The Indians of Iowa

A Closer Look: Indian History

A CLOSER LOOK Indian History Indian knowledge of historical events dates back many hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years before the coming of white settlers. Before white settlement, native peoples passed along their history through spoken traditions or oral history. With the coming of white settlers, another dimension to history was added through the written word of explorers, military, traders, missionaries, and settlers. Soon, tribes had individuals who used the written word to record their tribal histories. Before 1700: Native Nations of Iowa In the centuries before Columbus landed in the West Indies, Iowa was home to many native groups, spread throughout the state. These Late Prehistoric groups, classified by archaeologists based upon artifacts like pottery, were known as Great Oasis, Mill Creek, Glenwood, and Oneota. All seem to have been at least partially indigenous to Iowa, with Woodland culture roots. Some archaeological traits originated in other areas, such as a set of religious concepts from Mississippian cultures downriver. No one knows for sure what these indigenous groups called themselves . Archaeologists associate the Oneota with the Chiwere Siouan like the Ioway, Otoe, Missouria, and Winnebago and the Glenwood with Caddoans like the Pawnee. The Great Oasis and Mill Creek seem to have left Iowa, merging with some Central Plains elements to become the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara in the Dakotas. By the 1300s, Iowa was inhabited only by the ancestors of the Ioway, Otoe, and Missouria. Why did they leave? During the 1300s and 1400s, climate changes stressed natural resources, increasing conflict between the various 26 Indian History groups. The climate on the plains also became wetter from the 1450s through the 1500s, thus more favorable for agriculture. However, Columbus would land in the West Indies in 1492, and changes were coming. The arrival of Europeans in the western hemisphere had an impact upon Iowa people well before white settlers came into the area. European contact with the eastern seaboard and Mexico had significant repercussions. Disease undoubtedly entered via the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, decimating native groups. Survivors were often assimilated into larger tribes. Trade goods like rings and metal began to trickle in. The first contact between whites and Indians in Iowa came in 1673, with the visit of the French explorers Marquette and Joliet to a refugee village of Illinois Indians near the mouth of the Des Moines River. The Illinois had fled there to avoid the depredations of the Iroquois from the east. The Beaver Wars far to the east caused many tribes to flee westward. In fact, those distant wars were the root cause of the movement into Iowa of the Sauk and Meskwaki from the east and the Sioux from the north. 1700–1800: Iowa as a Refuge from Eastern Wars Conflicts like the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and intertribal wars and intrigues in the east, as well as the westward expansion of American settlers, pushed many tribes west from their original homes in eastern states into Iowa, beginning in the late 1670s. Thus began a domino effect that resulted in many of the intertribal wars in Iowa during the 1700s. The 1700s and early 1800s were marked by terrible wars among the Sioux, Sauk, Meskwaki, Omaha, and Ioway for Iowa lands. Although the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War were fought farther east, they also affected the tribes of Iowa, in that tribal alliances with the French, British, or Americans became the basis of intensified intertribal conflicts. Indian History 27 In the 1700s, after wars with the French and with other Indian tribes, the Sauk and Meskwaki moved from Michigan and Wisconsin into Iowa and Illinois. Some of the Sioux pressed south into Iowa from Minnesota, where they were in conflict with the Ojibwa. These movements pressed Iowa’s smaller resident tribes, notably the Ioway and Otoe, further west and south. The Otoe left Iowa to settle in Nebraska , near the Pawnee; the Ioway stayed in southern Iowa until the 1830s. The Omaha also continued to use western Iowa’s Loess Hills. The Ojibwa, Kickapoo, Mascouten, and Potawatomi occasionally camped in eastern Iowa or raided resident tribes like the Ioway for war trophies or slaves to trade to the French. The Comanches and Plains Apaches also raided tribes in Nebraska and Iowa for slaves to trade to the Spanish in New Mexico. The native nations of Iowa began to experience changes in culture also because of the expansion of the fur trade and...