Mahaska (Native American leader) Mahaska (Native American leader) Mahaska (archaic Ioway "Maxúshga" pronounced ; contemporary "Maxúhga"), or White Cloud, (1784–1834) was a chief of the Native American Iowa tribe. His son, also named Mahaska, was better known as Francis White Cloud. Mahaska was born into the Iowa tribe. He became chief at an early age after killing several enemy Sioux to avenge his father's death by them. Later Mahaska killed a French trader in an argument; he was arrested and imprisoned in St. Louis, Missouri. After he escaped, he led a raid against the Osage. Afterward, he decided that his father's death was finally
Native American slave ownership worked against their best interests." In 1751, South Carolina law stated: "The carrying of Negroes among the Indians has all along been thought detrimental, as an intimacy ought to be avoided." Sometimes Native Americans resented the presence of African Americans. The "Catawaba tribe in 1752 showed great anger and bitter resentment when an African American came among them as a trader." To gain favor with Europeans, the Cherokee exhibited the strongest color prejudice of all Native Americans. Native Americans were rewarded if they returned escaped slaves, and African Americans were rewarded for fighting in the late 19th-century Indian Wars. African