The Mesquakie believed the spirits of their ancestors dwelled within the trees o their Iowa homeland. " The murmur of the trees when the wind passes through is but the voices of our grandparents," explained one Mesquakie.

The Tribe, also know as the Fox Indians, thus considered wood and all objects make from wood to be sacred.

The wooden feast bowls used as ritual vessels during religious ceremonies were thought to contain the very essence of a tree's spiritual substance.

The bowls ranged in size from a few inches to nearly two feet in diameter.

The smallest were used for making medicine, the largest used as serving vessels in the ceremonial lodge. They were carved from burls, the dense knotty outgrowths on tree trunks, that had been carefully hollowed out through a long process of burning and scraping.

Because their naturally rounded shape suggested the swelling of pregnancy, burls were looked upon as symbols of fertility. The bowls which were endowed with the same associations, represented birth and were revered as symbols of hope for the continuity of the Tribe.