MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT — “If you want to learn about indigenous people, go talk to them.”

That was the advice Suzanne Buffalo shared on Saturday morning as the tribe’s cultural center and museum was open for special weekend hours in conjunction with National Tribal Museums Day.

“We have our version of history. We’re not changing, we’re not revising anyone else’s history. We’re just adding to that,” she said.

Located at 303 Meskwaki Rd., the museum contains a mix of written and photographic history and real-life artifacts that are available for public viewing. Due to its relatively small staff, it is typically only open on weekdays, but Meskwaki Historic Preservation Director Johnathan Buffalo is also willing to schedule tours by appointment. Recently, they hosted a large group of about 30 international indigenous students, and Johnathan is always happy to accommodate.

“He loves this stuff,” Suzanne said.

New Meskwaki Emergency Management Director David Engel, who moved to Tama with his wife Pam about a month ago, visited the museum on Saturday and said it is important to learn more about the tribe and its history. Engel has extensive experience working for other tribes in the past.

“It’s enlightening because I don’t know where they came from, and if you don’t know where a tribe has come from, you don’t know how to help them,” he said. “This particular culture, they don’t want to ask for trouble, and so sometimes the preparation for emergency management looks as though you’re asking for bad things to befall (us), and that’s not what we’re trying to do. So I have to find that balance of ‘How do I help without asking for these things to come and be bad?'”

Johnathan commented that the Meskwaki museum doesn’t have much signage and isn’t heavily advertised, but it still draws over 1,000 visitors a year.

“When people walk through that door, they sought us out. They found out about us, and they decided ‘I’m gonna go find that museum.’ So everybody that walks in that door has been looking for us,” he said.

Serving as the tribe’s historic preservation director has been a “dream job” for Buffalo, and few people are more passionate or knowledgeable about the Meskwaki Nation, whose roots go all the way back to the modern-day province of Quebec in eastern Canada.

The museum has been open in its current location since 2010, and Johnathan still enjoys walking around it every day. Long term, he envisions a larger museum located along Highway 30, but for now, he’s happy with what he has and happy to welcome all types of visitors.

“Tribally, we’re very proud of it. It’s become our greeter for visitors, new guests, old friends and people that come every few years just to see what’s new. And we get two types of patrons. We have a group that just wants to see what artifacts, so they hardly read (the history) because they’re here to see Indian stuff. So they walk around and they leave. But the people that read and want to learn, it takes them a while to go around because they read everything,” he said.

The museum can be reached at (641) 484-3185.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.