The Asakiwaki (Sauk) and Meshkwahkihaki (Mesquakie/Fox) are Algonquin-speaking peoples originally from the northeastern United States. Asakiwaki means "people of the yellow earth" and Meshkwahkihawi means "people of the red earth". These two distinct Native American nations are united in Oklahoma as the Sac and Fox Nation.

Oral history tells the tribe originated near the Saint Lawrence Seaway in Canada. Following the settlement and invasion of Europeans on the east coast, which also resulted in pressures from other Native nations, the Sauk moved from near Saginaw Bay in Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Saukenuk located at the convergence of the Rock and Mississippi Rivers, and then forcibly removed to Iowa and Kansas. The fight to keep the homeland at Saukenuk resulted in a war forced on Black Hawk. This was the last war which Native American fought for their homelands east of the Mississippi.

Removal from the land from which the Woodlands nations evolved has drastically affected the knowledge and practice of the tribe's language, traditions, original teachings, ceremonies, ways of life, and relationship to the natural world.

Many children, now in the fourth generation since this removal, do not feel connected to their origins. Yet the history as woodland people is defined by the land of the North. When the government removed the tribe from its homelands and way of life, the government began a policy of "Civilizing" the natives to a European lifestyle, and tried to destroy the Sac and Fox lifeway.

The Sac and Fox Agency was a way to introduce the tribe's ancestors to "modern farming". Education by "mission schools" brought Christianity. The Sac and Fox were always forbidden to speak their native language and the practice of traditional religion was condemned. Historic clan leadership was replaced with a constitutional government.

Throughout this time, the original thread of Sac and Fox life, which connects the tribe to the heart of who they are as a people, has continued.

The Sac and Fox culture is based upon respect for the life within themselves, their families, their communities, and all of creation. The Creator gave this way of life to the Sac and Fox people. The culture is the way things are done in relation to each other and all of creation. The Sac and Fox way of life is spiritually-based. They seek the guidance of the Creator in how to live. The oldest continuing religious practices are ceremonies like clan feasts, namings, adoptions, and burials. More recent religious practices include the Drum Dance, the Native American Church and Christianity.

Language is the Sac and Fox expression of how they see the world. The languages of the Sac and Fox contain the accumulated knowledge of all their ancestors. Although the punishment for speaking their native language at the Sac and Fox Agency School meant a loss of identity for several generations of the tribe, the language and culture continues.

Several efforts are currently underway to enliven the identity of the Sac and Fox as peoples. The Sac and Fox continue to express the teachings of their ancestors at work and at play. The creative arts and crafts, sports and games, the ceremonial and traditional ways are a strong and natural part of their everyday life.

The community comes together as families, clans, and social groups often and with enthusiasm.

Originally, the Sac and Fox were governed by a clan system. Clans which continue are: Fish, Ocean, Thunder, Bear, Fox, Bear Potato, Deer, Beaver, Snow and Wolf. This traditional manner of selecting chiefs and governing themselves was forcibly replaced by United States appointees and an constitution patterned after the American form.

Sac and Fox governments, traditional and new, have been challenged with threats to the sovereignty of the Nation over lands, resources, and the people's welfare. In 1832 Black Hawk defended the peoples' right to their homeland. Keokuk complied with U.S. demands to move "west of the Missouri Territory". In 1869 the Mokohoko Band led by Chief Pashepaho fought to remain in Kansas until the late 1880's. Recent tribal leadership has defended the right of the Sac and Fox Nation to tax businesses, issue license plates, protect sovereign control over lands, resources, and govern according to Sac and Fox modern law. Each generation is presented with new challenges to insure the best interest of future generations.

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the Fox and the Sauk

Population

At the time of their first contact with the French in 1666, both the Fox and the Sauk were living in Wisconsin. The initial French estimates placed the Fox at 5,000 and the Sauk at 6,500. Since both tribes had just endured 30 years of war, a relocation to Wisconsin, and numerous epidemics, it appears their original populations must have been at least twice this - approximately 10,000 for each tribe. By 1712 the Fox had dropped to about 3,500. They lost half of these in the First French War (1712-14). They began the Second Fox War in 1728 with about 1,500, only 500 of whom survived the attempt by the French to remove them from the face of the earth. The Sauk relations with the French were friendly until they protected the Fox in 1734, and they numbered close to 4,000 at this time. Later estimates are sometimes confused because the Fox and Sauk were treated as a merged tribe. Both tribes increased after 1737. Zebulon Pike in 1806 listed the Fox at 1,750 and the Sauk at 2,850. His estimate of the Sauk may actually have been too low. Government records in 1829 reported there were 5,000 Sauk, 1,600 Fox, and another 500 Sauk in Missouri.

After their removal from Iowa in 1846, the population of both tribes underwent a drastic decline. The Indian Bureau in 1845 stated 1,300 Fox and 2,500 Sauk had left Iowa, but only 700 Fox and 1,900 Sauk arrived in Kansas. The Missouri Band at this time numbered less than 200. After a terrible smallpox epidemic, 300 Fox and 1,300 Sauk were all that remained on the Kansas reserve in 1852, but at least 300 Fox and an unknown number of Sauk were hiding in Iowa. Others were on the Kickapoo reserve or in places where no one could count them. Most of the Fox left shortly afterwards and returned to Iowa. Following the Civil War, 600 Sauk and 100 Fox relocated to Oklahoma. Only the Missouri Band managed to stay in Kansas. The 1910 census listed 343 Fox in Iowa, 630 Sauk and Fox in Oklahoma, and 90 Sauk in Kansas. The current enrollments of the three federally recognized Sac and Fox tribes are: 1,100 Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi (Iowa); 400 Sac & Fox Tribe of Missouri (Kansas and Nebraska); and 2,200 Sac & Fox Tribe of Indians (Oklahoma).

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