American Indians of Iowa include numerous
Native American tribes and prehistoric cultures that have lived in this territory for thousands of years.
There has been movement both within the territory, by prehistoric cultures that descended into historic tribes, and by other historic tribes that migrated into the territory from eastern territories. In some cases they were pushed by development pressure and warfare.
Prehistoric period
Chiwere-Siouan speaking tribes
*
Ho-Chunk (Winnebago; often classified as Hochunk-Siouan speakers)
*
Ioway
The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje (English: grey snow; Chiwere: Báxoje ich'é) are a Native American Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma an ...
(Baxoje)
*
Missouria
The Missouria or Missouri (in their own language, Niúachi, also spelled Niutachi) are a Native American tribe that originated in the Great Lakes region of what is now the United States before European contact.May, John D"Otoe-Missouria"''Oklaho ...
*
Otoes
The Otoe (Chiwere: Jiwére) are a Native American people of the Midwestern United States. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa, Missouria, and Ho-Chunk tribes.
Historically, ...
The Chiwere-speaking tribes are descended from the prehistoric
Oneota
Oneota is a designation archaeologists use to refer to a cultural complex that existed in the eastern plains and Great Lakes area of what is now occupied by the United States from around AD 900 to around 1650 or 1700. Based on classification de ...
culture. At the time of contact with European explorers, their range covered most of Iowa. The Ho-Chunk ranged primarily east of the Mississippi in southern Wisconsin, the Ioway/Baxoje ranged in northern Iowa, the Otoe in central and southern Iowa, and the Missouria in far southern Iowa. All these tribes were also active during the historic period.
Dhegihan-Siouan speaking tribes
The following tribes arrived in the late prehistoric period:
*
Kaw
Kaw or KAW may refer to:
Mythology
* Kaw (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology
* Johnny Kaw, mythical settler of Kansas, US
* Kaw (character), in ''The Chronicles of Prydain''
People
* Kaw people, a Native American tribe
Places
* Kaw, Fr ...
(Kansa)
*
Omaha
*
Osage
*
Ponca
The Ponca ( Páⁿka iyé: Páⁿka or Ppáⁿkka pronounced ) are a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca ...
The Dhegiha lived near the Missouri in the very Late Prehistoric and historic periods; they appear to have migrated to the region from the south or southeast. Their origin location is debated.
Other Siouan-language-speaking tribes
The following tribes are of the late prehistoric and historic period:
*
Hidatsa
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent ...
*
Mandan
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...
These may be descendants of Late Prehistoric Mill Creek cultures, whose range extended into northwest Iowa.
Their territory was wide; the Lewis and Clark expedition reported on Mandan villages on the upper Missouri River.
Dakotan-Siouan speakers
*
Santee Sioux
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...
*
Yankton Sioux
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...
The Dakota pushed southward into much of Iowa in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were frequently seen by European-American settlers.
In 1840, the translator
Isaac Galland noted several Sioux groups in or near Iowa, including
Wahpekute
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...
, North
Sisseton
Sisseton is a city in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,479 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Roberts County. Sisseton is the home to a number of tourist attractions, including the Nicollet Tower, and ...
, South
Sisseton
Sisseton is a city in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,479 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Roberts County. Sisseton is the home to a number of tourist attractions, including the Nicollet Tower, and ...
, East
Wahpetonwan, West
Wahpetonwan,
Yankton, and
Mdewakantonwan.
Historic period
Caddoan-speaking tribes
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Arikara
Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)
*
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language:
* Pawnee people
* Pawnee language
Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States:
* Pawnee, Illinois
* Pawnee, Kansas
* Pawnee, Missouri
* Pawnee City, Nebraska ...
These may be descendants of Late Prehistoric
Central Plains Tradition cultures that lived in southwest Iowa, especially around the present-day
Glenwood area. The Pawnee (''Panis'') are shown in southwest Iowa in a 1798 map, although they ranged primarily to the west.
Algonquian speakers
Tribes from the early historical period:
*
Illinois Confederacy (including
Moingona,
Peoria, and
Piankashaw
The Piankeshaw, Piankashaw or Pianguichia were members of the Miami tribe who lived apart from the rest of the Miami nation, therefore they were known as Peeyankihšiaki ("splitting off" from the others, Sing.: ''Peeyankihšia'' - "Piankeshaw Pers ...
)
*
Kickapoo. A subgroup occupied the
Upper Iowa River
The Upper Iowa River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest of the United States.
Its headwaters rise ...
region in the late 1600s and early 1700s; they may have been called the ''"Mahouea"''.
*
Mascouten
The Mascouten (also ''Mascoutin'', ''Mathkoutench'', ''Muscoden,'' or ''Musketoon'') were a tribe of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans located in the Midwest. They are believed to have dwelt on both sides of the Mississippi River, adjacent to ...
*
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...
(Fox)
*
Sauk
The encroachment of Europeans and long-term conflict among Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes in the east pushed many eastern tribes into the Midwest. The Meskwaki have maintained a presence in Iowa, even after official removal in 1846. They established a recognized
Settlement
Settlement may refer to:
*Human settlement, a community where people live
*Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
*Settlement (fin ...
.
Iroquoian speakers
The
Wyandot
Wyandot may refer to:
Native American ethnography
* Wyandot people, also known as the Huron
* Wyandot language
Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...
(Huron) were Iroquoian speakers from the early historical period. Again, the encroachment of Europeans and long-term conflict between Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes in the east pushed these tribes into the Midwest.
Moved into Iowa
These tribes moved to Iowa during the historic period:
*
Potawatomi
*
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
(Chippewa)
*
Odawa (Ottawa)
The forced relocation of tribes in the 19th century from east of the Mississippi led to some eastern tribes living in and near Iowa. Their former territory had been around the Great Lakes.
Potawatomi Chief
Sauganash founded the village that eventually grew into
Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is loc ...
.
Others
*
Apache and
Comanche visit 17th century-19th century
Indian settlements and claimed lands in Iowa
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Meskwaki Settlement, Iowa
The Meskwaki Settlement is an unincorporated community in Tama County, Iowa, United States, west of Tama. It encompasses the reservation lands of the Meskwaki Nation (federally recognized as the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa), one ...
*
Blackbird Bend
Notable Indians who lived in Iowa
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Appanoose
Appanoose was a 19th-century Meskwaki chief who lived in Iowa; he was son of Taimah (Chief Tama) and probably a grandson of Quashquame. Prior to European-American settlement in the 19th century, the tribe occupied territory in what became Michiga ...
*
Antonine Barada (White Horse)
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Black Hawk
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Douglas Spotted Eagle
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Inkpaduta
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Keokuk
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Mahaska "White Cloud"
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Neapope
Neapope (''Na-pope'' meaning "Broth" in the Sauk language) was a spiritual leader of the Sauk tribe and advisor to Black Hawk during the Black Hawk War.
Biography
A prominent chieftain of the Sauk prior to the Black Hawk War, Neapope was first ...
*
Maria PearsonPoweshiek*
Quashquame
Quashquame (alt: "Quawsquawma, Quashquami, Quashquammee, Quash-Qua-Mie, Quash-kaume, Quash-quam-ma", meaning "Jumping Fish") (c. 1764 – c . 1832) was a Sauk chief; he was the principal signer of the 1804 treaty that ceded Sauk land to the Unit ...
*
John Raymond Rice
Sergeant First Class John Raymond Rice (Native American name: Walking in Blue Sky) (April 25, 1914 – September 6, 1950) was a Ho Chunk (Winnebago) Indian and a United States Army soldier killed in action while leading his squad in Korea in 19 ...
*
Sauganash (Billy Caldwell)
*Sidominadota
*
Taimah
Taimah (1790-1830; var. ''Taiomah'', ''Tama'', ''Taima'', ''Tiamah'', ''Fai-inah'', ''Ty-ee-ma'', lit. "sudden crash of thunder" or "thunder") was a Meskwaki (Fox) leader in the early 19th century in present-day Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. He wa ...
(Tama)
*
Wabansi
*
Wapello
*
Watseka
*
Ray Young Bear
*
Notchininga "No Heart"
[Lance M. Foster ''The Indians of Iowa'' 2009. Quote: "The most famous of these maps was presented by Chief No Heart in connection with the treaty of 1837. It showed clearly the antiquity of Ioway villages along most of Iowa's major rivers; the United States decided in favor of the claims of the more numerous and powerful Sioux, Sauk, and Meskwaki. .."]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indians Of Iowa
Indians
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...