The Meskwaki Settlement: Land Bought Back

Near Tama, Iowa, along the Iowa River, lies the Meskwaki Settlement, one of the most unusual pieces of land in the United States. It is not a reservation. The federal government did not assign this land to the Meskwaki. They bought it themselves.

The Meskwaki, also known as the Fox, had been removed from Iowa in eighteen forty-five under federal pressure. They were relocated to a reservation in Kansas alongside the Sauk. But the Meskwaki had always been distinct from the Sauk, and many refused to assimilate into the combined community. By the early eighteen fifties, small groups of Meskwaki had begun walking back to Iowa, returning to the Iowa River valley despite having no legal right to do so.

Iowa settlers initially tried to remove them again. But the Meskwaki persisted, and a few sympathetic Iowans, including Governor James Grimes, began to argue that the state should allow them to stay if they could support themselves legally. In eighteen fifty-six, the Iowa legislature passed a law permitting the Meskwaki to purchase land and remain as Iowa residents, not as a tribe subject to federal jurisdiction, but as property-holding individuals.

With money they had earned and received as annuity payments, the Meskwaki bought eighty acres on the Iowa River in eighteen fifty-seven. Then they bought more. By the early twentieth century the settlement had grown to more than three thousand acres. Today it totals roughly eight thousand acres, all of it purchased by the tribe, none of it allotted or granted by the United States government.

This makes the Meskwaki Settlement legally distinct from virtually every other tribal land in the country. The Meskwaki hold title as a corporate entity under Iowa state law. They also have a federal trust relationship, with the lands placed in federal trust in eighteen ninety-six, which gives them access to federal Indian programs. They operate a casino that funds tribal services and continues to expand the land base.

It is a story of a people who refused removal, walked home, and bought their way back.