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POW WOW — These two photographs, taken by John Zielinski, Kalona, show part of the life of the Mesquakie Indian life near Tama, The Indian past will come to life Aug. 12 when the tribe holds their annual Pow Wow, open to the public. Part of the activities will be a photo exhibit by Zelinski on the Mesquakie Indians.iTama Pow Wow opens Aug. 12TAMA — A part of Iowa’s Indian past will come to life for four days, starting Aug. 12, when the 56th annual Mesquakie Indian Pow Wow gets underway at the Indian settlement three miles west of the town of Tama.Managed entirely by the Indians themselves, the Pow Wow features afternoon performances starting at1:30 p.m. and evening shows at 7:30p.m.In addition to the performances, an exhibit of the Mesquakie way of life, “Iowa’s Indian Heritage” will be shown in one of the wickups set up by the side of the Pow Wow grounds. Consisting of more than 75 black and white and color photographs, the exhibit is a duplicate of the one done for the Iowa Arts Council by photographer John M. Zielinski.A major part of the exhibit covers the annual Pow Wow — something that for the Mesquakie is far more than a simple reunion with tribal dancing. The Pow Wow is aboriginal and in practice goes far beyond the official 56 years, for to the Indians it is their homecoming, fiesta, convention, social highlight and reaffirmation of a separate, unique identity.In 1841, the tribe, deeply in debt to white traders, was forced to give up its land to the United States and be moved to Kansas. Fifteen years later, after much struggle, they sold their ponies and purchased 80 acres of timber land on the Iowa River in Tama County. By this time they had learned enough of the white man’s way to know if they were to keep the land they had to have the white man’s law: a deed.The sellers did not realize that the Indians were not American citizens who could not legally conclude a contract and who also, under the terms of the 1842 treaty, were forbidden to return to Iowa.Despite these “legalities,” the Mesquakies obtained ownersnip of the land (which now covers more than 3,200 acres) and the tribal members began returning in successive migrations, starting 1857, to the banks of the Iowa River where they resumed, as much as possible, their former way of life.For ten years after their first “homecoming,” the tribe existed as an autonomous, self-governing, non-American body in the center of the sovereign state of Iowa. It was only at the end of the Civil War that the U.S. Government recognized the Mesquakie by appointing a part-time Indian agent to pay the tribe funds owed it for various land successions.As one older Mesquakie has said, “Our ancestors came here so that their children would have a place of their own to live, a place to practice their own religion without interference from the outside.” In a sense, then and now, the land which they own is a fortress against the white man and it is to this “fortress” they return each year for the Pow Wow.Today, the settlement is a mixture of past and present, for the Indians frequently work at jobs within a 75 mile radius of the area, acquire a variety of modern items from automobiles to housing, but their language and many of their customsare still their own.
Newspaper Details
Ames Daily Tribune
Ames, Iowa, US
Tue, Aug 10, 1971
Page 9
Full Page
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IA, USA 06 Sep 2019
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