Below is part of the chapter. You can read the whole chapter on the Iowa History Site. STORIES OF IOWA FOR BOYS AND GIRLS CHAPTER XV MAHASKA AND RANTCHEWAIME One evening in the spring of 1824, before there were any white settlers living in Iowa, an Indian made a camp for the night on the prairie near the mouth of the Des Moines River. This was Mahaska, whose name meant White Cloud in English. He was the chief of the Iowa tribe of Indians. His father, old Mauhawgaw, the Wounding Arrow, had led the Iowas into the Iowa country only a few years before. Soon afterward a band of Sioux Indians visited his village and invited the Iowa chief to a feast. Mauhawgaw accepted, but the Sioux were really enemies, and when he came to their feast, they killed him. The Iowa Indians were very angry, of course. They sent a war party against the Sioux, and Mahaska brought home the scalp of the Sioux chief. Thus it was that Mahaska had become the chief of the Iowas. Mahaska looked like a chief. He was over six feet tall, strong, and good-looking. Whether in war against enemies, or hunting the buffalo on the prairie, or in the games the young Indian men enjoyed, Mahaska was a leader. He had already led his warriors in fully eighteen battles, and he had never been defeated. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/