> The raw deals (plural) the Meskwaki got were begun by the French. We
> other natives didn't join in until much later.
The Meskwaki fared a bit better than most, I believe. Their history is
substantially different than others as they were able to actually buy
land and keep it. There's some interesting and convoluted factoids
surrounding that. This is NOT a reservation, but actually Meskwaki
owned land--a settlement. Iowa and the federal government were
actually at odds over it and as the federal government wouldn't
recognize the ability of the indians to own land, the "deed" to the
land was held in trust by the governor.
Since the Mesquaki were self-managed on so many levels (and not forced
to move to some inhospitable place), they've been able to be part of
the area no differently than other ethnic groups. In fact, this area
is also the center of a dense Bohemian population. There have been
days were I've felt that English is the least spoken language in the
entire county (and now with a large Hispanic population, that is
entirely possible).
It's a wonderful group of people there and we are excited to see this
goal come to fruition. What has been interesting to see through this
process is the resistance came not from the people, but from the
"experts" who for four years gave us every reason why it wouldn't
work. Of course, in order for it to happen, we had to make way--that
was part of the plan.
AG
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