Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IOWAY TO IOWA, by MAY M. HUNT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IOWAY TO IOWA, by                    
First Line: From his primal home in the woodland
Last Line: For their chief so brave and true.
Subject(s): Iowa; Names; Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


From his primal home in the woodland
Of Wisconsin, on the Great Lakes,
A large band wandered southward;
And here the story takes us
To the Mississippi river
At the mouth of the Iowa,
And here they camped on a sandy beach,
And here decided to stay.

'Twas here the little village of Iowaville was known,
Until in a war with the Sacs and the Foxes,
Their power was overthrown,
Their village annihilated,
And the Ioway tribe alone,
Being depleted by warfare,
Were forced to move farther on.
Of a roving, gypsylike nature,
They wandered north, these men,
And here at the Pipestone quarries
Took up their abode again.
'Twas here they resumed their former trade
Of weaving, and fashioning pottery,
For those were the things they made.
They molded bowls of the pipestone clay,
Made peace pipes or calumets,
And for dyes used the native berries and fruits as they could get.
They spun thread from the fibrous roots of trees
And shrubs, and of these wove cloth
For mats, of which they made teepees.
The women did most of this kind of work,
While the men did the hunting and trapping.
But later this band came back again
Led by good chief Mauhaugaw.
They settled on land over near Des Moines,
But life was much the same
Constant warfare with other tribes,
But their heaviest sorrow came
When good old Chief Mauhaugaw
Was murdered by the Sioux --
It caused much confusion in the tribe
This warrior to lose.
But his little son Mahaska
Had now to manhood grown,
So he became their leader,
And proved a worthy one.
But the white man was fast advancing
Within the red man's bounds,
And Mahaska's people must bid farewell
To familiar hunting grounds.

The Great Father at Washington
Would always send his men
To treaty with the Indians, and then --
Give them other tracts of land
To use as their very own;
Thus we see how Iowa
Became the white man's home.
But this early tribe of Indians,
As this story we relate,
Gave to our land the name we bear;
And not only to our State,
But we find the Iowa river,
And Iowa City too,
And the county of Mahaska
For their chief so brave and true.





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