The Iowa, also known as Ioway or Báxoje (, "grey snow people"), are a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

. Historically, they spoke a Chiwere

Siouan language Siouan ( ), also known as Siouan–Catawban ( ), is a language family of North America located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who ...

. Today, they are enrolled in either of two

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

: the

Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is one of two federally recognized tribes for the Iowa people. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. Traditionally Iowas spoke the Chiwere language, part of the Siouan language family. Their own name for ...

and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. The Iowa,

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"''Oklah ...

, and

Otoe 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. Histori ...

tribes were all once part of the

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hocąk, Hoocągra, or Winnebago are a Siouan languages, Siouan-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois ...

people and were all Chiwere language speakers. They left their ancestral homelands in Southern

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

for Eastern

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, a state that bears their name. In 1837, the Iowa were moved from Iowa to reservations in Brown County,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

, and Richardson County,

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

. Bands of Iowa were forced into

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

in the late 19th century and settled south of

Perkins, Oklahoma Perkins () is a city in southern Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,831 at the 2010 census, an increase of 24.6 percent from the figure of 2,272 in 2000. The name is derived from Walden Perkins, a congressman who helpe ...

, to become the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

Etymology

The Ioway call themselves the Báxoje, pronounced (alternate spellings: ''pahotcha'', ''pahucha'', ''Bah-Kho-Je''), which translates to "grey snow". ''Báxoje'' has been incorrectly translated as "dusted faces" or "dusty nose". The name Iowa has been said to come from the Sioux ''ayuhwa'' ("sleepy ones."). Early European explorers often adopted the names of tribes from the

ethnonyms An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

which other tribes gave them, not understanding that these differed from what the peoples called themselves. Thus, ''ayuhwa'' is not an Ioway word. The word Ioway comes from Dakotan ''ayuxbe'' via French ''aiouez''. The state of

, where they once lived, was named after this tribe. Their name has been applied to other locations, such as Iowa County,

Iowa City Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which enc ...

and the

Iowa River The Iowa River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the state of Iowa in the United States. It is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 and i ...

Population

Their estimated 1760 population of 1,100 dropped to 800 and by 1804, a decrease caused mainly by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

, to which they had no natural

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity ...

. Their numbers were reduced to 500 by 1900. In 1960, 100 Iowa lived in Kansas and 100 in Oklahoma. By 1980 their population had recovered to 1,000 (of which only 20 spoke Iowa). In 1990 there were 1,700 people. According to the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

, in 1995 there were 533 individuals living in the Iowa reservations of Kansas and 44 in Nebraska (Horton Agency), while 857 people lived in the Oklahoma Iowa Tribe (Shawnee Agency), amounting to a total of 2,934 people. According to the 2000 census, 1,451 people identified as full-blood Iowa, 76 were of mixed-Indian descent, 688 of mixed-race descent, and 43 of mixed-race and tribe descent, amounting to 2,258 people.

Culture

The Iowa have had customs similar to those of the other Siouan-speaking tribes of the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

, such as the Omaha, Ponca and Osage. They were a semi-

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

ic people who had adopted horses for hunting, but they also had an agricultural lifestyle similar to the tribes inhabiting the

Eastern woodlands The Eastern Woodlands is a cultural region of the Indigenous people of North America. The Eastern Woodlands extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Great Plains, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now ...

. They planted

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and manufactured

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , such that is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium ...

pipes, which they traded along with furs with the French colonizers. Historically, their houses included bark lodges (''chakiruthan''),

tipi A tipi or tepee ( ) is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on ...

s, and at times, earth lodges—oven-shaped buildings covered with earth for protection from extremes of temperature and oriented to a cardinal direction. A smoke hole enabled ventilation from a central hearth. During the hunting season or in warfare, they used the portable tipi. Like the Osage or Kansa, Iowa men traditionally shaved their heads and decorated them with deer hide. Like Great Plains tribes, they valued three feats during a battle.

History

In precontact times, the Iowa emigrated from the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

region to present-day Iowa. In the 16th century, they moved from the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

to the Great Plains, and possibly then separated from the Ho-Chunk tribe. From the 15th to 18th centuries, they lived in the Red Pipestone Quarry region (

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

). In the early 19th century, the Iowa had reached the banks of the Platte River, where in 1804

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

visited their settlements. There they engaged in trading with the French and local tribes, thanks to their advantageous situation regarding the alum deposits. Between 1820 and 1840, the Iowa ceded their Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri lands to the U.S. government. By 1837 most were relocated to a reservation along the Kansas-Nebraska border, led by their chief Chief Mahaska (''Mew-hew-she-kaw'', "White Cloud"; archaic Ioway ''Maxúshga'' pronounced ; contemporary ''Maxúhga''). They surrendered the Little Platte territory in Missouri in 1836. Other Missouri lands had been ceded in 1824. Photograph of Mary Louise White Cloud Rhodd - NARA - 557157

Photograph of Mary Louise White Cloud Rhodd - NARA - 557157

In 1837 they settled in a strip of land in Kansas, south of the Big Nemaha River, along with the Sauk and the

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 ...

, tribes with which they had long had friendly relations (though speaking unrelated

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( ; also Algonkian) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from ...

). Some 45 Iowa fought in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in the Union Army, among them Chief James White Cloud, grandson of ''Mahaska''. In 1883 a number of Iowa moved to Indian Territory preferring to live in the older community village way of life. The new reservation was located in Lincoln, Payne and Logan counties in the

. However, despite their efforts to block allotment, their lands were divided anyway. Today the

Iowa Reservation The Iowa Reservation of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska straddles the borders of southeast Richardson County, Nebraska, Richardson County in southeastern Nebraska and Brown County, Kansas, Brown and Doniphan County, Doniphan counties in nort ...

in Nebraska and Kansas is approximately in size, and has more than 150 residents.

21st-century

In 2007, a documentary film ''Lost Nation: The Ioway'' (2007; written and directed by Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle) was made, and followed by sequels 2 and 3. The Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska operates the Casino White Cloud at White Cloud, Kansas, on the Ioway Reservation. Jacob Keyes is the current tribal chairperson of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. The tribes operates the Cimarron Casino in Perkins, Oklahoma, and the Ioway Casino in Chandler, Oklahoma.

Notable historical Iowa people

* Big Neck * Marie Aioe Dorion * Chief Mahaska

References

External links

Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
official website
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma
official website
Ioway Cultural Institute
* /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Bice%27waan_Song.ogg Download recordingof a

courtship Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage or committed romantic, ''de facto'' relationship. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marri ...

song from the Library of Congress' ''Omaha Indian Music Collection''; performed by George Miller in 1897, collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche
"Lost Nation: The Ioway" – a historical documentary film about the Ioway Tribe

"Maps, Material Culture, and Memory: On the Trail of the Ioway"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iowa People Native American tribes in Kansas Native American tribes in Nebraska Native American tribes in Oklahoma Siouan peoples Plains tribes Native American tribes in Iowa Native American tribes in Minnesota Native American tribes in Missouri