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The Iowa, also known as Ioway or Báxoje (, "grey snow people"), are a Native American tribe. Historically, they spoke a Chiwere language Siouan language. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes: the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
The Iowa, Missouria, and Otoe tribes were all once part of the Ho-Chunk people and were all Chiwere language speakers. They left their ancestral homelands in Southern Wisconsin for Eastern Iowa, a state that bears their name.
In 1837, the Iowa were moved from Iowa to reservations in Brown County, Kansas, and Richardson County, Nebraska. Bands of Iowa were forced into Indian Territory in the late 19th century and settled south of Perkins, Oklahoma, to become the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.
The state of Iowa, where they once lived, was named after this tribe. Their name has been applied to other locations, such as Iowa County, Iowa City and the Iowa River.
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, 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.
Historically, their houses included bark lodges ( chakiruthan), , and at times, —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.
From the 15th to 18th centuries, they lived in the Red Pipestone Quarry region (Minnesota). In the early 19th century, the Iowa had reached the banks of the Platte River, where in 1804 Lewis and Clark 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 Chiwere language Maxúshga pronounced ; contemporary Maxúhga). They surrendered the Little Platte territory in Missouri in 1836. Other Missouri lands had been ceded in 1824. In 1837 they settled in a strip of land in Kansas, south of the Big Nemaha River, along with the Sauk people and the Meskwaki, tribes with which they had long had friendly relations (though speaking unrelated Algonquian languages). Some 45 Iowa fought in the American Civil War 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 County and Logan counties in the Indian Territory. However, despite their efforts to block allotment, their lands were divided anyway. Today the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas is approximately in size, and has more than 150 residents.
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.
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