The Sac and Fox Nation is the modern political entity encompassing the historical Sac and Fox nations of Native Americans. The tribes were always closely allied and speak very similar Algonquian languages, sometimes considered two dialects, instead of two languages. The Sac call themselves Asakiwaki (or Osakiwug) which means "people of the yellow earth" while the Fox call themselves Meshkwahkihawi meaning "people of the red earth". -------------------------------------------------- The tribe has multiple separate groups and reservations. The main group, the Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Oklahoma moved to near Stroud, Oklahoma in 1869 where they have about 2500 members and an 800 acre (3.2 km²) reservation. A smaller group (called the Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa or the Mesquakie) returned to their Iowa lands where they now have about 700 members and 4300 acres (17 km²) near Tama, Iowa. The Sac and Fox Tribe of Missouri separated from the main band in the 1830's and has 360 members and a 450 acre (1.8 km²) tract on the Kansas-Nebraska border near Falls City, Nebraska. Massika, on left a Sac and Wakusasse, a Fox, painted in 1833, showing traditional Eastern Woodlands hairstyle of shaved side hair and added deerhair roach. --------------------------------------- The Sauks or Sacs (o?aakiiwaki in their own language or Ozaagii(-wag) in Ojibwe from where their French and English names are derived) are a group of First Nations/Native Americans.----------------Originally, the Sac were governed by a patrilineal clans system. Clans which continue are: Fish, Ocean/Sea, Thunder, Bear, Fox, Potato, Deer, Beaver, Snow, and Wolf. The tribe was governed by a council of sacred clan chiefs, a war chief, the head of families, and the warriors. Chiefs fell into three categories: civil, war and ceremonial, but only the civil chief was hereditary. Other two chiefs were determined by demonstrating their ability or their spiritual power. This traditional manner of selecting historic clan chiefs and governing themselves was at first forcibly replaced by United States appointees of the Sac and Fox Agency and now by constitutional government patterned after the American form.-----The Sac may have had their original territory along the St. Lawrence River. However, migration patterns of other tribes drove them to Michigan around Saginaw Bay. Due to the yellow clay soils found around Saginaw Bay, their self-designation became O?aakiiwaki which is often misinterpreted to mean "yellow-earth". The Ojibwe and Ottawa name for the tribe is Ozaagii, meaning "Those at the Outlet", whence they were known by the French as "Sac" or by the English "Sauk". With the Anishinaabe expansion and Hurons attempts at gaining regional stability, the Sac were driven by the Hurons armed with French weapons. They then occupied territory in parts of what are now northern Illinois and northern Wisconsin. -------- Their closely allied tribe, the Fox, were noted for their hostility towards the French and fought two Fox Wars in the early 18th century. After the second war, the Sac sheltered the remaining Fox in their camp and were subject to French attack themselves. The Sac continued moving west to Iowa and Kansas. There were two crucial leaders of the Sac at this time. Chief Keokuk accepted the loss of land (at first, east of the Mississippi) as inevitable in the face of vast numbers of white soldiers and settlers. He tried to preserve peacefully whatever remnant of tribal land he could. Having failed to receive supplies on credit as their embassy just returned from Washington expected, Chief Black Hawk wanted to fight, saying his people were "forced into war by being deceived." The refusal of the band of Sac under Black Hawk in 1832 to accept the continued loss of lands (in western Illinois, this time) led to their reduction in importance at the hands of General Edmund P. Gaines in the Blackhawk War. About this time, one group of Sac moved into Missouri and later to Kansas and Nebraska. The larger group of Sac moved into reservations in Oklahoma in 1869 where they merged with the Fox as the Sac and Fox Nation. A smaller number returned from Oklahoma (or did not go) and became the Mesquakie tribe in Iowa. ----------The Fox tribe of Native Americans are an Algonquian language-speaking group that are now merged with the allied Sac tribe as the Sac and Fox Nation. The Fox called themselves Meshkwahkihaki or Mesquakie. The name Fox originated in a French mistake applying a clan name to the entire tribe.------------------The Fox originally lived east of Michigan along the Saint Lawrence River. The tribe may have numbered as many as 10,000 but years of war with the French-supplied Hurons reduced their numbers and forced them west first to the area between Saginaw Bay and Detroit in Michigan and then to Wisconsin. In Wisconsin the Fox gained control of the Fox River system. This river was vital for fur trade between French Canada and the interior of North America, because one could navigate from the Bay of Green Bay in Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. By going down the Fox River to Lake Winnebago, through the Wolf River one could reach a small portage (at the present day city of Portage, Wisconsin) to the Wisconsin River. From the Wisconsin River, traders could reach the Mississippi River and ultimatley the rest of the continent. When the French had first contact with them they estimated that the Fox numbered about 6,500. By 1712, they were down to 3,500 when the First Fox War broke out with the French (1712-1714). The Second Fox War of 1728 found the remaining 1500 Fox reduced to 500 who found shelter with the Sac and brought French animosity to that tribe. The First Fox War was purely economic in nature. The French merely wanted rights to use the river system to gain access to the Mississippi. The Second Fox War was genocidal because the Mesquakie continually refused to allow traders onto the Fox and Wolf rivers. ---------------------------- Members of the Fox tribe spread through southern Wisconsin, and the Iowa-Illinois border. In 1829 the government estimated there were 1500 Fox (along with 5500 Sac). Some of them were involved with some of the Sac in the Blackhawk War when they refused to give up their lands in Illinois. ------------------------------------------------- Fox who had successfully fled west of the Mississippi River were known as the "lost people" by the Dakota. ----------------------------------------------- The Meskwaki later moved to a settlement near Tama, Iowa. Soon after the Sauk were forced to a reservation in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. By 1910, there were only about 1000 Sac and Fox altogether and, even by 2000, their number was less than 4000.------------------------ Jim Thorpe, the famous athlete, was a member of this tribe.