The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of two federally recognized tribes of

Iowa people 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 ...

. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. They hold an annual Indian movie night and a powwow every September.

Reservation

The Iowa Reservation is located in Richardson County in southeastern

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 sout ...

and

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

and Doniphan Counties in northeastern

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 th ...

. It spans of checkerboard lands, alternating between tribal and non-Native ownership.

Government

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is headquartered in White Cloud, Kansas. The tribe is governed by a five-member council. The current administration is as follows. * Chairperson: Tim Rhodd * Vice-chairperson: Lance Foster * Treasurer: Elyse Towey * Secretary: Tony Fee * Council Member: Robbie Craig.

Economic development

The tribe owns and operates a dairy farm, fuel station, grain processing operation,Pritzker 324 Casino White Cloud, and the Mahuska Restaurant, located in White Cloud, Kansas.

History

Chiwere Siouan language Chiwere (also called Iowa-Otoe-Missouria or Báxoje-Jíwere-Ñút'achi) is a Siouan language originally spoken by the Missouria, Otoe, and Iowa peoples, who originated in the Great Lakes region but later moved throughout the Midwest and plains. ...

-speaking people, the Iowa originally lived near the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

and were once part of the

Ho-Chunk Nation The Ho-Chunk Nation (Ho-Chunk language: ) is a federally recognized tribe of the Ho-Chunk with traditional territory across five states in the United States: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri. The other federally recognized trib ...

. In the 17th century, Iowa people lived in northern

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 ...

and southern

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. During the 1820s and 1830s, the tribe signed numerous treaties with the US federal government and were assigned a reservation near the Great Nemaha River near the Kansas–Nebraska border in 1836. In the 1870s, the tribe split into two groups, and the Southern Ioway moved to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

, while the Northern Ioway remained in Kansas and Nebraska. They ratified their constitution and by-laws on 26 February 1937. During the period from the 1940s to the 1960s, in which the

Indian termination policy Indian termination is a phrase describing United States policies relating to Native Americans from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and practices with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream ...

was enforced, four

tribes, including the Iowa, were targeted for termination. One of the first pieces of legislation enacted during this period was the

Kansas Act of 1940 The Kansas Act of 1940 addressed the means by which Congress could use its power under the Indian Commerce Clause to authorize a state's ability to exercise jurisdiction in certain instances. Because the inherent sovereignty of Indian nations genera ...

which transferred all jurisdiction for crimes committed on or against Indians from federal jurisdiction to the State of Kansas. It did not preclude the federal government from trying Native people, but it allowed the state into an area of law in which had historically belonged only to the federal government. On 1 August 1953, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

passed

House Concurrent Resolution 108 House concurrent resolution 108 (HCR-108), passed August 1, 1953, declared it to be the sense of Congress that it should be policy of the United States to abolish federal supervision over American Indian tribes as soon as possible and to subject ...

which called for the immediate termination of the Flathead, Klamath,

Menominee The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...

, Potawatomi, and

Turtle Mountain Chippewa The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (Ojibwe language: ''Mikinaakwajiw-ininiwag'') is a Native American tribe of Ojibwa mixed heritage people, who would be considered Metis if they were Canadian, based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Res ...

, as well as all tribes in the states of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, New York,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Termination of a tribe meant the immediate withdrawal of all federal aid, services, and protection, as well as the end of reservations. A memo issued by the Department of the Interior on 21 January 1954 clarified that the reference to "Potawatomi" in the Resolution meant the Potawatomi, the Kickapoo, the

Sac and Fox The Sac and Fox Nation ( ''Mesquakie'' language: ''Othâkîwaki / Thakiwaki'' or ''Sa ki wa ki'') is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox) Indian peoples. Originally from the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan ...

, and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska tribes in Kansas. Because jurisdiction over criminal matters had already been transferred to the State of Kansas by the passage of the

, the government targeted the four tribes in Kansas for immediate termination. In February 1954, joint hearings for the Kansas tribes were held by the House and Senate Subcommittees on Indian Affairs. The Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation tribal leader, Minnie Wishkeno Evans (Indian name: Ke-wat-no-quah) led the effort to stop termination. Tribal members sent petitions of protest to the government and multiple delegations went to testify at congressional meetings in Washington, DC. Tribal Council members Vestana Cadue, Oliver Kahbeah, and Ralph Simon of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas traveled at their own expense to testify as well. The strong opposition from the Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes helped them, as well as the

and the Iowa Tribe, avoid termination.

21st century

In March 2016, the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska filed a motion to consult with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) regarding their permit for Dakota Energy to build the Bakken pipeline, which will run through the tribe's ancestral lands. The IUB tentatively denied this motion.William Petrosk
Iowa tribe objects to Bakken pipeline process
''Des Moines Register'', 23 March 2016

Notes

References

* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

External links

Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iowa Tribe of Kansas And Nebraska Native American tribes in Kansas Native American tribes in Nebraska Federally recognized tribes in the United States