Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-04-17
INDIANS IN IOWA.
I Last Of sacs and Foxes Living in
Talna County.
TIE TRIBE IS ABOUT 400 STRONG

cloths, Live in Nyigwams and
Have Feasts of Dog Meat
Very Queer People.
Fort Dodge, April 7.-Tama county,
has a settlement of 400 Indians, the
most primitive and widest tribe of
red hnen in the United States. They
arefthe Muskwakis. For forty years
they have been 4 source of perpleNity
t9 the Indian bureau. Several years
3go a government agent visited the
Camp and was Mortified at the saw
agery of one of their dog feasrs." He
attempted to stop the dance at the
same time throwing in few remarks
about the beauty of free education.
'Musllwaki Indian no likem educa-
ton; it make Indian work like h-l,"H
explained one of the chiefs.
Recently the United States super
intendent of Indian schools, Miss Es-
telle Reel, made a visit to the tribe to
, try to persuade the MuskwalSs to
send their children to the reservation
school. The conference lasted four
days. Miss Reel drove out 10 the camp
and found it crowded with Indians and.
children. Some of the latter having
run away from school, she had gone
out to induce the old people to allow
their return. She induced Charlie
Greenshase" to allow the return of his
two daughters to the school, but
boys could not go back to school until
expected to catch two skunks that
mr. no J,f Isl
dinner to Jefferson, however, he
agreed to allow his boys to go to
school.
Under the influence of their leaders
and the government agents, the most
4 of the Muskwakis removed to Kansas
4 between 1912 and 1915, but scarcely
had they been settled in their new
homes when they became dissatisfied
and began to return and settle in
small villages along the Iowa river in
lama county and johnson county.
When the government became con-
WINGED of their determination to re-
main in Iowa, a reservation of about
1000 acres was assigned to them on a
site they selected. Here one genera
ton succeeds another. living as their
ancestors did in wigwams and wicil-i-,
( ups. The wicl-i-up is used for winter
quarters, is oval in form. from ten to-
twenty feet high i'll the center, and
covered with a mating woven by
squaws from rushes gathered along
the streams.
Live in n Primitive Fashion.
They still dress in primitive fashion.
The majority of the members of the
tribe cling tenaciously TO the mecca
sin, Logging, and breechcloth, and loose
flowing shirt and blanket and only a
few are using the clothing of the
white man. The Indians have adopt
ed to some eNtent the culinary utensils
Z of the whites, but there are only five
stoves among the tribe, and nearly all
the cooking is done over an open fire.
in the center of the wick-i-up, and the
smoke is almost intolerable. Nearly
g everything that they eat is cooked in.
n lard, and they are content if furnish
\ ed plenty of hot fried cakes, pork and
coffee. They seldom eat beef, and
show a marked preference for pork,
chicken, turkey, skunk and dog. They
relish skunk particularly, and dogs are
raised in large numbers for feasts on
special occasions. These Indians are
excellent judges of good -four and
nothing but the finest patent made of
northern wheat will meet their approv-
al.
For fifteen years there has not been
a single convert to the Christian faith
and no member of the tribe has ever
been given a Christian burial. Only
one civil marriage has occurred.
The MuskwalSis are the tattered
remnant of the once powerful Sac and
Fox Indians, the terror of early white
settlers in the region of the great
lakes and the Mississippi valley. In
1915 the United States made treaty
of peace and friendship with the Fox
nation. The original of this treaty is
now III the possession of the chief of
the tribe in lama county, and is pre-
served i'll a little buckskin sack. 1T is
priced very highly and guarded jeal-
4 pusly. The tribe attaches as much inn,
portance to this treaty as the Ameri-
can people do to the declaration of in
dependence. They boast with much
pride that they have never violated
any of it's provisions, and from its
date 10 the present time none of their
band has taken up arms against the
government.
4 Last of the War Chiefs.
With the passing Of Ma-tau-e-qua,
the last war chief OF the tribe, who
died in 1897, one of the strongest bar
riers to civilization was swept away
Ma-tau-e-qua fought to the last against
education and civilizing influences
among his people. His funeral was an
affair of state and conducted accord
ing to the rites made most sacred by
s ages. The burying ground where his
body rests is situated on the south
side of high bluff along the north
bank of the Iowa river, about an
eighth of mile cash of the ''Narrows"
where the Chicago & Northwestern
railway crosses between the bluff and
the dam.
CREEK INDIANS COMIGN.
+ Probable That Tribe From Indian Ter.
ritory Will Locate in Iowa.
Ames, April 9. There is probabili-4