Collaboration and Care Guide Return of Meskwaki Artifacts From UNI to Their Tribal Home
The Meskwaki Nation worked with the University of Northern Iowa to return cultural artifacts to the tribe. The items will now be housed at The Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum.
The Meskwaki Nation has worked with the University of Northern Iowa to return several cultural artifacts to the tribe. The items had been part of UNI’s Meskwaki museum collection—now, they’ll be housed and displayed at the Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum instead. The Meskwaki are Iowa’s only federally recognized tribe, and they’ve been working to preserve indigenous history and heritage in the state. This development is the latest step toward sustaining that goal.
Items in the collection range in date from the 1800s through the 1980s and include a mimishi stick, which is a type of fork. The Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Sac & Fox’s Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, Tieranny Keahna, spoke about the artifacts and what it’s like to bring them back into the tribe’s fold. “It was a welcoming home ceremony for about 12 or so artifacts,” Keahna said. She added, “They’re not objects. They hold special significance to our tribe. Every item has a purpose, has a soul in a way. Being able to welcome these individual souls home is a homecoming, and we just want to welcome them home with open arms.”
Recovering the artifacts is one part of the reparation process
Being able to preserve the history and heritage of Iowa’s indigenous peoples is only one part of the equation when it comes to bringing the Meskwaki artifacts back to the tribe’s Cultural Center and Museum. Reparations are another crucial aspect of this partnership. As Tieranny Keahna told KCCI, “Reparation is when the tribe wants to make a claim for something that a museum or institution holds, saying we have ownership to this and they want to bring it back.”
Oftentimes, museums purchase artifacts or receive them via donation, but Keahna pointed out that this typically happens between the institution and an individual tribal member or collector. It’s rare for the entire tribe to be aware of the transaction until after it happens. As she told the outlet, “Most of the time it’s via private collectors that have donated this, and we are not aware of those collections being donated.”
The Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum’s Historical Preservation Director, Johnathan Buffalo, first contacted the University of Northern Iowa during the 1990s to discuss having the university return the cultural artifacts. The school contacted Buffalo again at the beginning of 2025, and the items were returned more recently. Keahna told KCCI, “It was a short process. Some of these reparations take a long time.”
UNI’s president, Mark Nook, told the outlet that the school is honored to have been able to return these culturally significant items to the Meskwaki Nation. He added that UNI is committed to maintaining and strengthening its bond with the tribe.
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