Taimah

He was often called Chief Tama in historical accounts and was one of the signatories of an 1824 treaty in Washington, D.C. ceding land to the United States.

He became noted among Americans for saving the life of the United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, by warning him of an assassination attempt.

This man appears to be more intelligent than any other to be found either among the Foxes or Sauks; but he is extremely unwilling to communicate anything relative to the history manners and customs of his people.

He one day informed me when conversing upon this subject that the Great Spirit had put Indians on the earth to hunt, and gain a living in the wilderness; that he always found, that when any of their people departed from this mode of life, by attempting to learn to read write and live as white people do, the Great Spirit was displeased, and they soon died; he concluded, by observing, that when the Great Spirit made them, he gave them their medicine-bag, and they intended to keep it.Taimah signed the 1824 treaty in Washington, DC by which the Meskwaki ceded much of their land in Wisconsin to the United States.

Taimah is buried near what developed as Kingston, about 1/4 mile from the Mississippi River, in a small patch of land in the middle of a corn field.

Taimah, from A.R. Fulton's Red Men of Iowa 1882
Taimah's grave marker, near, Kingston, Iowa . The image on the grave shows Taimah with a stylized Plains Indian headdress, which was not typical of his people's attire; the "Tama Indian Tribe" refers to the Meskwaki who lived at the Meskwaki Settlement .