[Review of] Hadley Irwin, We Are Mesquakie, We Are One

Authors

Kathleen Hickok

Orginal Publication Date

1981

Journal Title

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Volume

1

Issue

ess/vol1/iss1

First Page

13

Last Page

13

Abstract

We Are Mesquakie, We Are One by Hadley Irwin is the simply and sensitively told tale of a Mesquakie Indian girl who comes of age during a turbulent period in the history of her nation. In 1845, after fifteen years of treaties, the Mesquakie (sometimes also called the Fox) Indians were expelled from their lands along the Iowa River and forcibly marched to Kansas, where they were relocated on reservation lands far inferior to their own. The Mesquakies managed to avoid being acculturated into white ways, and over a period of years saved the money they got from the U.S. Government and bought back their original lands. From 1852 on, they gradually returned to Iowa, rejoining a few courageous members of their tribe who had stayed, in defiance of the Bluecoats who burned their villages and the white settlers who appropriated their land, in order to keep alive the dream of reclaiming their home.

Rights

Copyright, ​©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1981