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The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European
exonyms An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
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, the Meskwaki call themselves ', which means "the Red-Earths", related to their creation story. Historically their homelands were in the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
region. The tribe coalesced in the St. Lawrence River Valley in present-day
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. Under French colonial pressures, it migrated to the southern side of the Great Lakes to territory that much later was organized by European Americans as the states of
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
,
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
, and
Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, 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: Wiscon ...
. 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/Fox south and west into the tall grass 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 reservations, and one has a settlement.


Etymology

The name is derived from the Meskwaki creation myth, in which their
culture hero A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are impo ...
, ''Wisaka'', created the first humans out of red clay. They called themselves ' 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 A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...
name to the entire tribe who spoke the same language, calling them "les Renards." Later the English and Anglo-Americans adopted the French name, using its translation in English as "Fox." This name was also used officially by the United States government from the 19th century.


Ethnobotany

Historically the Meskwaki used '' Triodanis perfoliata'' as an
emetic Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...
in tribal ceremonies to make one "sick all day long," smoking it at purification and other spiritual rituals. They smudge '' Symphyotrichum novae-angliae'' and use it to revive unconscious people. They used ''
Agastache scrophulariifolia '' Agastache scrophulariifolia'', also known as the purple giant hyssop, is a perennial plant that grows throughout the US and Northern Ontario, CN. Its name comes from the similarity of its leaves to plants of the genus ''Scrophularia''. It is ...
'', an
infusion Infusion is the process of extracting chemical compounds or flavors from plant material in a solvent such as water, oil or alcohol, by allowing the material to remain suspended in the solvent over time (a process often called steeping). An in ...
of the root used as a
diuretic A diuretic () is any substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine. This includes forced diuresis. A diuretic tablet is sometimes colloquially called a water tablet. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics i ...
, also using a compound of the plant heads medicinally. They eat the fruits of '' Viburnum prunifolium'' raw and cook them into a jam. They make the flowers of '' Solidago rigida'' into a lotion and use them on bee stings and for swollen faces.


History

Meskwaki are of Algonquian origin from the prehistoric
Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeo ...
culture area. The Meskwaki language is a dialect of the Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo language spoken by the Sauk, Meskwaki, and Kickapoo, within the Algonquian languages family.
Algonquians The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...
are a broad group which includes many tribes on the Atlantic Coast and around the Great Lakes. The Meskwaki and Sauk peoples 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.


Great Lakes region

Historically the Meskwaki lived along the
Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
in present-day Ontario, northeast of Lake Ontario. The tribe may have numbered as many as 10,000, but years of war with the
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...
, whom French colonial agents supplied with arms, and exposure to new European
infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
s reduced their numbers. In response to these pressures, the Meskwaki migrated west, first to present-day eastern Michigan in the area between
Saginaw Bay Saginaw Bay is a bay within Lake Huron located on the eastern side of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms the space between Michigan's Thumb region and the rest of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Saginaw Bay is in area. It is located in part ...
and
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
west of
Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Straits of Mack ...
. Later they moved further west into what is now Wisconsin. The Meskwaki gained control of the Fox River system in eastern and central Wisconsin. This river became vital for the colonial
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...
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 ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...
through the interior of North America between northern
French Canada French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...
, via the Mississippi River, and the French ports on the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
. As part of the Fox–Wisconsin Waterway, the Fox River allowed travel from
Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
and the other Great Lakes via Green Bay to the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
system. 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.


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 King of France signed a decree commanding the complete extermination of the Meskwaki, the only edict of its kind in French history. The
First Fox War The Fox Wars were two conflicts between the French and the Fox ( Meskwaki or Red Earth People; Renards; Outagamis) Indians that lived in the Great Lakes region (particularly near the Fort of Detroit) from 1712 to 1733.In their book ''The 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 The Fox Wars were two conflicts between the France, French and the Fox (Meskwaki or Red Earth People; Renards; Outagamis) Indians that lived in the Great Lakes region (particularly near the Fort of Detroit) from 1712 to 1733.In their book ''The Fo ...
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 and
Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
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, 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.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


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 Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
-
Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, 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: Wiscon ...
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. The
Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawa ...
peoples called the Meskwaki ', 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 Outagamie County is a county in the northeast region of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 190,705. Its county seat is Appleton. Outagamie County is included in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical ...
.


Kansas and Oklahoma

The Meskwaki and Sac were forced to leave their territory by land-hungry American settlers. President
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
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. Some Meskwaki were involved with Sac warriors in the
Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...
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 Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...
in 1845 via the Dragoon Trace. The
Dakota Sioux The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...
called the Meskwaki who moved west of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
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, the U.S. government forced the Sauk to a reservation in
Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
present-day Oklahoma.


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. 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 in Tama County; Tama was named for '' Taimah'', a Meskwaki
chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the bo ...
of the early 19th century. Many Meskwaki later moved to the Meskwaki Settlement near Tama. The U.S. government tried to force the tribe back 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 The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
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. 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.


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. In
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Meskwaki men enlisted in the U.S. Army. Several served as
code talker A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...
s, 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 North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
. 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
casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...
, tribal schools, tribal courts, tribal police and a public works department.


Contemporary tribes

Today the three federally recognized Sac and Fox tribes are: * Sac and Fox Nation, headquartered in Stroud, Oklahoma; * Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa, headquartered in Tama, Iowa; and *
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska The Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska is one of three federally recognized Native American tribes of Sac and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples. Their name for themselves is Nemahahaki ( sac, Nîmahâhaki) and they are an Algonquian ...
, headquartered in Reserve, Kansas.


Notable Meskwaki

* Appanoose, chief *Ke-shes-wa, a Fox chief * Ray Young Bear, writer and poet * Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, captured by French *
Duane Slick Duane Slick (born 1961) is a Meskwaki artist and educator of Ho-Chunk descent. He is known for his monochromatic paintings. He has taught fine arts at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) since 1995. Biography Duane Slick was born 1961 in Wate ...
, artist * Ska-ba-quay Tesson, artist * Wapello, also featured in McKenney and Hall * Attakullakulla, adopted into the Cherokee Tribe *Mary Young Bear, inducted into the Iowa Women's hall of Fame; 2021


See also

* Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma * Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska * Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands * Kickapoo * Mascouten * Native American tribes in Nebraska * USS ''Appanoose'' (AK-226), a U.S. Navy ship named for Appanoose, a Meskwaki chief * USS ''Wapello'' (YN-56), a U.S. Navy ship named for Wapello, a Meskwaki chief *
Mid-Continent Airlines Mid-Continent Airlines was an airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school at ...


References


Further reading

* * Buffalo, Jonathan 1993 Introduction to Mesquaki History, Parts I-III. ''The Legend'':p. 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. 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


The 1730 Mesquakie Fort

Official Site of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki Nation – the Meskwaki

Official Site of the Sac and Fox Nation (of Oklahoma) – the Thakiwaki or Sa ki wa ki

Official Site of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska – the Ne ma ha ha ki

"Estimating the Location of the Red Rock Treaty Line in Iowa"
(Historical summary and effort to locate original position)

(Mentions presence of Sauk Fox Tribes in Pike County Illinois) {{authority control Algonquian ethnonyms Algonquian peoples Black Hawk War Great Lakes tribes Native American tribes in Iowa Native American tribes in Kansas Native American tribes in Missouri Native American tribes in Nebraska Native American tribes in Oklahoma Native American tribes in Wisconsin Native American tribes in Illinois Native American tribes in Michigan C