Carol Ruppé Mesquakie Collection

Carol Ruppé was born Helen Carolyn Varley in Menlo, Iowa on February 22, 1923. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1945 and married Reynold J. Ruppé. The couple moved to Iowa City in the early 1950s when Reynold Ruppé began work as an anthropology professor at the University of Iowa. They had two children, Patricia Ann (Ruppé) Durden and Lawrence Reed.

In 1954, University of Chicago anthropology professor Sol Tax asked the couple to baby sit a class of graduate students for a summer session at the Sac and Fox settlement in Tama, Iowa. The Mesquakies are an Algonquian nation, commonly called Fox by Europeans, who were closely allied with the Sac during the expansion of European colonization. By the late twentieth century, a small group of Mesquakies lived near Tama, Iowa; others lived with the Sac in Oklahoma. Along with the graduate students, Carol Ruppé gradually became acquainted with the Mesquakie people and their daily life, including gardening, activities in the center, the American Legion Hall, and local traditions like the Peyote Society and preparations for the annual Pow Wow.

The Ruppés remained involved with the Mesquakie community until the end of their tenure in Iowa in 1960. Carol Ruppé maintained friendships and correspondence with members of the community during and after her stay in Tama. Ruppé earned her Masters in Library Science from the University of Denver in 1959 and worked as a reference librarian and subject specialist for the University Libraries at Arizona State University from 1962 to 1986. Carol Ruppé died at home in Tempe, Arizona on November 4, 2003.