Johnathan Buffalo
Meskwaki winter traditions, Meskwaki Settlement
Johnathan Buffalo, Meskwaki winter traditions, Meskwaki Settlement
Johnathan Buffalo, who has a B.A. in History from the University of Iowa plus graduate hours towards a M.A., has spent 30 years researching tribal history and recovering Meskwaki artifacts. Buffalo maintains institutional memory, undertakes intellectual endeavors, and fulfills the duties of NAGPRA. He is co-author of Meskwaki History, an interactive CD-ROM.
Winter is traditionally the time for wickiups, the winter houses Meskwaki people lived in at their winter camps in eastern Iowa where they hunted and trapped, carved wooden utensils, and did other tasks suitable for winter’s slower pace. Made of a series of bowed tree limbs and covered with thick canvas, wickiups are warn and snug retreats for traditional storytelling sessions.
Today’s Meskwaki also build lighter summer wickiups as temporary housing during their annual August powwow. Considerably lighter in weight and more ventilated than the traditional (winter) lodge, these dwellings replace the homes where people once lived in the summer villages.
The Meskwaki, literally “the Red Earth People,” are of the Algonquin origin from the Eastern Woodland Culture area. The French referred to the tribe as “Les Renards” (The Fox) as far back as 1666, but they have always identified themselves as “Meskwaki.” In 1735, they allied with the Sauk allied to fend off Europeans and other Indian tribes, and both tribes 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: Johnathan Buffalo, Meskwaki Historical Preservation Department, 349 Meskwaki Road, Tama, Iowa 52339 director.historic@meskwaki-nsn.gov 641-484-3185