Colonel Davenport House

10/15/2026

10/07/2026

Great pictures from the 2026 Meskwaki Powwow

The 110th Meskwaki Annual Powwow edition of the Meskwaki Nation Times is available to view online.
Click here: https://meskwaki.aflip.in/PW2026

10/03/2026

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On October 3, 1838, the Sauk leader Black Hawk (Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa) passed away. A vital leader, Black Hawk fought for Sauk sovereignty as the United States pushed west across the continent.

A sacred bundle holder, Black Hawk gained notoriety for bravery in intertribal conflicts and while allying with the British during the War of 1812. Critical of the American Treaty of 1804, Black Hawk continued to advocate Sauk sovereignty after the war. When American settlement pushed the Sauk and Meskwaki west of the Mississippi River, Black Hawk and other tribal members disputed the treaty. In April 1832, encouraged by promises of alliance with other tribes and Britain, he relocated his so-called "British Band" of more than 1,500 people, comprising both warriors and non-combatants, to Illinois. The war stretched from April to August 1832, with several battles and skirmishes before ultimately culminating in Black Hawk’s capture following the massacre of Sauk and Meskwaki at the Bad Axe Massacre in August of 1832.

Black Hawk spent time in captivity and at Jefferson Barracks before being brought on a tour of the eastern United States, where he met President Andrew Jackson. Near the end of his captivity in 1833, Black Hawk told his life story to Antoine LeClaire, a government interpreter. Edited by local reporter J.B. Patterson, Black Hawk's account was one of the first Native American autobiographies published in the U.S. After touring the east, Black Hawk lived with the Sauk along the Iowa River and later the Des Moines River near Iowaville in what is now southeast Iowa.

Buried on the farm of James Jordan following his death, Black Hawk’s remains were stolen by James Turner to put the Sauk leader’s body on display. Black Hawk's sons, Nashashuk and Gamesett, went to Governor Robert Lucas of the Iowa Territory, who used his influence to secure the bones in his Burlington office. With Black Hawk's sons' permission, the Burlington Geological and Historical Society held the remains. When the Society's building burned down in 1855, Black Hawk's remains were destroyed. An alternative account suggests that Governor Lucas passed Black Hawk's bones to Enos Lowe, a Burlington physician, who then left the remains to his partner, Dr. McLaurens. After McLaurens moved to California, workers reportedly found the bones at his house. They buried the remains in a potter's grave in Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington.

10/02/2026

A slide from Dr. Eric Zimmer's "Red Earth Nation" book talk at the Putnam last night.

Eric Zimmer is a historian from the Black Hills of South Dakota. He holds a PhD from the University of Iowa and is currently pursuing a certificate in nonprofit leadership through the Harvard Kennedy School's Executive Education Program. Zimmer serves as a director of philanthropy at the Black Hills Area Community Foundation. There he works with a wonderfully talented team to drive strategic philanthropy across his home region and helps make the Black Hills thrive forever from 2022 to 2023, . Zimmer was the A. B. Hammond Visiting Professor and Assistant Professor of Western United States History at the University of Montana. Below is the portion of the lecture that corresponds to the slide. Thanks to Dr. Zimmer for the wonderful and informative presentation.

Dr. Zimmer:

"And so the Meskwaki Nation today is federally recognized as the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa there are several federally recognized tribes with Sauk and Fox in their name all of them would trace their ancestry back to these two core groups that are on the map here and basically what this is Sauk, which is Sauk and fox which was a translation thing It was a French word for Fox which came to meet Meskwaki so Sauk and Fox is Sauk and Meskwaki. These two communities sort of make their way from the east coast along the Great Lakes and out into the Midwest several hundred years ago and the Meskwaki Nation was created according to their own oral traditions out on the red Earth of what is now Quebec Canada, and over the course of several hundred years migrated Westward. And one of the things that I try to do in the book is overlay Meskwaki kind of oral traditions and cultural understandings of their migration with the documentary evidence that comes from historians and documents and archaeologists and kind of the scientific Western way of understanding the past, and the really remarkable thing is the two align very well. So when you lay Meskwaki stories on top of the Available evidence you get the map in front of you right this pretty kind of you know it's complicated and twisty and turvy but nonetheless you get this sort of trajectory of how the community is made it out here. So, long story short or over the course of those several hundred years Meskwaki and Sauk people make all make their way out along the Great Lakes down into Iowa and one of the things that Jonathan Buffalo used to say to me was "You know Iowa for us is a place of safety" and I would think about that what does that mean? And so I would kind of explore and think about the different ways that Iowa could be kind of this place of safety that would lead the community to want to go in the first place, stay there, and then after they're forced out of the area legally to come back and make it the homeland that it has become.

10/02/2026

It's October! What are you waiting for?

10/01/2026

✨QC Museum Month starts today!✨ We’re proud to be part of QC Museum Month!

Sign up for the free mobile pass and check in as you go for your chance to win a prize from Visit Quad Cities QCMuseumMonth.com

10/01/2026

Thurs, Oct 8th
Holey Stumpkins!
5:30pm-7:30pm

Meet us at the North end of the park by the fire circle for fall fun! Take a luminated hike along the tree line, enjoy a wildlife puppet show, and sign up for the pumpkin carving contest!

Pumpkin Carving Contest 5:30-6:30
Pumpkins provided but bring your own carving tools. (Registration required for carving only)

Puppet Show in Singing Bird at 6:30

For more information or to register for the carving contest call 309-788-9536 or email [email protected]

10/01/2026

Click on the picture or the title to enter the site.

Mississippi Dialogues is a collaborative public art project to elevate Indigenous experience and knowledge about the Mississippi River.