Iowa (Indian tribe)
The Iowa people, also known as the Ioway, are a Native American tribe with historical roots tracing back to the upper Great Lakes region. They migrated south and west, eventually settling at the confluence of the Iowa and Mississippi Rivers, and inhabited parts of present-day Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota. Traditionally, their economy combined agriculture, primarily cultivated by women, with hunting activities led by men. This blend of woodland and plains cultures is reflected in their diverse housing styles and rich crafting traditions, particularly in the creation of catlinite pipes. The Iowas have a complex social structure organized into clans, with strict marriage rules and hereditary leadership roles.
Throughout their history, the Iowas faced significant challenges, including warfare and land cessions, leading to the establishment of reservations in Kansas and Nebraska, and later in Oklahoma. By the late 19th century, they adapted to external pressures while maintaining their cultural identity. Today, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska are federally recognized, focusing on cultural preservation and economic development initiatives, including gaming enterprises. The Iowa people continue to strive to recover and celebrate their rich heritage in the contemporary landscape.
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Iowa (Indian tribe)
- CATEGORY: Tribe
- CULTURE AREA: Plains
- LANGUAGE GROUP: Siouan
- PRIMARY LOCATION: Oklahoma, Nebraska/Kansas
- POPULATION SIZE: 800 (Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma); 4,660 (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska)
Sharing a common origin in the upper Great Lakes region with the linguistically related Winnebago, Oto, and Missouri nations, the Iowa (sometimes spelled Ioway) people moved south and west from the Great Lakes at some point, probably in the early seventeenth century. Following the Mississippi River south from what is now Wisconsin, they settled at the confluence of the Iowa and Mississippi Rivers, also migrating west at various times over the next centuries. The Iowas occupied parts of northern Missouri and southern Minnesota as well as much of what is now the state of Iowa.
Reflecting their adaptation from a woodland to a plains environment, the Iowa economy was based on both female-oriented cultivation of crops such as corn, beans, and squash and male-oriented hunting. The latter brought in deer, buffalo, beaver, raccoon, and otter meat. Iowa farming was known to be productive; Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, a French fur trader who was setting up the short-lived Fort L'Huillier in their territory around 1700, persuaded them to move their village nearby because they were “industrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth.” The Iowas were also known for their crafting and trade of catlinite pipes, or calumets.
Their blending of woodland culture and plains cultures is evident in traditional Iowa choice of housing styles. At various times, they used four different types: oval or square bark houses (similar to eastern longhouses or wigwams), wattle-and-daub houses (southeastern in origin), earth lodges, and skin tepees (more common to the plains).
The Iowas had a complex clan system and were patrilineal (one belonged to the father’s clan). Strict rules for marrying outside the clan were maintained. Clans were also the basis of political and religious office holding, as chiefs and religious leaders were elected hereditarily in each clan. The main religious ceremony of the Iowas was the Medicine Dance, similar to those Indigenous peoples of the Algonquian language family around the Great Lakes. Mourning and burial practices were highly developed, and in the pre-reservation era especially, scaffold burial was practiced.
The name “Iowa” comes from the French spelling Aiouez or Aiaouez, probably a transliteration of the Dakotan name for the nation. The name for the Iowa people in their own Chiwere language, which they shared with the Winnebago, Oto, and Missouri, is Báxoje, meaning “gray snow” or “snow-covered.” The reason for the name is unclear.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought increased warfare to the Iowa people, whose primary enemies were the Dakotas. Early in this period, they also warred with the Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox), but they later made peace and became closely associated with these people. By 1836, the Iowas had ceded all rights to their lands in Iowa and Missouri. They settled along with the Sauk and Meskwaki people on a reservation of 400 square miles along the present Kansas-Nebraska state line. The reservation was reduced several times in the 1850s. In the 1870s, the federal government attempted to move the Iowas to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). A reservation was established for them there, and some moved voluntarily, but others insisted on staying on the original reservation. Many Iowas had successfully blended into the surrounding farm economy. By 1890, both reservations had been allotted (divided into individual family plots), and the “surplus” land had been sold to non-Indigenous peoples. When given the chance in the 1930s, both the Oklahoma and the Kansas-Nebraska Iowas set up Indigenous nation charters and constitutions, maintaining their political identity as an Indigenous nation. Culturally, both groups have outwardly blended with the surrounding non-Indigenous culture, although they are attempting to recover as much of their cultural heritage as possible. In the twenty-first century, two federally recognized Iowa Indigenous nations continued to exist: the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. Both nations of Iowa participated in activities to preserve their culture and traditions while pursuing economic development through gaming and other business ventures.
Bibliography
"About Us." Iowa Tribe Of Oklahoma, iowanation.org/about-us. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.
Miner, William Harvey. The American Indians, North of Mexico. The University Press, 1917.
Olson, Greg. Ioway Life: Reservation and Reform, 1837–1860. U of Oklahoma P, 2016.
Townsend, Kristopher K. "The Iowas." Discover Lewis & Clark, lewis-clark.org/native-nations/siouan-peoples/iowas. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.
Wedel, Mildred Mott. "Iowa." Handbook of North American Indians. Edited by William C. Sturtevant. Vol. 13., Smithsonian Inst., 2001, pp. 432–46.
Welcome to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, iowatribeofkansasandnebraska.com. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.