Editorials: Ioway history

Monday was Indigenous People’s Day, and Columbus Day. Federal holidays remind us of our history. On Oct. 11, 1845, the Meskawki people were formally dispossessed of their home as European settlers dashed across the Des Moines River to stake their claims on its west bank and beyond.

The date was noted last weekend by historian Kevin Mason of Waldorf College in Forest City, who maintains a tremendously useful historical blog “Notes on Iowa” (notesoniowa.com). Mason detailed the events leading up to it:

“An Algonquin-language people located throughout the upper Midwest during the pre-American era, the Meskwaki fought the French for nearly forty years to start the 1700s. Allying with the Sauk to fend off extermination at the hands of the French, the Meskwaki eventually moved out of the Great Lakes region to settle in today’s Iowa and Illinois. The Sauk and Meskwaki also fought against American incursion, choosing to ally predominantly with the British during the War of 1812. In the aftermath, treaties in 1825 and 1830 at Prairie du Chien started the removal of the Sauk and Meskwaki from east of the Mississippi River. Although some leaders, like Wapello, advocated for accommodating American-driven changes, others, including Black Hawk, fought back. After the Black Hawk War of 1832, treaties during the 1830s and early 1840s ultimately sought to dispossess the tribe and push them into Kansas.”

The Ioway people, who called the land between the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers “our place,” were driven to Kansas and Oklahoma reservations to make way for the Sauk (Sac) and Meskwawki. Ultimately, the Meskwawki purchased land in what is now Tama County.

“In 1856, the Iowa General Assembly passed a measure allowing the formal return of the Meskwaki to the State of Iowa, opening the door to the initial land purchase on July 13, 1857. A settlement owned by the sovereign Meskwaki people (not a reservation owned by the federal government), the Meskwaki return to Iowa marks an important moment in the state’s early history,” Mason wrote.

Our much-abbreviated summary of history goes by way of saying that we are immigrants here in Buena Vista County. It could be said that the Ioway were the native people. The rest of us are squatters thanks to treaties signed with a gun to the head of the Native people.

Donald Trump is the son of a Scottish immigrant. His wife is an immigrant. Kamala Harris is the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India. It’s hard to say they deserve to be here anymore than a Mexican in Storm Lake,  or a German. If we were as fair as we think we are, we would repatriate the land to the Ioway. They did a better job of managing it. Or, we would at least lay off people who continually over the millennia are dispossessed by the wealthy and powerful. One day it’s the Ioway, the next the Meskwawki, the next the indigenous Latino or the Black heir to slaves. We should remember history when we debate immigration and presidential politics.

Building community

What a hoot on the front page of last weekend’s Wall Street Journal. The headline on the front page read: “A Farm Town Seeks Salvation at a Local Bar.” The story detailed about how, on a 3-2 vote of the city council, Pomeroy is coming together around Byron Stuart and his Sunday music shows. The city sold its Community Hall to Stuart after moving to condemn his old bar on a crumbling block due west. The beat goes on.

“Byron’s is the heart of the town right now, so we want to keep him here,” said Mayor Cindy Loots.

“For these towns to survive, it really hinges on people coming together and figuring out solutions,” said David Peters, who studies rural communities at Iowa State University.

A week before, the Cobblestone Ballroom celebrated its grand opening with a night of The Senders rocking out a large crowd hoping to recapture magic lost somewhere along the way in the 1980s. It was sweet by all accounts.

In the case of Storm Lake, investors had the money and the vision to save the Cobb. In Pomeroy, donors came out of the woodwork to support Byron and rural Iowa. In either case, they are tremendously important cultural institutions that help build communities. You should have heard John Clifton and his blues band in Pomeroy on Sunday. Let the good times roll.