Lelah Pekachuk

Portrait of Lelah Puckachee[1]

Lelah Puckachee (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]

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

Several days later, Puckachee 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, Puckachee 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 Puckachee's release.[13] After Shaw declined to assist, Wilcox filed for a writ of habeas corpus for Puckachee 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] Puckachee was released from the Toledo Indian School after Shiras' December 29, 1899 ruling.[13]

Puckachee died of smallpox in November 1901, one of many victims of the small pox epidemics that swept the United States at the turn of the last century.

Legacy

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

Puckachee'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]

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. 1 2 ""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. 1 2 ""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. 1 2 ""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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 "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.

Further reading

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