Student numbers at the Meskwaki Settlement School rose 12 percent, topping 300 students for the 2011-12 school year, This is according to enrollment numbers provided by Superintendent Jerry Stephens.
At seven grade levels, from early childhood (age three) through 12th grade there were increases in student numbers. The biggest jump was for 9th grade with a total of 24 students counted this year compared to 12 in 2010-11.
Total Meskwaki High School enrollment for 2011-12 is 67 compared to a total of 52 in 2011-12. The high school opened in 2009.
In grades pre-kindergarten-8th grade there is a total enrollment of 228. In 2010-11 there were 212 pupils.
Follows Population Trend
Tama County has been the home of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa - Meskwakis - since 1856 when members returned to Iowa and bought their own property to form their Settlement.
The Native American population in Tama County increased to 1,327 or 12 percent of the county's total population according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The Census listed 1,102 Native American residents in the county in 2000.
Those numbers put Tama County third in Iowa at 12 percent of the number of Native Americans living within its borders according to the State Library of Iowa Data Center.
The Data Center lists the Tama County town of Vining (population 50) with the highest percentage of Native American residents state-wide at 10 percent .
Toledo and Tama each have populations made up of 5.8 percent Native Americans.
Over one-half of the growth in Iowa's Native American population from 2000-2010 occurred in three counties: Polk, Tama, and Woodbury according to the Data Center.
State-wide, Woodbury County is home to 20 percent of Native Americans in Iowa, Polk County is next at 12.5 percent followed by Tama County at 12 percent.