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fThe Mesquakie Indians of IowaTribe That Refuses to DieKv JEFF NELSONas ours, but in a foreign tongue soned, the treaty was signed byCopley News Service (English), what else is he to f i v e minor and thereforeTAMA, Iowa — There's an call it? unauthorized leaders who wereother life out here, one unique in allCharlie Push, as he's known lat{,r stripped of their rank.— —— - » — * w -m*V —- » — ^ m ’W r * m wof America. Nowhere will locally, says he's a Mesquakie The groups went back to 11-\ou find a group of 483 basical- tnrtum He speaks Mesquakie as linois and rallied around an oldgroup ot pasicai- Indian ly simple people living the kind his of life these people Iivlt;native language andThey are red men. Indians.his war-horse and Sac chief Black children went to school speak- Hawk. It was 1832 when theing Mesquakie, learning their short-lived Black Hawk warThere is disagreement be-first words of English in the j broke out. tween themselves and with the Sac and Fox Day School oper- q*he Mesquakie and Sac todayU S government over so simple a*e^ Bureau of Indian still lay claim to the land, nowa thing as the name of the Affairs “upon the hill.’*tribe.* AThere anficai iactions within the tribitworth many, many millions of The Sac (or Sauk) and Fox of d o 11 a r s , because of the it least three politi- the Mississippi in Iowa is what “unauthorized” treaty. But thethe BIA calls the tribe. It's a Mesquakie are especially There are two languages spo- convenience, the BIA would jealous of their tribal name andken. one native the other im- say, to call them the Sac and no longer wish to be associatedwhite F°x* because the BIA has dealt with the Sac, at least legally.the two tribes as one unit Because, Charlie Push around 1800. At that time claims, “there isn’t one Fox two tribes were allies of chief’s , living on opposing banks (rcaf the Hock Hiver atof Hock Island.man. man's 1 survivalButi Q ii chopelesslycalled ecoithevS-wp,’:need thewhitewithjuagefor ecotlomicsincithes t i 0n : Cantheirsort:noorconditionis beoflomicsurvival?)prescticefour relieumsItNo one ownspropernonesignature on that v. The BIA. of course, of-the ficially refuses to recognize the ite of Rock Island. split of the two tribes.simpler to deal with T^ay the tribe controls some not the two tribes as a unit for the jijqq acres of land which itentwaheir own homes vet thev Treaty of 1804, in which the Sacpropertycom mueven all ownnallvThey arc, as a unit, under educated, undertramed, prob- State:andofandox ceded 15 million acresowns itselfand in Wisconsin,Missouri to theIllinoiswith monevhavingearnedbought it from theUnitedsale of poniesi and pays taxesonTireMesquakies contestingonlt; the validity of the 1804 Treatyably undernourished and, like it Mesquakie and Fox are or not. discriminated against. and the same.The people seem sad, seem ______burdened, appear to move for the tribe; the French named p;c»Ure \ radical fringe of thehas tempted AIM, the AmericanMesquakie is the .ndtan name jn(jan Movement, to enter thethrough the motions of life them “Reynards' ormethodically and yet, when thev were living in** I *■' V - * m m mw masked, say they are happy. Bay area because the fox was smajj Being poor . . . “is the easiest the Mesquakie totem.kox while Mesquakies is pleased tothe (ireen take an interest iitribe. Butsee m so t he eon-way toCharlieget to heaven, says After 1804 the two tribestftJChtPush-E-Ton-E Qua with moved to the wide-open spaces smile. Knowing that of Iowa. Rut there were Sac ;a n d Fox groups that stillmakes him happy Charlie Push-E-Ton-E Qua beCburned the land in Illinoisservative faction of the tribe s and many of the liberal faction arc leery of AIM. “I agree withits objectives hut can t go alongwith the tactics,” say most.icu ha111i Supreme Being Per- which had not yet been sold tohis heaven is not the same white settlers because, they rea-0* H9*mmMmVAs complicated as the political issues have become sincethe turn of the century, theyplan second fiddle to a moreimportant consideration; raising themselves from the subpoverty level in which most members of the tribe find themselves.An example: Lewis Mitchell. He’s tribal chairman, pastor of the Native American Church, has the accompanying divinityand the luxury of adegree wickiup behind his house. He receives no salaryforJust taste Windsor-and you may never go back to your usual whisky. Windsor is the only Canadian made with hardyWestern Canadian grain, withwater from glacier-fed springs and aged in the clear dry air of the Canadian Rockies.being the leader of his ♦ribe, nor does he for being minister of his church. The only income he receives is from being employed through the Emergency Employment Act as the sole clerk in the BIA office.Lewis Mitchell could have made it on the outside. He is extremely literate in the English language. He is also extremely dedicated to his people.A few weeks ago there was a “disturbance,” as he. Tama’s mayor and a deputy sheriff all described it. Lewis Mitchell hasbeen puzzled about the incident?/VWever since.Apparently, a group of Indians were at a tavern aroundclosing time when five whitesappeared in the doorway armed with baseball bats and the like. The bar closed, the Indians had no choice but to go outside and two of them wound up in the hospital. A grand jury returned indictments on the five whites, all but one of whom were over 25 years of age. No explanation has been offered yet for the “disturbance,” says Mitchell.He leaned back in a corner of a sofa in a house much the same as the one Charlie Push only recently moved out of. His eyes closed lightly and almost trembled as his breathing began to grow deeper. (Charlie Push also did this while sitting upright in a straight-backed chair, and the attitude can only meanthe person is in deepthoughtful concentration. 1and
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Thu, Oct 11, 1973
Page 134
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IA, USA 19 Jul 2019
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