I was looking through some old photos that my mom had saved, and came across this: The Tama County Freedom Rock. I haven’t seen it in person myself, but she was there with other members of our family to check it out ten years ago and took these photos. This specific painted rock is part of a series of “Freedom Rocks,” which began in 1999. The artist, Ray “Bubba” Sorensen, wanted to create public art in order to recognize veterans on Memorial Day and to honor their service to our country. The first Freedom Rock was painted and installed in Menlo, Iowa, and the artist later decided it would be his mission to create a Freedom Rock in each of Iowa’s 99 counties.
The Tama County Freedom Rock is located in Gladbrook, Iowa, and was dedicated in 2014. The front side features a chronological procession of U.S. soldiers, spanning from the Civil War era to modern-day conflicts, as you can see in the image above. The back side – shown below – is dedicated to the Meskwaki Code Talkers of World War II, a group from the local Meskwaki Settlement who used their native language to transmit secret military messages.
So what’s the story of the Meskwaki Code Talkers? According to reports, 27 Meskwaki men enlisted in the Iowa National Guard in early 1941, with the suggestion that they might have been motivated by economic circumstances as much as by patriotism. From this group of new recruits, 8 Meskwaki men were selected for instruction in walkie-talkie radio, with the plan to use a code derived from their indigenous language in order to safeguard the communications, assuming that none of the enemy powers from WWII would understand their language.
Who were the Meskwaki? The Meskwaki (or Fox) Tribe have a long history in the Great Lakes region, with notable fighting conflicts with the French during the Fox Wars (circa 1712 to 1733) over territories that are known today as the states of Michigan and Wisconsin. The Meskwaki later consolidating with the Sauk for treaty purposes, and after being relocated several times by the U.S. government, the Meskwaki formally purchased land in Tama County, Iowa, which gave formal federal identity to the Meskwaki people as the “Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa.” More can be read about the Meskwaki (which means “People of the Red Earth,” originating from their creation stories in the Quebec region) on their website here.