The Ioway Tribal National Park is a tribal national park established by the

Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of two federally recognized tribes of Iowa people. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. They hold an annual Indian movie night and a powwow every September. Reservation The Iowa Reservation ...

. The 444-acre park is located entirely within the

Ioway Reservation The Iowa Reservation of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska straddles the borders of southeast Richardson County in southeastern Nebraska and Brown and Doniphan Counties in northeastern Kansas. Tribal headquarters are west of White Cloud, Kan ...

, next to the Missouri River southeast of Rulo on the border between

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. The Park was created in 2020 and is set to open to the public in 2025.

History

Formerly inhabiting what is now the state of

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 the ...

, the

Iowa people The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje (English: grey snow; Chiwere language, Chiwere: Báxoje ich'é) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American Sioux, Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of ...

were relocated to northeastern Kansas in 1836. The

originally included 12,000 acres. Following the

Dawes Act The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...

of 1887, the land was sold to or acquired by non-Indians, who by the 1940s owned 90% of the land. the tribe has reacquired one-third of its original territory. Botanist Ray Schulenberg owned the land where the national park would come to be for 60 years. He lived there in a shack, preserving and restoring the

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroach ...

. He donated the land to

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

in 1989. In 2018, the Nature Conservancy of Nebraska transferred 160 acres of historic tribal land in Richardson County to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. The Nature Conservancy purchased the land in 1994 with help from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. In 2020, the Nature Conservancy transferred an additional 284 acres of land to the tribe.

Information

The Ioway Tribal National Park is located entirely within the 3000-acre Rulo Bluffs Preserve. The state of Nebraska has designated the Rulo Bluffs as a Biologically Unique Landscape. Collecting and motorized vehicles on the preserve are prohibited unless needed for management and tribal permission is required for access to the park. Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Vice Chair Lance Foster indicated that the national park would be used for camping, birdwatching, and hiking. The Ioway Tribal National Park overlooks an historic trading village, the Leary Site, that was used to trade items like buffalo hides and pipe stones and was active in 13th to 15th centuries. The area is also an important home for three

burial mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a ...

that date all the way back to 3000 years. Leary_Site_National_Historic_Landmark

Habitat

The Ioway Tribal National Park includes overlapping ecosystems of tallgrass prairie, ridgetop prairie, and hardwood forest. Trees found in the park include

pin oak ''Quercus palustris'', the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section (''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae'') of the genus ''Quercus''. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of ...

bur oak ''Quercus macrocarpa'', the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'', and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub oa ...

, red oak,

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south t ...

, redbud, ironwood, buckeye,

American basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, and pawpaw. Woodland flora such as jack-in-the-pulpit and yellow lady's slipper also live in the park. Fauna living in the park include

southern flying squirrel The southern flying squirrel or the assapan (''Glaucomys volans'') is one of three species of the genus '' Glaucomys'' and one of three flying squirrel species found in North America. It is found in deciduous and mixed woods in the eastern half o ...

timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (''Crotalus horridus'') Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of ...

s, and

cerulean warbler The cerulean warbler (''Setophaga cerulea'') is a small songbird in the family Parulidae. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in eastern North American hardwood forests. In the non-breeding season, it winters on the eastern slope of the And ...

References

External links

Ioway Tribal National Park Facebook group
* *{{Cite web , title=The Ioway Tribe is creating the largest tribal national park in the US , url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/ioway-tribal-national-park , access-date=2022-02-28 , website=Lonely Planet , language=en 2020 establishments in Nebraska Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Parks in Nebraska Protected areas of Richardson County, Nebraska

History

Information

Habitat

See also

References

External links