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In addition to the archaeological site contents, Me Skwa Ki (Meskwaki) – The Red nation. The designation is found in many his-
part of what makes the Iowaville location so Earth People toric records and on maps from the 17th and
significant is its relationship to known, named 18th centuries and became a common, if inac-
inhabitants. Treaty records and other documents The Meskwaki, or “Red Earth People”, were curate, label for all Meskwaki. It was codified by
provide clues about individual Ioway who lived referred to by the French as “Renards” or Fox. the U.S. Government in their treaties where the
at Iowaville including MaxúThká (also known This error apparently came about after a single Meskwaki and their close allies, the Sauk, were
as Mahaska or White Cloud I) and one of his group, which identified themselves as Fox clan, treated as a single entity identified as the “Sac
wives, Rut^ánweMi (Pigeon Getting Down or was mistakenly thought to represent the entire and Fox Nation.”
Female Flying Pigeon), and their son, MaxúThká
II (White Cloud II or Frank White Cloud); other Meskwaki wickiup with Na-Na-Wa-Che ca. 1862, Tama, Iowa. Duren H. Ward Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City.
likely site inhabitants include Wích^e Máñi (the Published with permission.
Orator) and Nahjé Nínge (No Heart) (Peterson
and Artz 2006:29). The University of Iowa Off ice of the State Archaeologist

After the Ioway moved west, a Sauk band lived
about a mile from the old Ioway village. After his
release from captivity following the Black Hawk
War, Black Hawk is also reported to have had
a summer residence nearby (Peterson and Artz
2006:32, 41).

In the 1830s Euro-American settlers established
a town that they called Iowaville near the loca-
tion of the historic Indian village. This town and
nearby inhabitants included James Jordan, who
maintained a trading post for the Sauk at the
site, and the brothers Joel, William, and Peter
Avery. William and Peter Avery were former
American Fur Company traders, and William
was the town’s first postmaster and Justice of
the Peace. The town’s population never num-
bered more than 200, and by 1878, all that re-
mained were a few houses, a store or two, and
the cemetery (Upp 1974, 1975). Now, only the
cemetery (which also contains prehistoric burial
mounds) survives.

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