View source for Meskwaki

{{short description|Indigenous people of North America}}
{{Redirect|Outagamie|the Wisconsin county|Outagamie County, Wisconsin}}
{{for|the language|Fox language}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2016}}
[[File:Kee-shes-wa.jpg|thumb|"Kee-shes-wa, A Fox Chief", from ''[[History of the Indian Tribes of North America]],'' (1836–1844, three volumes)]]
[[File:Wapella.jpg|thumb|Chief [[Wapello (chief)|Wapello]]; "Wa-pel-la the Prince, Musquakee Chief", from ''[[History of the Indian Tribes of North America]]'']]
The '''Meskwaki''' (sometimes spelled '''Mesquaki'''), also known by the European [[Endonym and exonym|exonyms]] '''Fox Indians''' or the '''Fox''', are a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] people.  They have been closely linked to the [[Sauk people|Sauk]] people of the same language family. In the [[Meskwaki language]], the Meskwaki call themselves ''{{lang|sac|Meshkwahkihaki}}'', which means "the Red-Earths", related to their creation story. 

The Meskwaki suffered damaging wars with the French and their Native American allies in the early 18th century, with one in 1730 decimating the tribe. Euro-American colonization and settlement proceeded in the United States during the 19th century and forced the Meskwaki south and west into the [[tallgrass prairie]] in the American Midwest. In 1851 the Iowa state legislature passed an unusual act to allow the Fox to buy land and stay in the state. Other Sac and Fox were removed to Indian territory in what became Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. In the 21st century, two federally recognized tribes of "Sac and Fox" have [[Indian reservations|reservations]], and one has a [[Meskwaki Settlement, Iowa|settlement]].

==Etymology==
The name is derived from the Meskwaki creation myth, in which their [[culture hero]], ''Wisaka'', created the first humans out of red clay.<ref>Jones, William. "Episodes in the Culture-Hero Myth of the Sauks and Foxes", ''The Journal of American Folklore,'' Vol. XIV, Oct–Dec. 1901. P. 239.</ref> They called themselves ''{{lang|sac|Meshkwahkihaki}}'' in Meskwaki, meaning "the Red-Earths".

The name ''Fox'' later was derived from a French mistake during the colonial era: hearing a group of Indians identify as "Fox", the French applied what was a [[clan]] name to the entire tribe who spoke the same language by calling them "les Renards". Later the English and Anglo-Americans adopted the French name by using its translation in English as "Fox."  This name was also used officially by the United States government from the 19th century.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

==Ethnobotany==
Historically the Meskwaki used ''[[Triodanis perfoliata]]'' as an [[emetic]] in tribal ceremonies to make one "sick all day long,"<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928) "Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians", ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4:175–326 (p. 206)</ref> smoking it at purification and other spiritual rituals.<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928), "Ethnobotany of Meskwaki Indians", ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4:175–326 (p. 272)</ref> They [[wikt:smudge|smudge]] ''[[Symphyotrichum novae-angliae]]'' and use it to revive unconscious people.<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928). Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians. ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4:175–326 (p. 212)</ref> They used ''[[Agastache scrophulariifolia]]'', an [[infusion]] of the root used as a [[diuretic]], also using a compound of the plant heads medicinally.<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928) "Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians", ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'', 4:175–326 (p. 225)</ref> They eat the fruits of ''[[Viburnum prunifolium]]'' raw and cook them into a jam.<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928), Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians, ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4:175–326, page 256</ref>  They make the flowers of ''[[Solidago rigida]]'' into a lotion and use them  on bee stings and for swollen faces.<ref>Smith, Huron H. (1928), Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians, ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4:175–326, page 217218 (Note: This source comes from the Native American ethnobotany database (http://naeb.brit.org/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716190816/http://naeb.brit.org/ |date=2019-07-16 }}) which lists the plant as ''Oligoneuron rigidum'' var. ''rigidum''. Accessed 19 January 2018</ref>

==History==
[[File:Grande Paix de Montréal 16 Signature des OUTAGAMIS ou RENARDS.svg|thumb|Meskwaki signature of a [[fox]] on the [[Great Peace of Montreal]].]]
Meskwaki are of [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] origin from the prehistoric [[Woodland period]] culture area. The Meskwaki language is a dialect of the [[Fox language|Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo]] language spoken by the Sauk, Meskwaki, and [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo language |url=http://multitree.org/codes/iaam |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811153750/http://multitree.org/codes/iaam |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |publisher=MultiTree:A Digital Library of Language Relationships}}</ref> It belongs to the [[Algic languages|Algic language family]], and thus descended from [[Proto-Algic]].

The Meskwaki and [[Sauk people]]s are two distinct tribal groups.  Linguistic and cultural connections between the two tribes have made them often associated in history.  Under US government recognition treaties, officials treat the Sac (anglicized ''Sauk'' term) and Meskwaki as a single political unit, despite their distinct identities.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

===Great Lakes region===
The Meskwaki gained control of the [[Fox River (Green Bay tributary)|Fox River]] system in eastern and central Wisconsin. This river became vital for the colonial [[New France]] [[fur trade]] through the interior of North America between northern [[French Canada]], via the Mississippi River, and the French ports on the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. As part of the [[Fox–Wisconsin Waterway]], the Fox River allowed travel from [[Lake Michigan]] and the other Great Lakes via [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]] to the [[Mississippi River]] system.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

At first European contact in 1698, the French estimated the number of Meskwaki as about 6,500. By 1712, the number of Meskwaki had declined to 3,500.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

====Fox Wars====
The Meskwaki fought against the French, in what are called the Fox Wars, for more than three decades (1701–1742) to preserve their homelands. The Meskwaki resistance to French encroachment was highly effective. 

The [[First Fox War]] with the French lasted from 1712 to 1714. This first Fox War was purely economic in nature, as the French wanted rights to use the river system to gain access to the Mississippi. After the [[Second Fox War]] of 1728, the Meskwaki were reduced to some 1500 people. They found shelter with the Sac, but French competition carried to that tribe. In the Second Fox War, the French increased their pressure on the tribe to gain access to the [[Fox River (Green Bay tributary)|Fox]] and [[Wolf River (Fox River)|Wolf]] rivers. Nine hundred Fox (about 300 warriors and the remainder mostly women and children) tried to break out in Illinois to reach the English and Iroquois to the east,<ref name="ekberg"/> but they were greatly outnumbered by a combined force of French and hundreds of allied Native Americans. On September 9, 1730, most of the Fox warriors were killed; many women and children were taken captive into Indian slavery or killed by the French allies.<ref name="ekberg">Carl J. Ekberg and Sharon K. Person, ''St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive,'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015, pp. 25–26</ref>

===Midwest region===
The Sauk and Meskwaki allied in 1735 in defense against the French and their allied Indian tribes. Descendants spread through southern Wisconsin, and along the present-day [[Illinois]]-[[Iowa]] border. In 1829 the US government estimated there were 1,500 Meskwaki along with 5,500 Sac (or Sauk). Both tribes relocated southward from Wisconsin into Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. There are accounts of Meskwaki as far south as [[Pike County, Illinois]].{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

The [[Anishinaabe]] peoples called the Meskwaki ''{{lang|oj|Odagaamii}}'', meaning "people on the other shore", referring to their territories south of the Great Lakes. The French had adopted use of this name, and transliterated its spelling into their pronunciation system as ''Outagamie''. This name was later used by Americans for today's [[Outagamie County, Wisconsin]].{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

====Kansas and Oklahoma====
The Meskwaki and Sac were forced to leave their territory by land-hungry American settlers. President [[Andrew Jackson]] signed the [[Indian Removal Act]] of 1830 passed by Congress, authorizing US removal of eastern American Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River. The act was directed mainly at the [[Five Civilized Tribes]] in the American Southeast, but it was also used against tribes in what was then called the Northwest as well, the area east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

Some Meskwaki were involved with Sac warriors in the [[Black Hawk War]] over homelands in Illinois. 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. The United States persuaded the Sauk and Meskwaki to sell all their claims to land in Iowa in a treaty of October 1842. They moved to land west of a temporary line (Red Rock Line) in 1843.  They were removed to a reservation in east central [[Kansas]] in 1845 via the [[Dragoon Trace]]. The [[Dakota Sioux]] called the Meskwaki who moved west of the [[Mississippi River]] the "lost people" because they had been forced to leave their homelands. Some Meskwaki remained hidden in Iowa, with others returning within a few years. Soon after{{when|date=March 2016}}, the U.S. government forced the Sauk to a reservation in [[Indian Territory]] present-day Oklahoma.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

====Iowa====
[[File:MesquakieIndians1857.jpg|right|thumb|250px|1857 photograph of the "Mesquakie Indians responsible for the establishment of the [[Meskwaki Settlement]]" in [[Tama County, Iowa]].]]
In 1851 the Iowa legislature passed an unprecedented act to allow the Meskwaki to buy land even though they had occupied it by right before and stay in the state.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} American Indians had not generally been permitted to do so, as the U.S. Government had said that tribal Indians were legally not US citizens. Only citizens could buy land.

In 1857, the Meskwaki purchased the first {{convert|80|acre|m2}} in [[Tama County, Iowa|Tama County]];<ref name="Meskwaki.org"/> Tama was named for ''[[Taimah]]'', a Meskwaki [[Tribal chief|chief]] of the early 19th century. Many Meskwaki later moved to the [[Meskwaki Settlement]] near [[Tama, Iowa|Tama]].

The U.S. government tried to force the tribe back{{when|date=March 2016}} to the Kansas reservation by withholding treaty-right annuities.  Ten years later, in 1867, the U.S. finally began paying annuities to the Meskwaki in Iowa.  They recognized the Meskwaki as the "[[Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa]]". The jurisdictional status was unclear.  The tribe had formal federal recognition with eligibility for [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] services.  It 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.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

For the next 30 years, the Meskwaki were virtually ignored by federal as well as state policies, which generally benefited them. Subsequently, they lived more independently than tribes confined to [[Indian reservations]] regulated by federal authority. To resolve this jurisdictional ambiguity, in 1896 the State of Iowa ceded to the Federal government all jurisdiction over the Meskwaki.<ref>''Sac & Fox Tribe of Mississippi in Iowa V. Licklider,'' 576 F.2d 145 (1978); Duren J. H. Ward, Meskwakia and the Meskwaki people. ''The Iowa Journal of History and Politics'' 4, No. 2: 179–219. April, 1906.</ref>

===20th century===
By 1910, the Sac and Meskwaki together totaled only about 1,000 people. During the 20th century, they began to recover their cultures. By the year 2000, their numbers had increased to nearly 4,000.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

In [[World War II]], Meskwaki men enlisted in the U.S. Army. Several served as [[code talker]]s,<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Last Meskwaki code talker remembers
| work = USA Today
| access-date = 2012-07-19
| date = 2002-07-04
| url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/07/06/codetalkers.htm
|agency=Associated Press
| archive-date = 2008-05-05
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080505201050/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/07/06/codetalkers.htm
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> along with Navajo and some other speakers of uncommon languages. Meskwaki men used their language to keep Allied communications secret in actions against the Germans in [[North Africa]]. Twenty-seven Meskwaki men, then 16% of the Meskwaki population in Iowa, enlisted together in the U.S. Army in January 1941.

The modern Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County maintains a [[tribal casino|casino]], tribal schools, tribal courts, tribal police and a public works department.<ref name="Meskwaki.org">{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.meskwaki.org/history/ |website=Meskwaki.org |access-date=2023-07-12 |archive-date=2023-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925125341/https://www.meskwaki.org/history/ |url-status=live }} retrieved July 12 2023</ref>

==Contemporary tribes==
Today the three [[federally recognized tribes|federally recognized]] Sac and Fox tribes are:
* [[Sac and Fox Nation]], headquartered in [[Stroud, Oklahoma]];
* [[Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa]], headquartered in Tama, Iowa; and
* [[Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska]], headquartered in [[Reserve, Kansas]].<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=https://www.ncai.org/index.php?id=125&selectpro_letter=S |title=Tribal Governments by Tribe: S. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412235855/https://www.ncai.org/index.php?id=125&selectpro_letter=S |archive-date=2010-04-12 |website=National Congress of the American Indian |access-date=11 April 2010}}</ref>

==Notable Meskwaki==
*[[Appanoose]], chief
*[[Jean Adeline Morgan Wanatee]], activist for Native American and women's rights; textile artist
*Ke-shes-wa, a Fox chief<ref>Portrait and biography in Thomas McKenney and James Hall, ''[[History of the Indian Tribes of North America]],'' (1836–1844)</ref>
*[[Lelah Pekachuk]], woman abducted and forcibly brought to the Toledo Indian School in [[Toledo, Iowa]]
*[[Ray Young Bear]], writer and poet<ref>[http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/youngbear/DesMoines.html Elias Ellefson, "What it Means to be a Meskwaki": Ray Young Bear interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209192443/http://hanksville.org/storytellers/youngbear/DesMoines.html |date=2017-02-09 }}, ''Des Moines Register,'' 4 September 1994</ref>
*[[Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc]], captured by French
*[[Duane Slick]], artist<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_9w4eXZNg4C|title=American Indians and Popular Culture: Media, Sports, and Politics|publisher=ABC-Clio|year=2012|isbn=9780313379901|series=Volume 1 of American Indians and Popular Culture|location=Santa Barbara, California|pages=201–202}}</ref>
*[[Ska-ba-quay Tesson]], artist
*[[Wapello (chief)|Wapello]], also featured in McKenney and Hall
*Mary Young Bear, inducted into the Iowa Women's hall of Fame; 2021
*[[Playing Fox]], chief

==See also==
<!-- add in alphabetic order --> 
*[[Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma]]
* [[Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands]]
* [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]]
* [[Mascouten]]
* [[Native American tribes in Nebraska]]
* [[USS Appanoose (AK-226)|USS ''Appanoose'' (AK-226)]], a U.S. Navy ship named for [[Appanoose]], a Meskwaki chief
* [[USS Wapello (YN-56)|USS ''Wapello'' (YN-56)]], a U.S. Navy ship named for [[Wapello (chief)|Wapello]], a Meskwaki chief
* [[Mid-Continent Airlines]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite thesis|degree=MS|last=Brown|first=Richard Frank|title=A Social History of the Mesquakie Indians, 1800–1963|publisher=Iowa State University|year=1964|url=http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/10/|access-date=February 14, 2013}}
* Buffalo, Jonathan 1993 Introduction to Mesquaki History, Parts I-III. ''The Legend'':p.&nbsp;11, 4.6, 6–7.
* Daubenmier, Judith M. 2008 ''The Meskwaki and Anthropologists''. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
* Edmunds, R. David, and Joseph L. Peyser 1993  ''The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma.no
* Green, Michael D. 1977  ''Mesquakie Separatism in the Mid 19th Century''. Center for the History of the American Indian, The Newberry Library Chicago, Chicago.
* Green, Michael D. 1983 "We Dance in Opposite Directions": Mesquakie (Fox) Separatism from the Sac and Fox Tribe. ''Ethnohistory'' 30(3):129–140.
* Gussow, Zachary 1974  ''Sac, Fox, and Iowa Indians'' I. American Indian Ethnohistory: North Central and Northeastern Indians American Indian Ethnohistory: North Central and Northeastern Indians. Garland Publishing, New York.
* Leinicke, Will 1981 The Sauk and Fox Indians in Illinois. ''Historic Illinois'' 3(5):1–6.
* Michelson, Truman 1927, 1930  ''Contributions to Fox Ethnology''. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletins 85, 95. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
* Peattie, Lisa Redfield 1950  ''Being a Mesquakie Indian''. University of Chicago, Chicago.
* Rebok, Horace M. 1900  ''The Last of the Mus-Qua-Kies and the Indian Congress 1898''. W.R. Funk, Dayton, Ohio.
* Smith, Huron H. 1925 The Red Earth Indians. In ''Yearbook of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'', 1923, Vol. 3, edited by S. A. Barrett, pp.&nbsp;27–38. Board of Trustees, The Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
* Smith, Huron H.  1928 Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians. ''Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee'' 4(2):175–326.
* Stout, David B., Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin, and Emily J. Blasingham 1974  ''Sac, Fox, and Iowa Indians II: Indians of E. Missouri, W. Illinois, and S. Wisconsin From the Proto-Historic Period to 1804''. American Indian Ethnohistory. Garland Publishing, New York.
* Stucki, Larry R. 1967 Anthropologists and Indians: A New Look at the Fox Project. ''Plains Anthropologist'' 12:300–317.
* Torrence, Gaylord, and Robert Hobbs 1989  ''Art of the Red Earth People: The Mesquakie of Iowa. ''University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City.
* VanStone, James W. 1998  ''Mesquakie (Fox) Material Culture: The William Jones and Frederick Starr Collections''. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.
* Ward, Duren J. H. 1906 Meskwakia. ''Iowa Journal of History and Politics'' 4:178–219.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Meskwaki}}
* [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03377122  The 1730 Mesquakie Fort]
* [http://www.meskwaki.org/ Official Site of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki Nation – the Meskwaki]
* [http://www.sacandfoxnation-nsn.gov/ Official Site of the Sac and Fox Nation (of Oklahoma) – the Thakiwaki or Sa ki wa ki]
* [http://www.sacandfoxks.com/ Official Site of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska – the Ne ma ha ha ki]
* [http://www.hartpierce.net/RRockLineEst.doc "Estimating the Location of the Red Rock Treaty Line in Iowa"] (Historical summary and effort to locate original position)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140317042219/http://www.greatriverroad.com/quincy/pikecoil.htm "Visitors Guide to Pike County Illinois"] (Mentions presence of Sauk Fox Tribes in Pike County Illinois)

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[[Category:Sac and Fox| ]]
[[Category:Algonquian ethnonyms]]
[[Category:Algonquian peoples]]
[[Category:Black Hawk War]]
[[Category:Great Lakes tribes]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Iowa]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Kansas]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Missouri]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Nebraska]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Illinois]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Michigan]]
[[Category:Meskwaki| ]]