Donald W. Wanatee Sr. regularly spent as many as 100 hours a week away from the Meskwaki Indian Settlement as he tirelessly advocated for Native American people and issues around the country, often sparing his last dollars to get from place to place.
When he was home, he took his kids on hikes through the Meskwaki Nation s heavily wooded settlement in Tama County, Iowa. He taught them how to grow crops and, being a hobby cartographer, how to navigate forests, said Donnielle J. Wanatee, one of his eight children. As a social worker, he understood kids needs and instilled in each of his own children a lifelong sense of individuality, she said.