30 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



refer to them as the Sauk and Fox, while the Indians call themselves 

 Meskwaki. Dr. Bried says that the Sac and Fox came to Wisconsin 

 from the east in 1803, the Sauk settling near the Wisconsin River near 

 Sauk City and the Fox down the Fox river valley and across into 

 northern Illinois. In 1850 they were sent by the government to a 

 reservation in Kansas, but did not like it there and came back to 

 Tama where the}^ purchased their own land, along the Iowa river 

 bottoms, shown in figure 14. From 1856 to 1896, the government did 

 nothing for these Indians and they were in rather a sorry plight. 

 Iowa had no other Indians and consequently no Indian policy. The 

 governor of the state acted as trustee, so they might acquire property, 

 but tiring of this task, he persuaded Congress to enact a bill transfer- 

 ring the band to the Indian department. The Indian department 

 bought more land and consolidated the reservation as a tract of 3,300 

 acres. Today the three hundred and forty-two Meskwaki live on this 

 reservation and are on the increase. Up to ten years ago, it was an un- 

 known thing for a Meskwaki to work, but under the influence and 

 advice of the Indian Department, they started to farm and have be- 

 come fairly well-to-do. Many own automobiles and other modern 

 conveniences. They earn most by raising sweet corn for the Toledo 

 cannery, and by working in that cannery during the packing season. 



Large acreages of sweet corn are planted in rotation so that a fairly 

 long season of maturity is obtained. They trade labor in harvesting, 

 and a forty acre field may be gathered and hauled to the cannery by 

 several teams in two or three days. 



Although they appear to be highly civilized to the casual visitor, 

 there are many who speak no English and who cling to the old ways 

 and customs. It is the common opinion of ethnologists, that the Mes- 

 kwaki are the most primitive of all Wisconsin Indians. The writer 

 was told before his trip that they were quite primitive and all lived in 

 bark houses. This is partly true and partly false. None of them live 

 in bark houses, and all of them do. That is, all have the regulation 

 frame house and barns, and use them part of the time. It is a con- 

 stant struggle between a desire for the old way, and a wish to emulate 

 the white man. At several houses we saw expensive kerosene cook 

 stoves that had never been used, except as an example of progress 

 when shown to the whites. Practically all of them have near the 

 home a large wigwam built of poles, sided with elm bark and cattail 

 mats and thatched with mats and canvas tarpaulins as shown in figure 

 15. Inside these circular or oval wigwams are benches for sleeping, 

 and an earthen floor. In the center, forked sticks furnish a means of 



