While the Chiefs were debating, how do we do this? How do we get back? A friend of ours there said, "you know what you guys need? You guys need a deed to your land." And they said, "deed? Explain." He said "the deed is a sacred right and nobody can take it away from you." And they said, "ohh, that sounds, that sounds like what we need."

(On-screen text: "1856 — Iowa Act Permitting Residence — Iowa law granted state consent for the Meskwaki residing in Tama County to remain in Iowa, contrary to federal removal policy.")

[Narrator] In 1856, the state of Iowa passed an act allowing the Meskwaki to remain contrary to federal policy of removal.

[Johnathan] There was a constant presence of Meskwaki in Iowa. Iowans started collecting petitions to allow the Meskwaki to remain. And eventually, by ‘56, Iowa passed an act. The act doesn't give us permission to come back. The act is actually permission to remain. Indians couldn't own land. And this is oral history. What the governor's told the tribe. If you find somebody that's willing to sell you land, I will put it in trust for you.

(Black and white portraits of James W. Grimes, Iowa Governor 1854 to 1858, and Josiah B. Grinnell, Iowa Senator 1856-1860.)

[Narrator] In 1857, the Meskwaki people did something extraordinary. Using their own funds, they purchased 80 acres along the Iowa River valley. Not as private settlers, but as a tribal community.

(A sepia-toned portrait of Chief Mamiwanige, a Meskwaki leader, dressed in traditional attire.)

(On-screen text: "1857 — 80 Acre Land Purchase The tribe pooled $1,000 of their own money to complete a private land purchase in Tama County — Deed, July 13, 1857")

[Johnathan] The group that came back to Iowa, the first tree, the big cottonwood tree that they saw. They said, ohh, you know this. We'll try this. Who owns this?

(A photograph shows Ma ta we qua, one of the five Tama land scouts sent by Meskwaki leadership. Ma ta we qua is seated in a wooden chair, wearing traditional regalia with a headdress, with the word "TAMA" written beneath. A second photograph depicts Isaac Butler, a farmer and landholder, seated and looking towards the camera. He has white hair and a beard and is dressed in a dark suit with visible buttons.)

So they found out that Isaac Butler was the owner. So they said a single Indian came on horseback and talked to them about buying land. After a couple of days of coming back, they made a deal. But that's how we became land owners. It's held in common. It's never been allotted land, so it's still tribally owned. It belongs to everybody.

(A historical black-and-white photograph captioned "Sac and Fox Delegates and Interpreter, Washington, D.C." featuring a group of six individuals, consisting of five men dressed in traditional Native American attire and one man in a suit. They are seated and standing in a formal arrangement in front of a plain backdrop. The individuals wearing traditional attire have various adornments such as necklaces, feathered headdresses, and intricately patterned accessories. The man in the suit is seated centrally among the group, flanked by the others.)

[Eric] I think the thing that makes it stand out is the success, right? I mean, the Meskwaki Nation cut against a pretty strong tide to purchase and reclaim what was 80 acres in the 1850s and then have expanded that to over 8,000 acres 160 plus years later. You know, I really can't say enough about how remarkable the story is.

(On-screen text: OWNERSHIP & SOVEREIGNTY Trustee Status)

[Narrator] The tribe's unusual position as landowners under trustee status created a legal ambiguity over jurisdiction. In 1896, the trust shifted from Iowa to the federal government, but legal questions persisted.

(A portrait of Chief Pushetonequa, a Meskwaki leader, wearing traditional attire with intricate beadwork and a headdress.)

(On-screen text: "1896 — Transition of Trust — By 1896, the Iowa Legislature formally transferred this trustee role and legal jurisdiction from Iowa to the federal government.")

In the decades that followed, Meskwaki leaders challenged state and federal actions on issues like eminent domain, compulsory boarding school attendance, and criminal jurisdiction. At times, courts recognized the tribe’s distinct ownership status and affirmed their authority. In 1981, the tribe regained control of its own school.

[Johnathan] And we finally feel we have educational sovereignty. You know, when you talk about tribal sovereignty, there's different parts — economic, food, education, information. And this museum could be considered cultural sovereignty. We tell our own history, so we'll always have sovereignty. The problem is how much can we exercise? We can't make a treaty with another foreign government. We can't raise an army. We can't make our own money and use it as currency. But otherwise, everything else is in debate. But now we have a tribal court where we judge ourselves. They think when we made the court, it's just going to be a kangaroo court. They're just going to let off people. But that hasn't happened. We have to prove ourselves more as Indian people.

(Aerial views of the Meskwaki Casino, Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum, a large school building, judicial building, and other community buildings.)

[Eric] When native communities have land, it's not only good for them, it's good for everyone else around them. When you look at the economic development strategies that the tribe has developed in Iowa on the settlement over the last 30 or 40 years, which only happened because of their success in retaining the settlement land base over 160 years. You see the development of an economic enterprise that has created opportunity and jobs and wealth for not only Meskwaki people, but all the non-native people who live around them.

[Johnathan] We're the only Indian tribe in the state living in Iowa. We may be ancient people, but we're also people of our time. We are Meskwakis. We are Iowans, and we're U.S. citizens. We have a high rate of military service. We helped build this country. Acknowledge our past. But then like know our present and our future and understanding about us, and be glad that we're here.