Amazing Photos of Meskwaki Portraits Taken by Josephine Wallace in 1925

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The Meskwaki Settlement is an unincorporated community in Tama County, Iowa, United States, west of Tama. This was part of the historic territory of the Meskwaki, an Algonquian people (they were known to English colonists and Americans as the Fox). Since 1857, when Meskwaki bought land here, it has been home to a sizable community of Meskwaki Indians. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, one of three Sac and Fox tribes in the United States. The others are located in Oklahoma and Kansas.

Meskwaki portraits Taken by Josephine Wallace in 1925

Josephine Martha Wallace (1867-1960) was the daughter of “Uncle Henry” Wallace, owner and editor of Wallaces Farmer magazine and aunt of U.S. Vice-President Henry A. Wallace. She lived and operated a studio in Des Moines, eventually moving to Tucson, Arizona in the 1930s where she continued her photography and also taught music classes.

According to information that appeared with their exhibition, these portraits by Wallace from State Historical Library and Archives of Iowa were taken at the Meskwaki Settlement (Tama, Iowa) in 1925 by special arrangement of Edgar R. Harlan, Curator of the Iowa State Department of History and Archives. Exhibit information further states: “Several of the Indians shown have never before been photographed. Miss Wallace is the only woman who has ever been present at certain of the tribal ceremonies.”