Dawn Suzanne Wanatee
Meskwaki Traditions, Tama
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Dawn
Suzanne Wanatee is from the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama, Iowa. She is deeply
committed to conserving the natural environment and values the conservation
traditional knowledge and skills. Suzanne is a great observer of the little
things, the things of value that some people miss.
Meskwaki, literally “the Red Earth People,” are of Algonquin
origin from the Eastern Woodland Culture area. Referred to by the French
as "Les Renards" (the Foxes) as far back as 1666, tribal members
have always identified themselves as “Meskwaki.” In 1735, they
allied with the Sauk to fend off Europeans and other Indian tribes, and
both tribe
s
moved southward from Wisconsin into Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. The US
Government moved the Sauk and Meskwaki to a reservation in northeast Kansas
in 1845, but some Meskwaki remained in Iowa. In 1857 the tribe purchased
the first 80 acres in Tama County, and ten years later the U.S. Government
finally began paying them annuities, which gave the Meskwaki a formal identity
as the Sac and Fox of Iowa.
Contact: Dawn Suzanne Wanatee, 1536 305th St., Tama IA 52339