IOWA TRIBE IN MINNESOTA

THE FRENCH CALLED THEM 'AYUHWA' OR SLEEPY ONES. SKINNER STATE THAT IOWA WAS THEIR PREFERED NAME. THEY ALSO HAD AN ALGONQUIN NAME MEANING 'DAKOTA OF THE PRAIRIES'. THE IOWA WERE OF THE SIOUAN STOCK AND OF THE CHIWERE SUBDIVISION.

THEY MOVED ABOUT A GREAT DEAL WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES. IN EARLY HISTORICAL PERIOD THE IOWA WERE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI AS WELL AS THE UPPER IOWA. LATER THEY MOVED TO NORTHWEST IOWA AND PROBABLY EXTENDED INTO SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA. BY 1690'S THEY SETTLED NEAR COUNCIL BLUFFS. ABOUT 1760'S THEY MOVED EAST TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ALONG THE DES MOINES RIVER.

IN THE 1800'S THEY CAME INTO CONTACT WITH THE DAKOTAS AND SUFFERED CONSIDERABLY. AFTER TREATIES WERE CEDED THEY GAVE MOST OF THE LAND IN MINNESOTA, MISSOURI, AND IOWA AWAY.

THE IOWA LANGUAGE IS CALLED 'BA-KHO-JE (GREAT SNOW). THE ORAL HISTORY RELATES HOW OUR VILLAGES IN WINTER WERE COVERED WITH FIRE SMOKED GRAY SNOW. THEIR ELDERS WERE COVERED BY TELL THAT THEIR LANDS WERE BEYOND THE GREAT WATERS WHERE THE SUN RISES REDDENING THE LAND. IOWA STATE WAS NAMED AFTER THESE INDIANS.

IN THE 1600'S THE IOWAS DESCENDANTS OF THE ONEOTA, WERE IN SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA.
THEY LIVED IN SPIRIT LAKE REGION. THEY MOVED SOUTH TO THE VICINITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. MANY LIVED ON THE DES MOINES RIVER, GRAND AND PLATTE RIVERS. A TREATY OF 1836 ASSIGNED PART OF THEM TO A RESERVATION ALONG THE MEMAHA RIVER IN NEBRASKA. BY 1883 THE ORIGINAL IOWA RESERVATION IS IN OKLAHOMA WAS DIVIDED INTO TWO TRIBES.

THE WAY OF LIFE WITHIN THE THE IOWAY PEOPLE HAS SURVIVED BY A DEEP SPIRITUALITY AND STRENGTH THAT ENABLED THEM TO CONCIEVE IN THEIR OWN WAY HOE TO SUSTAIN HARDSHIPS AND CHALLENGES.

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