Meskwaki educator Leah Slick Driscoll urges language revival, food sovereignty at Iowa City forum
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Summary
At an Iowa City Foreign Relations Council program, Meskwaki educator Leah Slick Driscoll traced Meskwaki land loss and return, described boarding-school harms, and outlined local language-revitalization and food-sovereignty programs including school language requirements, an app, seed-saving and a buffalo herd.
Leah Slick Driscoll, a Meskwaki Nation educator who teaches at the Meskwaki Settlement School, told an Iowa City Foreign Relations Council audience at the Iowa City Public Library that preserving Meskwaki language and food systems is central to the tribe’s cultural survival.
Driscoll opened with a historical overview that tied early U.S. policies—praying towns, the Indian Removal Act and forced relocations—to later waves of cultural and health harm for Native communities. She said federal control of tribal finances and property aggravated that harm: "She brought a successful law lawsuit against The United States," Driscoll said of Eloise Cobell’s litigation over missing Indian trust funds, a case Driscoll cited while describing how records were later lost in a warehouse fire and how settlement funds took years to reach affected people.
Why it matters: Driscoll argued those policies disrupted traditional foodways and languages, with long-term health and social consequences. "The language is the center of Meskwaki culture," she said, adding that "losing a language means that within 50 years, our religion and culture would also be gone." Her presentation connected those losses to contemporary initiatives on the Meskwaki Settlement.
Program details: Driscoll described the Meskwaki Settlement School’s language-preservation work. The school requires one hour of Meskwaki-language instruction for students from preschool through 12th grade, operates a 3–4-year-old language nest and apprentices native teaching assistants with fluent speakers. She said the community offers adult classes (12-week sessions, five levels) and a Meskwaki language app so learners can hear fluent pronunciation repeatedly without judgement.
Food-sovereignty efforts include Red Earth Gardens’ greenhouses, chickens and beehives, communal outdoor cooking and seed-saving classes. Driscoll noted the tribe maintains a buffalo herd used for hands-on instruction; meat is periodically distributed to tribal members who need it. She explained seed stewardship practices and said Meskwaki corn has a distinctive genetic profile and nutrient content preserved through careful local stewardship.
Local context and numbers: Driscoll recounted that Meskwaki people purchased the first 80 acres of settlement land for about $1,000 in the mid-19th century and that the community has added land over time to roughly 10,000 acres. She also described student travel programs that require extensive fundraising, estimating individual trip costs at about $6,000–$8,000.
Audience questions and next steps: In a question-and-answer period, Driscoll clarified that settlement land is federally recognized and held in common by the tribe, with lifetime occupancy rights that can pass to qualifying descendants but not be sold as private property. On the national Land Back movement she said the focus is on public education and advocating for returns of land where feasible, noting recent judicial decisions recognizing expanded tribal jurisdiction in parts of Oklahoma.
The forum concluded with additional audience questions and resources Driscoll recommended for further reading, including local archival work and recent books on Meskwaki history.
