Fox (Native American tribe)

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Northeast
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Algonquian
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma
• POPULATION SIZE: over 4,000 tribal members (2024 Sac and Fox Nation)

The Fox are generally thought to have originated in southern Michigan. They belong to the Algonquian language family and are closely related to the Sac (or Sauk), Kickapoo, and perhaps the Mascouten. The designation “Fox” was given to them by French explorers; the group’s name for themselves was Mesquakie (in other transliterations, “Meshwakihug” or “Meshwakie”). Another name for the tribe is Outagami, which they were called by other tribal groups.

Mesquakie means “the people of the red earth” and may signify either the soil coloring of their primal homeland or a mythological belief (that they were created from the “red earth”). When the French called them the Reynards (Foxes, or Red Foxes), they were probably confusing a clan designation for the name of the entire people. Since the eighteenth century, the Fox have been closely identified with the Sac people; the two groups are often regarded as a single entity by the US government (as in census figures). The Fox have a long and tragic history, an economic life combining features of both the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains, a rich social and cultural heritage, and a contemporary existence characterized by survival and revival.

Prehistory and French Contact

William T. Hagan has described the history of the Fox as “a case study of the results of the clash of two civilizations.” The Fox encounter with Western culture—as embodied successively in the French, the British, and the Americans—was inherently tragic. Near genocide was followed by their displacement from their ancestral homeland in the Midwest. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the Fox had declined from about twenty-five hundred in 1650 to only 264 in 1867 and were scattered among a tribal farm in Iowa and governmental reservations in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

Oral tradition suggests that prior to the arrival of Europeans the Fox had been eased westward from their lands in central Michigan because of pressure from the Chippewas. Resettled in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, the Fox were primarily located along the Wolf River, with a territory extending from Lake Superior to the Chicago River and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. A Western Great Lakes Nation, they were known as “People of the Calumet” because of the sacred pipes they employed in their tobacco ceremonies.

Initial contact with Europeans was made when French traders, explorers, and missionaries visited Fox country in the early seventeenth century. Confusion commenced immediately, the French misnaming the tribe Renards. Conflict quickly ensued from major disagreements between the French and the Fox, resulting in an unusual chapter in American colonial history, the Fox being one of the few North American tribes to oppose the French actively. Several reasons for this anomaly have been offered. The Fox disapproved of the French policy of facilitating the fur trade by repressing even legitimate disputes between tribes. When the French extended the fur trade to their enemies, the Dakota, they protested. To the Fox, French trade goods and prices were inferior to those preferred by the British through their former enemies, the Iroquois, who now sought an alliance. Tribes hostile to the Fox fanned the fires of disagreement. Open warfare was almost inevitable.

The French-Fox War (1712–1737) was occasioned by the Fox demand that French traders pay a transit toll when plying the Fox River in Wisconsin. This the French refused to do, retaliating by arming the traditional enemies of the Fox, the Dakota and the Ojibwa. For a quarter of a century furious combat transpired. A brave and warlike people, the Fox were nevertheless vastly outnumbered. Many scholars believe they continued to wage war even though they realized that the French had adopted a deliberate policy of genocide. The French hoped to annihilate their adversaries through war and disease. Some French officials even suggested the total elimination of the Fox people through their deportation and enslavement in the West Indies, working in the sugar colonies. Peace was restored only in 1737 when the French, weary of war, offered a general pardon to the Fox. A permanent legacy of distrust had been generated.

From 1750 to the Reservation Era

Fox survival had been facilitated through a close alliance with the Sac. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Fox and the Sac were regarded by outsiders as a single people. The “Dual Tribes” moved westward and southward, inhabiting lands along the Mississippi River by the 1760s, modifying their Eastern Woodlands lifestyle with elements of the Siouan culture of the Great Plains. The disappearance of French rule with the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) and the advent of British hegemony did little to dissipate Fox distrust of Europeans.

The actions of the American government confirmed the Fox’s fears. Not signatories to the Treaty of Fort Greenville (1795), the Fox and the Sac resisted White settlement; they were active in Little Turtle’s War (1790–1794) and in Tecumseh’s Rebellion (1809-1811). Certain leaders, however, argued for “peace and accommodation,” accepting, in 1804, an annual annuity from the United States government in return for the legal cession of Fox lands east of the Mississippi. Many Fox were angered and fearful after the British failure in the War of 1812. Chief Black Hawk, a Sac leader, argued for armed resistance. In the last Indian War in the Old Northwest Territory, Black Hawk’s War (1832–1833), the Sac and their Fox allies were routed. Most of Black Hawk’s army was killed, and Black Hawk himself was captured by the U.S. Army and exhibited as a “trophy” during a tour through the East. Removal of the Sac and Fox to lands west of the Mississippi River was now a foregone conclusion.

As a consequence of the Treaty of Chicago (1833), the Fox and their allies were removed to Iowa. This arrangement was not satisfactory for a number of reasons. The steady press of American settlers was a threat. Illegal seizure of the Fox lead mines near Dubuque, which had provided a revenue in excess of $4,000 annually from sales to traders, provoked outrage. There was a steady erosion of the traditional Fox way of life. By 1842, the Fox and the Sac had migrated to Kansas. Reservation life led to serious disputes between the Fox and the Sac. Disagreements centered on the distribution of annuity payments, fears of removal to Oklahoma, apparent government favoritism toward the Sac, the inability to make a good living on the reservation (poor land, limited hunting opportunities), and the gradual loss of a separate Fox identity. The spread of epidemic disease was the “last straw.” By the 1850s, many of the Fox wanted to return to Iowa. In 1856, an act of the Iowa state legislature legalized the residence of the Fox within that jurisdiction. The following year five members of the tribal council purchased land in Tama County, the original 80 acres eventually becoming 3,000. As a non-reservation community, the Iowa Fox settlement avoided both assimilation and federal restrictions. The settlement survived through the twentieth century. By the 1990s, the Fox people had been divided three ways: some of them lived on the tribally owned lands in Iowa, some on reservations in Kansas and Nebraska, and the remainder in Oklahoma with the Sac.

Economic Life

The Fox were unique among Algonquian peoples in that they were economically at home in both the Great Lakes and the Great Plains regions. In the course of their long history, the Fox adapted well to both areas.

Originally, the Fox inhabited the Great Lakes region, living in Michigan and later in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The opportunities afforded by the Eastern Woodlands were fully exploited. Though the climate was harsh, the Fox prospered. Fishing was practiced; hunting was profitable. The marshlands provided a sky filled with waterfowl. On the eastern Plains were buffalo. In the primeval forests a wide variety of game flourished, including deer and moose, both of which were used for hides and meat. Trapping for furs began in earnest after contact with the Europeans. Food gathering supplied the Fox diet with nuts, berries, honey, tubers, herbs, fruits, and especially the “wild rice” (named “wild oats” by Americans) so common in the Midwest wetlands. Food production occurred along rivers near Fox villages, the women raising corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and melons. Tobacco was cultivated for ceremonial purposes. The forests of beech, birch, conifers, elms, oaks, and chestnuts offered materials for canoes, snowshoes, containers, writing materials, daily implements, and house construction. Maple sugar was harvested in winter. Surface metals (and copper) were mined for trading purposes.

Later in their history, the Fox adjusted well to the economic opportunities of the Great Plains. This shift in lifestyle was stimulated by a variety of factors. Pressure from the Chippewas forced the Fox to flee Michigan for Wisconsin and Illinois. Contact with the Siouan peoples familiarized them with the possibilities of the prairie habitat. The arrival of Europeans supplied them with horses, firearms, and markets. Perhaps the most striking change was the adoption of the Great Buffalo Hunt. While the Fox continued their earlier seasonal economic cycle of food gathering and food producing, they significantly increased their dependence on the hunt.

A virtual exodus took place after the planting of crops in April and May, as Fox hunters went west of the Iowa-Missouri watershed seeking buffalo. During the long, dry summer they searched for bison herds. Prior to the extensive use of rifles, the hunters would surround the herd, start a grassfire, panic the buffalo, have a skilled bowman shoot the lead animal, and then start the “kill.” Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, the seventeenth century French explorer, reported that it was not unusual for two hundred buffalo to be taken in a single day. Women accompanying the hunters would strip, clean, pack, and dry the meat while tanning the hides. By August and the advent of harvest time, the hunters would return to their permanent villages with meat for the winter and hides to trade for ammunition. A smaller winter hunt was not unknown. By 1806, the Fox were reckoned the best hunters in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and American pioneer Meriwether Lewis estimated the value of their annual fur sales to be $10,000. By then the Fox had become part of the American economy, relying on traders for credit and a wide variety of consumer items (knives, blankets, arms, ammunition, tobacco, and various luxuries).

The end of the traditional Fox economy was evident by the start of the nineteenth century. In 1804, chiefs accepted an annual annuity of $400 from the United States government in exchange for surrender of the ancestral lands east of the Mississippi. Large numbers of Whites were settling Fox territories. By 1820, the golden age of the Great Buffalo Hunt was over. Forced removal to Iowa in the 1830s doomed the traditional Fox way of life.

Social, Political, and Religious Life

The Fox have a rich and diverse heritage involving complex familial, tribal, and religious organizations. The fundamental social unit of Fox society was the family. Sometimes polygamous, often monogamous, the immediate family was composed of husband and wife (in plural marriages the additional wives were often sisters) and children. Courtship occurred around age twenty, with marriage resting on the consent of the bride (and her parents) to the suitor’s proposal. Remarriage following death or divorce was permitted, although marital fidelity was strictly enforced. Initially, the bride and groom would reside in the home of her parents, but following the birth of the first child (in the “birthing house”) the new family would move to its own dwelling. Often there was a summer lodge (for farming and hunting) and a more permanent winter home (aligned along an east-west axis), conical in appearance, built around a central hearth. Families normally varied in size from five to more than thirty members.

Families, in turn, were organized into exogamous patrilineal clans. Anthropologists have identified eight (some claim fourteen) clans including Bear, Wolf, Swan, Partridge, Thunder, Elk, Black Bear, and Fox (from which the French apparently misnamed the tribe). The clan was a cohesive group, certain honors being hereditary within each extended family (as the office of peace chief). An institution called the moiety system, also practiced among other Native American groups, helped lessen clan rivalries. Across kinship lines the Fox tribe was divided into two moieties (or societies), the White and the Black. Created by random division, these associations were utilized for games, ceremonies, and even warfare. This arrangement provided fellowship and friendship without distinction as to bloodline or office and was a solidifying force in tribal life.

The life of the individual was regulated and supported by the family, the clan, the moiety, and the entire tribe. Children were prized highly and were reared with considerable affection and attention; corporal punishment was rare. By the age of six or seven, boys were imitating the hunting ways of the males and girls were assisting in farming and homemaking with the women. Puberty was a major event for both genders. Following her initial menstruation, the girl was sent to a separate lodge for ten days to reflect on her new status as a young woman. Boys at puberty were to experience the “vision,” preceded by fasting and followed by a heroic deed. By the age of nineteen or twenty, both boys and girls were expected to be integrated fully into the adult life of the tribe.

The tribe had various types of leaders. One was the office of peace chief (often hereditary within the Bear clan), a male who was respected as an administrator, president at the tribal council, and person of wisdom, experience, and sound judgment. Another was the office of war chief (usually elected from warriors who had proved themselves repeatedly in combat), who, in times of danger, had near-dictatorial power and who was entrusted with leading the tribe to victory. A third office was ceremonial chief or shaman, a position depending on both heredity and demonstrated charismatic gifts. Though the shaman had no exclusive monopoly on spiritual functions, he was a major contact person with the supernatural. Temporary raiding chiefs were selected, men who, following fasting and a vision, would gather a band of warriors for a specific mission. Following the venture, the band dissolved. Lesser chiefs sat with the paramount chiefs in the tribal council, which decided matters of war and peace, the selection of hunting grounds, and diplomatic relations with other tribes and with Europeans.

The religious life of the Fox centered on a reverence for nature and its powers. The universe was divided into two portions: the Powers of the Sky (or the Upper Region, ruled by the Great Manitou) and the Powers of the Earth (the Lower Region, ruled by lesser spirits). The Lower Region was organized along the four points of the compass, the east (ruled by the sun), the north (ruled by the Creator), the west (the land of departed spirits), and the south (the region of the god of thunder). A powerful animism invested the earth, the sky, the waters, the forests, and all creatures with intelligent souls which could either help or hinder human activity. The Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, was a secret group who believed themselves able to enlist the support of the spirit world for the tribe.

Religious rituals occurred in harmony with the change of seasons (as the Green Corn Feast at the onset of the harvest) and the various stages of life, such as puberty and death. Funeral customs were intended to guarantee the happiness of the deceased person’s spirit, burial being either in the earth (seated, or even seated on top of a dead foe, for a warrior) or on a scaffold. Gifts were buried; sometimes sacrificial animals (such as a dog) were also buried to serve as companions in the afterlife.

Contemporary Life

The United States Census of 2010 reported 7,697 Sac and Fox Indians. In 2024, the Sac and Fox Nation reported over 4,000 enrolled members. Since the nineteenth century, the Fox have been divided into three groups: some live in reservations in the Plains states, some live in Oklahoma, and the remainder live in Iowa. Since the 1820s, for most Fox, there has been little marked separation from the Sac people. Those in Iowa have the most clear-cut identity. The wisdom of Fox tribal elders was demonstrated in the 1850s, when they purchased 80 (later 3,000) acres near Tama, Iowa. They won recognition by the state legislature as to the legitimacy of their residence, thus freeing themselves from the restrictions accompanying reservation life. Some commuted to urban jobs, while others managed land rentals (to White farms). In Iowa, family, clan, and tribal life continues, with nearly all Fox speaking the ancestral language (one-third speak it exclusively, the rest being bilingual). While some have accepted Christianity, the majority belong to medicine societies and practice the ancestral faith (with some adhering to the Native American Church). Though only a remnant of the Fox, or Mesquakie, Nation, the Iowa tribal community demonstrates the power of the people to survive and gives evidence of a revived hope for the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

"American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010." United States Census Bureau, 8 Oct. 2021, www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/cph-series/cph-t/cph-t-6.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Bonvillain, Nancy, and Frank W. Porter. The Sac and Fox. Chelsea House, 2014.

Callendar, Charles. “Fox.” Northeast Ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978. Handbook of North American Indians 15.

"Council." Sac and Fox Nation, 2024, www.sacandfoxnation-nsn.gov/about/council/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Gearing, Frederick O. The Face of the Fox. Routledge, 2017.

Hagan, William T. The Sac and Fox Indians. 3rd ed. U of Oklahoma P, 1989.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Indian Heritage of America. Paw Prints, 2008.

Lambert, Joseph I. “The Black Hawk War: A Military Analysis.” Journal of the Illinois Historical Society, vol. 32, 1939, pp. 442–473.

McTaggart, Fred. Wolf That I Am: In Search of the Red Earth People. Houghton, 1976.

Owen, Mary Alicia. Folk-Lore of the Musquakie Indians of North America and Catalogue of Musquakie Beadwork and Other Objects in the Collection of the Folk-Lore Society. Reprint of 1902, Kaus, 1976.

"Sac and Fox." The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SA001. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Stout, David Bond, Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin, and Emily J. Blasingham. Indians of Eastern Missouri, Western Illinois, and Southern Wisconsin, from the Proto-Historic Period to 1804. Garland, 1974.

Tax, Sol. “The Social Organization of the Fox Indians.” Social Anthropology of North American Tribes Ed. Fred Eggan. U of Chicago P, 1937.

US Indian Claims Commission. An Anthropological Report on the Sac, Fox, and Iowa Indians. 3 vols. Garland, 1974.