Adeline, as she was called, attended the Sac and Fox day school in Tama, Iowa, and then went to a government boarding school in South Dakota, the first from her tribe to do so. She returned home in 1923 at age 13 and enrolled in the Tama public schools. While in high school, she was one of the first members of the Ne-No-Tal 4-H Club, founded in 1927 for Indian girls and women.

Wanatee then graduated from the Haskell Indian Industrial Training School in Lawrence, Kan., in 1931, and then worked for two years at the Toledo Sanatorium.

In October 1957, Wanatee, then 46, became the first woman in Meskwaki history to be elected to the Meskwaki Tribal Council, where she served two four-year terms.

Always mindful of the welfare of her people, Wanatee attended Red Cross home nursing classes so she could help the doctor who visited the settlement and could care for those who were sick.

She also worked to preserve her tribe’s history. Her mother had given her a book, written in Meskwaki, that listed the tribe’s chiefs, told of the times the tribe had been forced to move and related how the Meskwaki finally bought land and settled in Iowa.

When the tribe was considering entering into a bingo business in 1984, Wanatee and her husband were opposed, thinking gambling would bring trouble to the settlement.

Wanatee, who was widowed in 1985, was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. She was the first Native American to be inducted, and her lifelong advocacy for Native Americans and women was cited, as was her work as a Meskwaki language specialist and resource for the Smithsonian Institution.

Asked how she wanted to be remembered, she said, “Where I came from. I am proud that my people never left Iowa, never became prisoners. They are the reason I want to help.”

Wanatee died Oct. 15, 1996, at age 85, survived by her seven children and three brothers.