Lelah Pekachuk

Lelah Pekachuk (c. 1881 – 1901) was a Meskwaki woman who successfully challenged her detention in the Toledo Indian School in Toledo, Iowa, a boarding school for Native American children and young adults from neighboring communities.[2] She was raised in the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa.[3]

Pekachuk attended the Toledo Indian School beginning on September 1, 1899. Her mother, Na-wau-ke-kee, was reluctant to enroll Pekachuk in the boarding school and negotiated for her daughter’s leave to support the harvest.[4] When Pekachuk failed to return, superintendent George Nellis[5] and Meskwaki Indian agent, W.G. Malin,[6] kidnapped Pekachuk and forcibly brought her to the boarding school.[7]

Several days later, Pekachuk ran away from the Toledo Indian School with a companion, Mas-kwa-see.[4] Back home, she married Ta-ta-pi-cha[8] on October 29, 1899.[9] A week later, during a visit to Toledo, Iowa to be a witness in a trial, Pekachuk was abducted again and brought to the boarding school.[10] During her incarceration, she was held “in an upper cell or room of said training school.”[7] Multiple reports emerged of her confinement and detainment.[11][12][10]

In November 1899, a group of Meskwaki men and E.I. Wilcox traveled to Des Moines, Iowa and petitioned governor of Iowa L. M. Shaw for Pekachuk’s release.[13] After Shaw declined to assist, Wilcox filed for a writ of habeas corpus for Pekachuk in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.[14] While judge Oliver Perry Shiras denied the writ, he found parental consent was necessary for boarding school enrollment, and based his decision on the 1881 case Young v. Imoda.[14] Pekachuk was released from the Toledo Indian School after Shiras' December 29, 1899 ruling.[13]

Pekachuk died of smallpox in November 1901.[13]

Legacy

After Pekachuk's release, other Meskwaki families immediately took their children out of the Toledo Indian School.[13]

Pekachuk’s legal case prompted Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield to submit a draft of proposed legislation to Congress in 1909. The proposed legislation would change the Act of March 2, 1895 (28 Stat. L., 906)[15] to make it more difficult for Meskwaki parents to challenge boarding school removals.[16]

Pekachuk’s case was cited in an amici curiae brief for the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v Baby Girl.[1]

Further reading

Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (1993). "Domesticity in the Federal Indian Schools: The Power of Authority over Mind and Body". American Ethnologist. 20 (2): 227–40..

Andrew Kennard (October 7, 2021). "A closer look at the experiences of the Meskwaki people at the Indian Training School at Toledo, Iowa". The Times Delphic.

Charity Nebbe; Zachary Oren Smith (August 6, 2021). "Assimilation and Education: Indian Boarding Schools and Their Impacts on Indigenous Iowans". Talk of Iowa.

References

  1. ^ Lelah Puc-ka-chee. Ward-Mesquakie Collection, PA 52-53. Special Collections, State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City.
  2. ^ "Petitioning for Freedom". Petitioning for Freedom. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
  3. ^ "Meskwaki Nation | Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa". Meskwaki Nation. 2025-04-19. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  4. ^ a b ""Making the Arguments: Famous Indian Case Nearing An End"". The Gazette. September 10, 1903. p. 6.
  5. ^ "Nellis, G. N. | Petitioning for Freedom". petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  6. ^ "Malin, W. G. | Petitioning for Freedom". petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  7. ^ a b ""The Indians Win Out"". Evening times-Republican. 1900-04-06. p. 3. ISSN 2375-320X. OCLC 11826833. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  8. ^ "Ta-Ta-Pi-Cha | Petitioning for Freedom". petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  9. ^ ""Indians Get No Relief"". Evening-times Republican. November 9, 1899. p. 7.
  10. ^ a b ""Tama Reds Are Angry (They Demand the Release of Indian Maiden From School"". Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier. November 23, 1899. p. 1.
  11. ^ ""Goes to Federal Court: Indian Case Recently in the District Court to Be Pushed by E.I. Wilcox."". Evening-times Republican. November 23, 1899. p. 7.
  12. ^ ""Decision for Indians: Judge Shiras Holds That Lelah-Puc-Ka-Chee Has Been Unlawfully Restrained in Tama County."". Twice-A-Week Plain Dealer. January 16, 1900. p. 2.
  13. ^ a b c d Villeneuve, Matthew (2025-03-19). "Habeas Corpus and American Indian Boarding Schools: Indigenous Self-Determination in Body and Mind, 1880–1900". Western Historical Quarterly. 56 (2): 93–115. doi:10.1093/whq/whaf029. ISSN 0043-3810.
  14. ^ a b "Lelah-Puc-ka-Chee an... | Petitioning for Freedom". petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  15. ^ U.S. Congress (1893–1895). U.S. Statutes at Large, Volume 28 (1893-1895), 53rd Congress. pp. 905–906.
  16. ^ ""Indian boarding school at Sac and Fox Reservation, Iowa. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting a draft of proposed legislation relating to the Indian boarding school for the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation in Iowa."". Readex: U.S. Congressional Serial Set. 60th Congress, 2nd Session, H.Doc. 1302. January 9, 1909.
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