Last evening my sister and I went to the Meskwaki Casino for the “all you can eat’ steak buffet. Needless to say, we both ate ourselves into misery!!!
Just a wonderful display of food…too much food!
The Casino is on Meskwaki Indian land (referred to as the Meskwaki Settlement) in Tama, Iowa. The Meskwaki culture, historically found in the St Lawrence River Valley, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, is the mid-western “relative” of the Algonquians of the Eastern Woodlands.
After a 1701-1742 war against the French, they were called “Renards” (Fox) by the French and the French King decreed their complete extermination. Allied with the Sauk in 1735 to repel the encroachment of the Europeans both tribes were moved from Wisconsin to Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
Although the Sauk and Meskwaki were separate tribal entities, they shared a similar language and culture. Consequently, the US Government treated the “Sac & Fox” as a single group. In 1832 they united under Chief Black Hawk and after the Black Hawk War lost their lands and were moved to a Kansas Government Reservation. Many remained hidden in Iowa and in 1856 the state of Iowa enacted a law allowing them to stay.
On July 13, 1857, Proclamation day, the Meskwaki purchased the first 80 acre tract in Tama County. Ten years later the formal identity became the Sac & Fox of Iowa. Theirs was a unique status since they were the land owners of the settlement, they were not residing on government lands.
Today their tribal lands include 8,000 acres in two counties. The 1,300 members of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki is governed by a 7 member Tribal Council.
http://www.meskwaki.com/ Casino Website
http://www.meskwaki.org/ Tribal Website
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