The Autobiography of a Meskwaki Woman A New Edition and Translation

"This is an edition and translation of an autobiographical account written in the Meskwaki language by a Meskwaki woman in the second decade of the twentieth century. The writer's name was "withheld by agreement", and her identity is not known. She lived on the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa, and was apparently in her late middle age when she wrote the account in 1918. She uses no names of people or places, and the most concrete clue to who she was is her mention of the drum society she joined with her second husband. This has been taken to refer to events of October, 1896, when a drum with the associated Drum Dance worship was brought to the Meswakis by Wisconsin Potawatomis. The Meskwaki historian Charley H. Chuck gave the names of the first Meskwakis to join this drum, but a review of this information with the late Adeline Wanatee established that none of the women he named had life histories that match that of the writer."-- Introduction.