"The Meskwaki Tribe near Tama is hoping a new museum will help tell their story to the rest of the state and the country. Meskwaki historic preservation director, Jonathan Buffalo, says the idea for a museum had been around since the 1940′s, but it wasn’t at the top of the priority list.

“Life was hard, you know, there were other things to worry about, like decent housing, water, electricity, stuff like that,” Buffalo explains. “So a museum has always taken a back seat to whatever we had to do, even with the casino, we had to build a high school first, our health clinic, roads, housing. And now things are settling down so the idea of a museum is coming back.”

The museum has started out small and is in the tribe preservation office. Buffalo says it includes artifacts, utensils, photographs, documents, art, bead work, and other items passed down from the Tribe through the years."

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Museum tells the story of the Meskwaki Tribe (Radio Iowa 2/6)