Discovering Our Namesake Mahaska
Mahaska County Naturalist Laura DeCook talks about Chief Mahaska to a group of visitors to Russel Wildlife Center Saturday
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Conservation Center, at the Russell Wildlife Center, hosts many events all year long. Their most recent one helped to shed some light on our county’s namesake.
On Saturday afternoon, Mahaska County Naturalist Laura DeCook took visitors on a walk back in time, to when the Ioway Indians and their chief, Mahaska, lived in the area. The white people translated the name Mahaska into White Cloud, who was a chief of the Ioway Indians.
DeCook said what got her interested into looking into the subject was, “The reason why I did that was, we live here, our county is named after someone, and there’s a statue on the square, and it just intrigued me. What is behind this person.”
The City of Oskaloosa is named after a Creek Indian. “Oskaloosa was taken prisoner by the Seminole Indians and she was made Chief Osceola’s wife. He named her Oskaloosa which means last of the beautiful,” DeCook explained, saying that it was interesting how the town got its name, and with her being from a different tribe than the Ioway Indians.
DeCook said that the Indian Tribe was part of the woodland culture, “we have a lot of artifacts in Mahaska County from the woodland culture, prehistoric type people.” The Ioway were known to move around considerably within the confines of, what is now officially known as, the State of Iowa.
DeCook chronicled the Chief’s life, like his travels to Washington D.C. in 1824 to meet with the President. While there, his portrait was painted. Upon returning home, his favorite wife, Rantchewaime “female flying pigeon”, died within a short distance of their home. Mahaska had been riding ahead, but returned to look for his wife. He found her laying on the ground with her horse grazing nearby.
The Ioway Indians were decimated by a sneak attack in 1819 after returning from a buffalo hunt. There the men were attending a horse race, and had left their weapons at the village nearly 2 miles away.
Mahaska had been fierce warrior, having lead his tribe successfully into battle 18 times. Over the years, he had become one of peace. His commitment to his word and the treaty with the US Government would ultimately lead to his demise.
It is said that some young warriors had attacked and killed some rival Indians out of revenge. Chief Mahaska had refused to condone the actions and helped the US Government punished the warriors. Those same warriors vowed to kill Chief Mahaska for being sent to prison. The warriors eventually escaped from prison, tracked down Chief Mahaska while he was camping by a river, and killed him.
He was buried near the location of the capitol building in Des Moines.
A recently restored statue of Chief Mahaska welcomes visitors to downtown Oskaloosa. The statues roots and the people behind it are nearly as interesting as Chief Mahaska himself. There are many more websites and information on the subject if your interested. I have listed just a few to help get you started.
The next scheduled event for Mahaska County Conservation is the Maple Syrup Festival, Saturday, March 10 from noon until 4:00 pm at Eveland Access.
Further reading on the Chief Mahaska Statue and Chief Mahaska can be found HERE as is written by the Ioway Tribe.
The model for the Chief Mahaska Statue was recently sold at auction HERE
Iowa History Project over Chief Mahaska HERE
Iowaville, a history described by Frank D. Myers HERE
You can find ‘Lost Nation: The Ioway on Facebook HERE.
