Sac and Fox Nation

Sac & Fox Nation
Tribal flag
Total population
3,794[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Oklahoma)
Languages
English, Sauk
Religion
Drum Society, Native American Church,
and Christianity[2]
Related ethnic groups
Sac, Meskwaki, Kickapoo,
and other Algonquian peoples

The Sac and Fox Nation (Meskwaki language: Othâkîwaki / Thakiwaki or Sa ki wa ki) is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox) Indian peoples. Originally from the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan area, they were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the 1870s and are predominantly Sauk.[2] The Sac and Fox Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area (OTSA) is the land base in Oklahoma governed by the tribe.

The two other Sac and Fox tribes are the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa and the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska. The Sac and Fox tribes have historically been closely allied, and continue to be in the present day. They speak very similar Algonquian languages, which are sometimes considered to be two dialects of the same language, rather than separate languages. Thakiwaki and Sa ki wa ki mean "people coming forth from the water".[2]

  1. ^ 2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. Archived April 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2011: 31. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c McCollum, Timothy James. "Sac and Fox." Archived October 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved April 12, 2010)