♪♪ Kohlsdorf: Before Tama was a county and Iowa was a state, the Meskwaki people of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi and Iowa settled in the Iowa River Valley.

The tribe formally purchased land near Tama in 1857 and governs itself still today.

Pull off the byway at the Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum to learn the history of the Sac and Fox tribe.

If you're passing through in August, be sure to attend the annual Meskwaki pow-wow for a grand display of traditional Sac and Fox dress and ceremony.

On Highway 30, behind the Meskwaki Casino, sits Red Earth Gardens, where Waylon Wolf and his team are hard at work growing fresh fruits and vegetables for their community.

Wolf: Red Earth Gardens started in 2013 as part of the Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Initiative.

You know, they wanted to bring in more healthy foods for our community.

You know, they wanted to go with our old traditional ways of growing all natural, you know, some call it organic.

We also use it as a community get-together, like, everybody to gather, make a big meal, bring everybody together.

Behind us, we have three fields of melons and squash mixed together.

Six different varieties of beans.

Behind you, we got garlic and potatoes.

And in the distance there, we got some sweet corn.

Right here, we got jalapeños.

We got three different varieties of bell peppers.

On the trellis here, we have two rows of snap peas and two rows of Fortex green beans.

Kohlsdorf: Wolf took over the garden in 2022, after 16 years working in the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel.

Wolf: It is hard work.

We don't mind the heat.

We don't mind the sun, but trying to keep up with the weeds, trying to keep up with when things grow, when to harvest it, you know, not relying on the rain.

My personal goals are to actually get people here.

I want volunteers here.

You know, I want to see them from seed to finish.

You know, I want people out here getting healthy, getting some sun, show them how we grow it, you know, so they can take it home and start their own gardens.

You know, the name Red Earth Gardens came from the word Meskwaki, the red earth people.

We're a pretty close-knit community, and you know, we take care of Mother Earth, and she takes care of us.

You know, I mean, that's pretty much how it works.