The+Sac+and+Fox

Original Author: Adam Ritter, A&S195 SP10 Revision Author:   When it comes to the history of our nation, there have been various native tribes that occupied the American soil in which we now reside. In the Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin region, the Native Americans were known as the Sac and Fox Indians. These two groups were so closely related that for a time they were thought to be one group. This paper will entail the history of the Sac and Fox, some of their conflicts with survival, what their traditions are, some of the critical years they went through, and what the Sac and Fox are like today. Finally, this paper will include information about the Ioway Indians, such as who they are and what the significance is of this native group.  The Sac and Fox were two distinct tribes that had very common experiences that brought them together. The Sac and Fox in the middle of the 18th century were living in the states that are now Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. When the two tribes first met, they started as friendly neighbors, which in turn finally united the people. The Sac leader was named Black Hawk; he was born in 1767 and described his homeland of Ohio in the following words:  In front [of the village], a prairie extended to the bank of the Mississippi River; and in our rear, a continued bluff, gently ascending from the prairie. On the side of the bluff we had our corn-fields, extending about two miles up, running parallel with the Mississippi. The land around our village, uncultivated, was covered with blue-grass, which made excellent pasture for our horses. Several fine springs broke out on the bluff, near by, from which we were supplied with good water. The rapids of the Rock River furnished us with an  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">abundance of excellent fish, and the land, being good, never failed to   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">produce good crops of corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Before the Sac and Fox occupied the lands that they did in the 18th century, they resided in areas such as eastern Michigan. The Sac lived near the upper peninsula of Michigan and called themselves // asakiwaka //or “people of the outlet.” (Bonvillain 13). The Fox settled in an area south of the Sac, in southern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. They called themselves // meshkwakihaki //or “red earths” The two tribes were on good terms with each other and traded goods frequently. Both tribes remained in these areas for a long time until they were eventually pushed out by the arrival of other Native Americans and European settlers. These tribes then relocated west and ended up in areas of Iowa and Kansas (Papanek 30). Majority of the Sac ended up residing in villages near Green Bay and the Fox found land near the Wolf River located in northeastern Wisconsin. Other tribes that lived around the area were the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Winnebago, Menomini, Miami, and Illinois. Most of the Indians residing in this area spoke a very similar language that belonged to the Algonquian family. Not only did the Sac and Fox share an almost identical language, they also shared many of the same cultural practices and beliefs, which enabled them to maintain good relations with each other (Bonvillain 17). Sac tribe leader Black Hawk describes the connection between the two tribes: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We must continue throughout our lives to do what we  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">conceive to be good. If we have corn and meat, and know <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">of a family that have none, we divide with them. If we  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">have more blankets than sufficient, and others have not <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">enough, we must give to them that want. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> As the two tribes grew closer together, they formed many more enemies. These groups were the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Lakota. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In the early 18th century, the French came up with a plan to get rid of the tribal bands that were still around the Green Bay area. These tribes were disrupting French trade with the Sioux. The French end up inviting these groups including the Fox to resettle near them. The Fox that resettled ended up having problems with other Indians who were already living in that area. Once the fight worsened, the French stepped in a crushed the Fox tribe. Black Hawk, the War Chief for the Sauk, tried fierce resistance against the French but was no match. The members that were able to escape ended up seeking refuge with the Sauk (Papanek 147). Now in the 19th century the Sac and Fox formed a common cultural and entity. They now live as a united tribe on three reservations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. “The histories of the Sac and Fox have thus brought the tribes together and have merged their present and their future” (Bonvillian 17). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Sac and Fox Indians had many different traditions. Both of these tribes built villages that were nicer than most other tribes were capable of constructing. English traveler Jonathan Carver described Saukenuk the Sac village as, “the largest and best built Indian town,” with “regular and spacious streets” (Bonvillian 19). As with many tribes, the Sac and Fox based their economy on farming, fishing, and hunting. The women of the tribe were responsible for the farming while the men were the ones who went out and hunted. Both the women and men of these tribes liked to wear a lot of jewelry. They also wore all sorts of makeup not only on their face but on their bodies as well. Marriage was very easy to accomplish in these tribes. Two families would get together and exchange gifts with one another. Once this was done, the couple was considered together. The Sac and Fox had systems of kinship based on social units called clans (Bonvillian 23). These clans had different names for themselves, each one being named after some sort of animal. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">When the Sac and Fox dealt with death, they showed respect and spread the word of the sad event by a special messenger. The men of the tribe would prepare the body for burial. These tribes buried their dead in the ground with their feet pointing to the West, because this is the direction they would travel on their journey to the afterworld. A Fox woman recalls the death of her husband and the rituals that follow: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I cried in vain, as I felt so badly about him. Soon it was terrible <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">for me. I undid my hair and loosened it. For several nights I   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">could not sleep as I was sorrowful. On the fourth day I called <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">the men, “You are to divide all these possessions of ours among <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">you,” I said to my male relatives. And then the female relatives <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">of my dead husband came to comb my hair. And they brought <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">other garments for me to wear. I wore black clothing. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">then my mother’s brother came and instructed <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">me. “If you are sorry for your husband while still bound by death <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">ceremonies, you would not go where something is going on,” he   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">said to me. “And do not talk much, and do not laugh. You must <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">be merely always quietly making something. Nor must you look <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">around too much.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">when they are taken to be buried, those surviving accompany them. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">after they have spoken to the dead, the relatives of the dead begin to   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">throw tobacco for them, then others afterward, then last of all <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">the husbands or wives offer tobacco to them. They walk around <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">in a circle where the dead is. Then they walk toward <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">the East. They are never to look backward. If they were <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">to look backward they would die soon (Bonvillain 30). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Ioway tribe is one of many interesting facts. The Ioway name came from French settlers. They heard Algonkian-speaking people in Wisconsin and Illinois use this name. The meaning of the name has to deal with bone marrow. The earliest numbered site of the Ioway was on the East side of the Mississippi River near the Rock River in Illinois (Blaine 4). A series of discoveries show that the Ioway resided in northeastern Iowa. The tribe lived in small communities on bluffs along rivers and used the rivers to grow their crops. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">For approximately fifty miles up the Iowa River, there is evidence of Oneota culture: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">According to M.M. Wedel (May 1974), “There are no   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">radiocarbon dates based on material excavated in the 1930’s <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> at seven Orr Phase sites on the Upper Iowa River under the <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> direction of Dr. Charles R. Keyes, then director of the <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> Iowa State Archeological Survey. At three of them, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">however, European trade objects were found in association <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> with Indian-made pottery vessels, chipped and ground stone <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> tools, and other native cultural remains (Wedel 66). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Ioway were known to be good farmers and hunters. They did an excellent job of utilizing rivers, streams, prairie, plains, and forests. The Ioway and surrounding neighbors were also very skilled craftsmen working with material such as clay, copper, bone, pigments, and hide. It is thought that this tribe was living in peace because they had the established river and different land trade routes to connect them with other people (Blaine 15). As with many of the Indian tribes in our history, the Ioway became stuck in the middle of fighting. The French and the English were battling and many of the Indian people became involved in this fight whether they wanted to or not. This is what caused the extinction of not only the Ioway but also many other tribes in that area. On January 26, 1887 the amended act (24 Stat.367) was passed. This provided an allotment of land for Ioway people that wanted to stay on the Reserve. By 1888 John Blair reported that, “Indians and the surrounding whites traded and visited with each other, much as the whites did among themselves, and they appeared to sustain very pleasant relations toward each other” (Blaine 291). Compared to other members of nearby tribes, the Ioways were considered at this time among the most progressive and successful in becoming “civilized.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Works Cited ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Blaine, R. Martha, // The Ioway Indians, // University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. 1979  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Bonvillain, Nancy. “Indians of North America,” // The Sac & Fox, // Chelsea House Publishers. 1995  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Papanek, L. John. // The American Indians. // Time Life Publishing. 1994   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Wedel, M. M. “Oneota Sites on the Upper Iowa River,” // Missouri Archaeologist, //Vol. 21 Nos. 2-4 (1959) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to Native Americans <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to Home
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Sac and Fox **