The Iowa

D.C. of Washington Thomas Foster

APPENDICES

xxi , xxii , xxiii , xxx , xxxi , 11 , note . 17 , 24 , 32 , 35

A GROUP OF IOWA

THE IOWA

A reprint from The Indian Record, as originally published and edited
by Thomas Foster, with introduction, and elucidations
through the text

By WILLIAM HARVEY MINER

With Illustrations and a Map

printer's mark

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
THE TORCH PRESS, 1911

Copyright
1911
By The Torch Press
August

DEDICATED TO

A BIBLIOPHILE IN THE BEST SENSE; TO A LOVER OF
BOOKS AND MEN; TO A STUDENT OF ABORIGINAL
HISTORY; TO A HIGHMINDED AMERICAN GENTLEMAN

JOSEPH PARKER CAMP

	PAGE
Introduction	xv
The Ioway Monograph	1
The Iowa Camping Circle	45
Treaties	49
Synonymy	77
List of Iowa Indians	83
Index	91

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Group of Iowa	Frontispiece
(From the scarce original engraving made in London, when these Indians were under the supervision of George Catlin)
	facing page
An Ioway Grammar	7
(Reproduced in facsimile from a copy of the rare original)
Waw-non-que-skoon-a’s Map	24
(From the original, slightly reduced, in Schoolcraft’s INDIAN TRIBES)
Ma-Has-Kah, the younger	42
(After the colored portrait in Vail’s NOTICE SUR LES INDIENS, etc.)

PREFACE

The material forming the greater part of the present monograph is reprinted verbatim et literatim from certain portions of volume 1, Numbers 1, 2, and 3, Washington, November 30, 1876, of Foster’s Indian Record and Historical Data. The complete work so far as carried out consists only of the three parts here mentioned, printed in folio and comprising four numbered pages each. The editor, Dr. Thomas Foster, who termed himself “Indian historiographer” hoped to be able to publish the sheet weekly “should funds permit.” Evidently lack of finances or the small amount of interest shown in the venture determined against its continuance as it ceased with the third issue.

During Foster’s connection with the Indian Bureau at Washington, John Q. Smith held the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs and it is not improbable looked with little favor on the scheme. In any event the Record is a desideratum in most collections and as such, even a portion of it may not be amiss in this reprint. Unfortunately its short existence did not permit of finishing the sketches of the Iowa or Winnebago, though it would appear that in the instance of the former but little more would have been added. It is hoped however, that in the foreword the more necessary data are given and that it is appropriately terminated.

The actual worth of the Indian Record is slight. Foster’s idea with reference to several monographs relating wholly or in part to certain tribes was a worthy one and could be executed to advantage even at this date. The two treatises attempted in his short-lived publication were on the Iowa and their parent stock, the Winnebago, although several shorter tribal sketches, as for example those on the Attacapa,1 Oroyelles,2 Arapahoes,3 and Eries 4 are included among other features, these being as scattered notes through the forty-eight columns and of more or less value, particularly as concerns the linguistics.5 It is evident from his Introduction that Foster must have had many difficulties to contend with, especially in the matter of procuring suitable faces of type for his Indian vocabularies as well as in the matter of actual printing. At the best the work is poorly done. The proof-reading is wretched and the statements of fact often in grave error. Abject carelessness in the matter of transcription appears without excuse, hence quoted portions through the present text have invariably been read and compared with the originals, obviously enhancing the value of such a reissue. Although a praiseworthy effort for the period and due every consideration at this time, a project of the kind attempted today would fail ingloriously unless handled with requisite care.

In the absence of any cognate facts referring in detail to the Iowa tribe it has been deemed best to reprint Foster’s sketch in its entirety from the Record and to add to it, as appendices, some features which will be of special interest and value to the student of American aboriginal history and ethnology. In this textual portion will be found much from Schoolcraft’s Indian Tribes of the United States, also extracts, some of considerable length, from the first volume of the Minnesota Historical Society’s Collections, 1850-56, and Neill’s History of Minnesota. Nevertheless such facts as are garnered from sources of this character although purloined, are to be welcomed, and in a certain sense it may be considered fortunate that all of the material is not wholly original.

In the introductory sketch following this, an attempt has been made to gather all material readily available on the Iowa tribe. The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to the Bureau of American Ethnology, without assistance from which no authentic or in any way exhaustive sketch on any subject connected with the Indian question could be accomplished. The many references in the form of foot-notes have been verified with the greatest care. In many instances the meanings in the original are ambiguous. In the present form this fault is rectified and it is hoped that the concise yet lucid account of this important branch of the great Siouan family may assist in giving it some of that prominence to which it should rightfully aspire. A list of some of the more famous warriors is included as an appendix, and though incomplete and taken in part from printed records it will show that the tribe numbered among its members men who were famous outside of their own precincts, and these names may inspire some future historian to delve even more deeply into those archives that are known to be only memoirs of a past existence.

Students of Iowa history or of the Indians of the central west can ill afford to overlook a work on the Indian tribes by A. R. Fulton entitled The Red Men of Iowa. The volume is now scarce but fortunately the writer has been able to use it and is glad to acknowledge its excellence. To Worthington C. Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and to W. H. Holmes, of the Smithsonian Institution, James Mooney and F. W. Hodge of the Bureau of American Ethnology, he is also indebted and wishes publicly to express his thanks for their kindly interest.

INTRODUCTION

THE IOWA INDIANS—AN HISTORICAL SKETCH

SYNONYMS 6

Pah8tet. Marquette, (1673) in Shea, Discovery, etc., p. 268, map, 1852. Variants: Nadoessi Mascouteins, Aiounouea, Avoys, PaotÉ, Ayoes, Aiowais, Ayouez, Ainoves, Iawas.

Ho-wah. Name given by the Mdewakanton (Sioux). Ioewaig, name given by the Santee Dakota. Iyakhwa, name given by the Teton. MÁqude, name given by the Omaha Ponca. Pa’-qo-tce, name given by the Kansa. Pa’qu-t[)e], name given by the Quapaw. PÁquʇs[)e], name given by the Osage. PashÓhan, name given by the Pawnee. Paxodshe, name given by the Kansa. Wa-qōtc, name given by the Winnebago.

Iyuhba. Riggs, Dak. Gram. & Dict. p. 278, 1852, trans. “Sleepy Ones.” Nadouessioux Maskoutens: Minn. Hist. Coll., 1864,

(Part 2, p. 30, note), trans. “Sioux of the Prairies;” Algonkin name. Pa-ho-cha: Neb. Hist. Soc., 1885, (p. 47), trans. “Dusty Men.” Pa-ho-dje: Maximilian, (p. 507, 1843) trans. “Dust Noses.”

Iowa. Pike’s Travels; Ed. of 1811 (p. 134). Variants: Iowai, Iaways, Ihoway, Ioway, Jowoi, Jowas, Joways, Ohoa, and Pahoja, names by which they are known among themselves. May be translated as “Gray Snow.”

Sign. Draw the extended right hand across the throat from left to right as if severing the head from the body. Possibly derived from an old Siouan custom of decapitating their prisoners.7

Mallery refers to this branch of the Siouan tribe as “Cut Throats,”8 or a “Cut Throat” from a curious practice adopted by the Iowa after battle. Mooney also advocates this theory though he suggests it applied only to the Sioux and not to the whole Siouan stock and is doubtful as to the common interpretation of the sign—a sweeping motion of the hand in front of the neck—as the Kiowa and certain other tribes called the Iowa the “Necklace People.” He also says that this tribe was a little too far from the plains to have a special sign and were probably merged with the Oto, Missouri, Sauk and others in the general region of the “shaved heads.”

The Iowa tribe of Indians forms one of the Southwestern branches of the great Dakota or Siouan stock and has been included both linguistically and ethnographically by careful students, with the Oto and the Missouri tribes, forming the so-called Chiwere group.9 The real difference existing between the tribes here noted is one of dialect only. Traditional evidence proves conclusively that they sprung originally from that stem which appears to have been the parent stock of certain other southwestern Siouan tribes, notably, the Winnebago, and from direct information obtained from their people as late as 1883, investigators have been told that not only the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto tribes were from the same source but that the Ponca and Omaha could without question be included, having “once formed part of the Winnebago Nation.”10

From their primal home, to the north of the Great Lakes, as tradition has it, came the forebears of these tribes. Attracted by the abundance of fish, the Winnebago halted on the shores of Lake Michigan, while the other bands continued southwestward, eventually coming to the Mississippi. At this point another division took place and it was here that the Iowa separated from the larger group, and it is also at this period that they received the name of Pahoja or Gray Snow.11 Without stopping for any length of time after separating from their comrades, the Iowa continued down the general course of the Mississippi until Rock River (in Illinois) was reached. At this point as in most of the early history of the tribe we must depend largely on hearsay. Certain traditions however, place them farther north. Waw-non-que-skoona-a’s map, drawn in 1848, shows their movements quite clearly until that date. It is hardly necessary to reiterate statements here that appear textually in connection with the cartographical features, especially as these successive movements are of comparatively recent date and considered to be substantially correct. There is a tradition still popular among the Sioux that when their ancestors first came to the Falls of St. Anthony the Iowa tribe occupied the country adjacent to the Minnesota river and that the Cheyenne 12 occupied territory farther up the same stream.13

On the arrival of Le Sueur in 1701 for the purpose of erecting his fort near the mouth of the Blue Earth river, many of the tribe were found and messengers were sent to invite them to settle in the vicinity of the stockade, because of their excellence in farming and general husbandry. Those despatched for this purpose found however, that the Indians had recently moved westward toward the Missouri river and wished to be closer to the Omaha who then dwelt in that region. The tribes with whom Le Sueur came in contact informed him that the river upon which he was about to settle belonged to the Sioux of the West (Dakota), the Ayavois (Iowa), and the Otoctatas (Oto), who lived nearby. Probably the first among the whites to come in actual contact with the Iowa, was PÉre AndrÉ 14 who referred to them in 1676, at which time they were situated about 200 miles west of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The next reference made by a European seems to be that of Father Zenobius MembrÉ 15 in 1680, who mentions the Authontontas (Oto), Nadouessious Maskoutens (Iowa)16 “about 130 leagues from the Illinois river in three great villages built near a river which empties into the Colbert (Mississippi) on the west side above the Illinois, almost opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin.” He also seems to locate a portion of the Aiuoves (probably Aioues) to the west of the Milwaukee river. On Marquette’s manuscript map which accompanied his Journal, 1673,17 the Pahoutet (Iowa) are placed on or near the Missouri river, in close company with the Maha, (Omaha) and Ontontana (Oto). This is no doubt conjecture on the part of the cartographer. The Sieuer de la Salle knew of both Oto and Iowa, and in his Hennepin letter of August 22, 1682, he refers to them as Otoutanta and Atounauea respectively. He further states that one of his company 18 was familiar with the languages of both these tribes, which, however, is doubtful.

When Le Sueur first supplied these Indians with firearms in 1700 they were situated at the extreme headquarters of the Des Moines river, though from the translation of this explorer’s narrative, as contained in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XVI, it would seem that this band and the Oto removed and “established themselves toward the Missouri river, near the Maha.” In Jefferys’ French Dominions in North and South America, 1760, the Iowa are located on the Mississippi in latitude 43° 30’. His map however places them on the east side of the Missouri, west of the sources of the Des Moines river and above the Oto, who were on the west side of the Missouri and below the Omaha.19 According to Lewis & Clark’s Travels, etc., (Coues’ edition, 1893), their villages consisted “of 300 men ... on the river De Moines.”20 The map by Waw-non-que-skoona-a as included in Schoolcraft and reproduced herewith, gives the final stopping place of the Iowa at a point near the junction of the Wolf and Missouri rivers, within the limits of the present State of Nebraska. Some authorities give their final location as being in two villages, one on the Platte 21 and another on the Great Nemaha river, from which places they conducted traffic with the traders from St. Louis, dealing principally in beaver, otter, racoon, deer, and bear skins. They also appear to have been cultivators of the soil to some extent, even at this early date, and it is recorded that Le Sueur made efforts to have them locate near his Fort l’Huillier 22 as they were “industrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth.” In addition to corn they grew beans 23 and Pike says “they cultivated corn but not proportionately as much as did the Sauks and Foxes.” This traveler also states that they were less civilized than the latter.24 At a much earlier date Father AndrÉ 25 writes that, while their village was a large one they were poor as a tribe, their greatest wealth being in “ox-hides 26 and red calumets,”27 indicating thereby that the Iowa early traded in and manufactured catlinite pipes. In many customs prevailing among the Iowa it has been found that they differed but little from cognate tribes. In their visiting, marriage relations, and management of children they were not unlike the Omaha and others closely allied among the Dakota. In the matter of fraternity they were distinct. The camp circle 28 was divided into half circles and occupied by two phratries of four gentes each.29

The first regulated the hunt and other affairs pertaining to the tribe during the autumn and winter. Throughout the other parts of the year the lead was taken by the other phratry.30 In a general way however, the Iowa social institution differs but slightly from others of the Siouan stock, nor do their visiting or marriage customs vary greatly from those of kindred tribes. Children are managed similarly to those of the Dakota or Omaha. Formerly murder was punished with death by the nearest of kin or by some friend of the murdered person.31 Occasionally however, presents were made to the avengers by the murderer, in consequence of which the crime was palliated.

Like many other Mississippi Valley tribes the Iowa are not to any great extent associated with the tumuli of America. With the exception of some few mounds in Wapello County, Iowa, at a point near Iowaville, the site of an early trading post, there is little evidence that the Iowa were in any way connected with the mounds in that State. Along the valley located in this section, were many spots frequented by both the Sauk and Fox as well as Iowa and here also were situated the famous race tracks of nearly a mile in length, belonging to the latter tribe.32 The various games indulged in by the Iowa differed but slightly from those in vogue among kindred or allied tribes.33 As is almost universal, dice games, or games of chance are more generally to be desired, while games of dexterity take second place. Catlin 34 describes under the former class, one called Kon-tho-gra, or the game of platter which is played almost exclusively by women.35 It is said to have been exceedingly fascinating and consists of little blocks of wood marked with certain points for counting, to be decided by throws, the lot being shaken in a bowl and thrown out on a sort of a pillow. Bets were made after the bowl was turned and decided by the number of points and colors. Another game described by Catlin 36 is called Ing-Kee-Ko-Kee, or, The Game of the Moccasin. It was played to a song accompaniment 37 among the Iowa by two, four or six people seated on the ground in a circle. In the center are three or four moccasins, under one of which the players in turn try to conceal some small article, as a stone or a nut. The opponents choose what appears to be the lucky covering and if successful, win the stakes. The game, according to this writer, appeared simple and almost foolish, yet he professes to have seen it played for hours without intermission in perfect musical rhythm, and states that it “forms one of the principle gambling games of these gambling people.” Among the Omaha, Ponca, Oto, and Iowa the game of Arrow (Maⁿmuqpe), was most common. This however was more of a religious game and now practically obsolete since the introduction of fire arms. Arrows were shot up into trees until they lodged in the branches. The players then tried to dislodge them and whoever brought down the first, won. There were no sides or opposing parties. Probably the most exciting and to many the most important game among many of the tribes, aside from those of the Mountain Indians, is that of Ball-playing or Racket. This is distinctly a man’s game as opposed to double-ball and some other forms commonly played by women. There are instances however of this having been played by women, and among the Santee Sioux it is at times played by both sexes together. This game has been divided into two principal classes, those of the single and those of the double racket or bat; the latter is more especially peculiar to the southern tribes.38 The racket may be likewise termed a throwing stick as it is used to pick up and throw the ball rather than for the purpose of hitting. The ball is either of wood or of buckskin stuffed with hair,39 and the usual size is about two and one-half inches in diameter. Various kinds of rackets are used by the players, some preferring long and some short handles. Among the Oto of Oklahoma, one measured was forty inches in length.40 Catlin 41 gives an excellent description of this game among the Iowa Indians. His details concerning the goals and byes and various points connected with the different features, make this sketch one of the most complete we have.42

As among all tribes east and west, north and south, the Iowa were given to their numerous dances, many of which were of the highest importance. Mention is made here, only of several of the more common or necessary dances, inasmuch as the subject is one if it were treated fully would occupy a volume in itself.

The Welcome Dance

This is a peculiar dance given in honor of one or more strangers whom the tribe may decide to welcome to their village. The musicians as well as spectators, out of respect, all rise to their feet while it is being performed. The song which accompanies it is at first one of lament, but ends in a gay and lively manner.

The War Dance

The most exciting as well as the longest and most tiresome of all dances. It is usually divided into three parts, i. e., Eh-Ros-Ka—The Warriors Dance—usually given after a party had returned from war as a boast and was ofttimes given as an amusement. The song used at this time entitled Wa-Sissica—The War Song—appeared to be addressed to the body of an enemy, from the name Eh-Ros-Ka, meaning tribe, war party or body.43

Approaching Dance

The most spirited part of this greatest of all dances was called the Approaching Dance in which the dancers by their gestures exhibited the methods of advancing on an enemy. The song in this portion is also similar to that above mentioned.44

The Eagle Dance

Ha Kon-E-Crase, or as more familiarly known “the soaring eagle,” forms the third and most pleasing part of the War Dance and is in every respect a most interesting spectacle. Each dancer imagines himself a bird on the wing, and as they dance forward from behind the musicians, they take the position of an eagle headed against the wind and about to swoop down upon some unsuspecting prey. They have a peculiar method of singing and whistling at the same time.45

The Calumet Dance, the Ball-Play Dance, the Scalp Dance, the Buffalo Dance, and the Bear Dance, are all important but vary very slightly from those of similar import among other tribes of the same family. What we have said about the dances applies with equal force to the songs and music. The War Song, Death Song, Wolf Song, Medicine Song, Bread Song, and Farewell Song are all of much significance, indeed so much so that a large amount of space could well be devoted to this subject as well as to the dances.

In 1836 the Iowa were assigned a reservation in northeastern Kansas, having two years previous, ceded all their lands in Missouri. A portion of the tribe later moved to another tract in Oklahoma allotted to them in 1890 in severalty, the surplus acreage being opened to settlement by the whites.

It is difficult to compile a bibliography that will treat exhaustively of this tribe. Catlin’s Works, Lewis and Clark’s Travels, Long’s Expedition, Pike’s Explorations, Maximilian’s Travels, and in fact nearly all of the prominent trans-continental explorers knew the tribe under one or another name. In the absence of any well defined plan it is best to refer to the various titles as shown in the index to the present volume. Such titles are printed in small capitals throughout. Special stress must be laid on the value of Dr. Hayden’s important work, Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Valley. Phila., 1862. The map is particularly useful. The Burrows Brothers monumental reprint of the Jesuit Relations (73 vols. octavo) is of course invaluable.

William Harvey Miner

March 5, 1911

THE IOWAY MONOGRAPH

“IOWAY” TRIBE: (AiyuwÆ, or PÄhu’tchÆ)

This is the cognomen of a small tribe of Indians, never very numerous,46 known to the whites for the last one hundred and eighty years,47 during which period they have been wanderers from the Mississippi to the Missouri, and from the Missouri to the Mississippi: their migrations being confined mainly to the limits of the present State of Iowa, which was therefore very properly named after them.48 They are now located within a Reservation of land on the west bank of the Missouri, between the Great Nemahaw and Wolf Creeks, in the State of Nebraska, on the borders of Kansas and Iowa.49

NOMENCLATURE

The name by which we know them—that of Ioway—(or Iowa, which is the form the word takes when applied to the State)—is not that for themselves, nor is it a name which belongs to the language of any one Indian tribe; but seems to have been made up, or compounded, by the early French, from the Dakota-Sioux designation for them of Ayu’h’ÄpÄ, by taking the first two syllables, Ayu’, and adding to it one of the common Algonquin-French terminations to tribal names in ois, vois, or vais or ouez: all of which terminations appear on the early records compounded with Ayu, or a modification of it, to indicate the Ioway Tribe. In La Harpe’s 50 narrative of Le Sueur’s 51 mining expedition, in 1700, to the Blue Earth region, in now Minnesota, where the Ioways are first of record referred to, they are written of as “Aya-vois”; in Pennecaud’s 52 relation of the same expedition they are the Aiaos or Aiavos, (his MSS 53 in the Congressional Library is obscure); in Charlevoix’s 54 history, 1722, he gives the name with a characteristic effort at precision, as “Aiouez”; and in Lewis and Clark’s Travels, 1812,55 they appear as “Ayauways.” The French first knew of the AjowÆ through the Dakota-Sioux: (as we will observe hereafter in the gleanings of their early history,) and it is not surprising to me that they should (or that other Indian tribes should) seek to find some easier way of distinguishing the Tribe than to attempt to pronounce the extremely difficult guttural ending of their Sioux designation. The Dakota-Lexicon 56 thus gives its meaning:

“Ayu’hpÄ, n. p. (sleepy ones:) the Ioway Indians.”

The proper name which the Ioway give themselves, acknowledging no other, is PÄhutch’Æ, Dusty-Heads: sometimes translated, but I think erroneously, Dusty-Noses.57 The prefix pÄ anciently signified head; and it does yet in some cognate dialects and in combinations, especially in old hereditary proper names; though in modern parlance it is generally confined to nose, but not invariably.

Inquiring into the origin of this name PÄhutch’Æ, which, whether meaning Dusty-Heads or Dusty-Noses, is quite a singular one for a people to confer upon themselves,

An Ioway Grammar

I find recorded a theory to fit each translation. In Schoolcraft’s official Collections, in a paper prepared February 1, 1848, by the Ioway missionaries,58 page 262, volume III, I read of the fanciful and somewhat strained solution, as follows:

When they [the Ioway] separated from the first Indian tribe, or family, to hunt game, their first location was near the mouth of a river, where there were large sand-bars, from which the wind blew quantities of sand or dust upon their faces, from which they were called Pa-hu-chas or Dusty-noses.

Per contra: During November, 1873, when I was at the former Winnebago Agency, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, I mentioned the above theory of the Ioway name to the intelligent Winnebago ex-Chief “Baptiste,” the Half-Breed, who in his youthful wanderings had lived a considerable time on the Missouri amongst the Ioway. He smiled at it, and, in his broken English at first and then through ex-Interpreter Menaige, who was present, said, that the Ioway name meant Dusty, or Dusty Gray, Heads, and that it occurred in this way: Living on the Missouri as they had done in the earliest time: wandering away from it and then wandering back again; they were accustomed to bathe a great deal in its yellow-muddy waters; and that when they dried off after coming out of the water, the sediment of the water remained on their heads making them look dusty and gray; and this was the true reason they became the PÄhutch’Æ, or Dusty-Head Tribe. Baptiste said this was the accepted theory amongst the old people of the Ioway as to the way PÄhutch’Æ came to be their name. The Winnebago cognomen for them, which is WÄhōtch’ÆrÄ, the Gray-Ones, is evidently but a modification of the same Dusty-Head idea: (in the Hōtchank’ÆrÄ language hōtch is gray and rÄhÄtch, ashes). And such modification is, also, I think the Dakota-Sioux name for them of Äyu´h’ÄpÄ, notwithstanding the Dakota-Sioux Lexicon gives it as meaning the Drowsy-Ones, and to doubt such authority may seem presumptuous. But, in these investigations I have noticed, that aboriginal nations, unless there is some special reason to the contrary—for instance a special enmity—(as the Chippeway name for the Sioux of Ōpwan’Äk, “those whom we roast,”) all endeavor to translate into their own vernacular the names of neighboring tribes, rather than adopt them bodily: a notable instance of which is, that the name Saulteurs, people of the Sault or Leap or Rapids, is repeated in idea but in different forms by both the Winnebago and the Sioux, the latter terming them HÄhÄ’towa and the former RÆh’Ätchē’rÄ, both meaning, alike, “The Falls Dwellers.” Sometimes, in these dialectical translations, the original meaning of the tribal name was correctly rendered, and sometimes not: the early French in fact, made frequent failures. Now, the Sioux were well acquainted with the Ioway. They were, at the advent of the whites, their allies and neighbors, living as the Ioway did in 1700, on the borders of Iowa and Minnesota, about the headwaters of the Blue Earth and Des Moines rivers:59 though they soon wandered from there to the Missouri again. The Dakota must have known the name they called themselves, and the reason for it: and what more likely than that they should endeavor to render the idea it conveyed literally into their own language? May not the Sioux name for them, therefore, have been originally Äyu’h’ÄpÄ, deduced thus: Ä is the preposition on or upon; yu “as a prefix to adjectives and sometimes to nouns, it sometimes forms verbs, and means to make or cause to be” (Dakota-Lexicon); h’Ä, is an adjective, meaning, (says the Lexicon) “gray or mixed, as black and white, the black appearing under the white, as in the badger;” and pÄ, signifying head. This combination would be literally, “upon—to cause—graymixed—the head:” which is exactly the idea that the Ioway themselves and the Winnebago also seek to convey by their respective names PÄhutch’Æ, the Dusty-Heads, and WÄhōtch’ÆrÄ, the Gray, (through dust?) People.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE IOWAY

The earliest mention 60 of the Tribe is in Le Sueur’s narrative of his expedition in 1700 to the fancied copper mines 61 of Riviere de Vert, (the Blue Earth tributary of the Minnesota river), embodied in La Harpe’s mss.62 History of Louisiana, parts of which including Le Sueur’s Narrative, have been recently published.63 As to this mine, we are told in the mss. copy 64 in the Congressional Library of the Relation of Penicaud, the shipwright who accompanied Le Sueur—“a man, (says Neill,65 the erudite historian of Minnesota) of discernment but little scholarship”—that:

M. Le Sueur had heard of the mine some years before while travelling in the country of the Aiaos—(or Aivoe: the name has been written twice: and the orthography is obscure,)—where he traded.

This acquaintance with the Ioway must have been achieved when, as chief trader,66 he occupied the “factory” of “Fort Perrot” on the “left” or east bank of the Mississippi,67 just below Point Le Sable, near the foot of Lake Pepin: which first trading post of the upper Mississippi was erected in 1683, by Nicholas Perrot 68 and M. le Sueur by order of Governor De la Barre,69 of Canada, “to establish (says the historian Neill) friendly alliances with the Ioway and Dakota”; and this post was for years the only one in all that region, until Le Sueur himself, in 1695, built the “French factory” of “Isle Pelee,” at the “right” bank, on Prairie or “Bald” Island, about ten miles below the St. Croix. The Ioway, (as will hereafter appear), occupied at that time a not very remote nor inaccessible location from Fort Perrot, in the region around and amidst the head waters of the Des Moines and Blue Earth rivers, and being allies of the Sioux, they doubtless brought their furs and obtained their trading supplies of Le Sueur at this “Fort”: and it is not improbable that Le Sueur (and his engages) also travelled in their country on hunting or trading expeditions.

In La Harpe’s account of Le Sueur’s long “voyage” up the Mississippi from its mouth to the “mine” with his “felucca,70 two canoes and twenty men,”71 the Ioway are frequently mentioned. The first instance is when about the 14th 72 of July, 1700, as he passed the mouth of the Illinois, he “met three Canadian voyageurs, who came to join his band, and received by them a letter from Father Marest,73 Jesuit, dated July 10, 1700, at the Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin in Illinois:” of which the following is a copy:

I have the honor to write in order to inform you, that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the Scioux and the Ayavois.74 The people have formed an alliance with the Quincapous, and some of the Mecoutins, Renards, and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge themselves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably upon the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and the others are on their guard. As you will probably meet these allied nations, you ought to take precaution against their plans, and not allow them to board your vessel, since they are traitors, and utterly faithless. I pray God to accompany you in all your designs.

This letter of Father Marest shows, that the Ioway were then in alliance with the Sioux, and establishes, that their Indo-French name of “Ayavois” was already pretty well understood: and that even their own name for themselves was not unknown, Paoutees, or—(to transliterate the French orthography into our Indian alphabet),—PÄut’Æs, was not far off from their true designation of PÄhutchÆs: though, curiously enough, they are held to be another tribe! The warning of this war-party given Le Sueur by the “Father” proved no false alarm; for just below the Wisconsin, “five Canadians” were met with, “descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois,” who, above the Wisconsin, had been fallen in with by a war-party of “ninety savages in nine canoes,” being of “four different nations, the Outagamis [Foxes], Saquis [Saukes], Poutouwatamis and Puans [Winnebago], who had “robbed and cruelly beat them.” Taking these five men with him as volunteers, Le Sueur proceeded up the river until he met this war-party near Black River, returning from an unsuccessful encounter with the “Scioux,” and brought them to terms, and, being evidently too strong for them to maltreat or meddle with in any way, extorted a kind of apology from them for what they had done.

On the first of October Le Sueur finally reached his destination near his “mine.” We extract from the narrative of his proceeding while here so much of it as refers to the Ioway:

After he [Le Sueur] entered into Blue river, thus named on account of the MINES of blue earth found at its mouth, he founded his post, situated in 44 degrees 13 minutes north latitude. He met at this place nine Scioux, who told him the river belonged to the Scioux of the West, the Ayavois [Ioways], and Otoctatas [Otoes], who lived a little farther off: that it was not their [the “Scioux”] custom to hunt on ground belonging to others, unless invited to do so by the owners, and that when they would come to the fort to obtain provisions they would be in danger of being killed in ascending or descending the rivers, which were narrow, and that if he would show them pity, he must establish himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St. Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the other Scioux, could go as well as them.... Le Sueur had forseen that the establishment of Blue river would not please the Scioux, ... because they were the first with whom trade was commenced, and in consequence of which they had already quite a number of guns.... On the 3d of October, they received at the fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkantape, chief of the village. Soon two Canadians arrived who had been hunting, and had been robbed by the Scioux of the east, who had raised their guns against the establishment which M. Le Sueur had made on Blue river. On the 14th the fort was finished and named “Fort L’Huillier,” and on the 22d two Canadians were sent out to invite the Ayavois and Otoctatas to come and establish a village near the fort, because these Indians are industrious [?] and accustomed to cultivate the earth, [?] and they hoped to get provisions from them and to make them work [!] in the mines.

An assertion, a hope and an expectation which rather proves, that Le Sueur knew nothing of these Indians from actual observation in their country, but only knew of them from report and by a few individuals whom he probably met for trade at the posts at Forts Perrot or Isle Pele; for there is no evidence that they ever were “industrious,” or given to “cultivating the earth” any more than other Indians: nor are they at this day. But, to continue our extracts:

The same day [the 24th] the Canadians, who had been sent off on the 22d arrived without having found the road which led to the Ayavois and Otoctates.

... On the 16th [of Nov.] the Scioux returned to their village, and it was reported that the Ayavois and Otoctatas were going to establish themselves towards the Missouri river, near the Maha [Omahaw], who dwell in that region.

In May, 1701, Le Sueur left Fort d’Huillier in charge of M. d’Evaque, a Canadian gentleman, with a force of twelve Frenchmen, while he himself in his felucca with the rest of his men returned to Mobile, carrying with him “three canoe loads,” or “four thousand pounds,” of the “green earth,” supposed to be oxide of copper, but which was really from a kind of shelly marly strata, interposed between the fossiliferous limestone and the sandstone of that region, that was colored bluish-green by silicate of iron. We next find Le Sueur—(who it has been stated was the father of the three distinguished brothers D’Iberville, DeBienville, and Sauvolle)75—in the summer of 1701 accompanying D’Iberville, the Governor of Louisiana, on his return to France, and assisting him while on shipboard in concocting a Memorial on the Mississippi Valley, addressed to the French government: in which D’Iberville says:

He [M. Le Sueur] has spoken to me of another, [nation] which he calls the Mahas, [Omahaw], composed of more than twelve hundred families [!], the Ayooues and the Octootatas, their neighbors, are about three hundred families. They occupy the lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri, about one hundred leagues from the Illinois. These savages do not know the use of (fire?) arms....

The memorial, (a manuscript copy of which, quoted by Professor Neill in his Minnesota history, is in possession of the Historical Society of that State), contains the first attempt we have upon the record at a Census of the Tribes of the Mississippi, and partially of the Missouri Valleys: made thirty-four years before the French Census of the Cass manuscript 76—a census formerly claimed as being the very first extant—so claimed by Schoolcraft, in the third volume of his Collections.

Penicaud, the carpenter, states, that D’Evaque and the men Le Sueur left in charge of the Blue Earth post, abandoned it, and returned to Mobile [arriving there on the 3d of March], 1703, having left, as they alleged, on account of being warred upon “by the nations of Maskoutens and Foxes,” and “seeing that he was out of powder and lead.” Le Sueur for several years after his operations on the Blue-Earth was kept busy leading expeditions against the Natchez and other Indians of the southwest; and is said to have died 77 on the road during one of them.

Some further information in regard to the Ioway is gathered from a chart of the northwestern part of Louisiana, by “William De L’Isle, de l’Academy Royale des Sciences, et Premier Geographe du Roy: a Paris: 1703” in the preparation of which Le Sueur probably assisted by his notes and observations.78 A section of this map, (lithographed for Neill’s History of Minnesota), shows a traders trail marked “Chemin des Voyageurs,” across the State of Iowa, commencing at the Mississippi, a few miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin, and following west by a little north until in the vicinity of Spirit Lake, it struck just below the lowest of the lakes which are at the head of the Little Sioux river, upon which lower lake is marked “Village des Aiaoues ou Paoutez” (PÄhutch’Æ); then continuing due westward towards the Big Sioux this Chemin du Voyageurs bends a little southward towards the mouth of that river; on which river, near the Missouri, three or four villages of “Maha” (Omahaw), are marked. Besides these a couple of minor “Aianouez” villages are likewise set down at the west end of the Chemin des Voyageurs where it strikes the Big Sioux, which is apparently about the junction of “Fish Creek” with it: [See Waw-non-que-skoon-a’s map of Ioway migrations in Vol. III, Schoolcraft, page 256],79 and again further westward, considerably beyond the western termination of the “Chemin” on the James River, four minor villages of “Aiaouez” are also noted: while far south by a little east of the first mentioned main “Village des Aiaoues ou Paoutez,” upon the north or “left” bank of the Missouri river at a point nearly due west from the mouth of the “Des Moines ou le Moingona,” we find located the “Yoways,” and a few miles above them on the same side, the “Les Octotata”: which locations were not a great distance from the spot where the Ioway and Otoe now live upon one common “Reservation,” on the opposite side of the Missouri just within Nebraska.

ANTE-WHITE HISTORY OF THE IOWAY

MAP of the COUNTRY formerly occupied by the IOWAY TRIBE of INDIANS

For the history of the Ioway before the whites knew them, there is no data, beyond language and ancestral beliefs and customs, except their own vague traditions or those equally vague and uncertain of other tribes. The Reverends William Hamilton, and S. M. Irvin, their missionaries, communicated to Schoolcraft 80 in 1848, this statement of “an old Ioway Indian [aged] about sixty years or more.”

About sixty-six years ago, we lived on a river, which runs from a lake to the Mississippi, from the east, and on the east side of that river. Our fathers and great fathers lived there for a long time, as long as they could recollect. At that time we had about four hundred men fit to go to war, but we were then small to what we had been. Our fathers say, as long as they can recollect, we have been diminishing. (This is a usual Indian complaint: in most instances an unfounded one). We owned all the land east of the Mississippi. (This usual Indian claim of very extended possessions has generally very little foundation in fact). Whatever ground we made tracks through, it was ours. Our fathers saw white men on the [great?] lakes about 120 years ago; [Nearer 200 probably]; do not know where they came from. About the same time we first got guns. We were afraid of them at first, they seemed like the “Great Spirit.” Our fathers also, at the same time, for the first received iron, axes, hoes, kettles and woollen blankets. We, the [present] old men of our nation, first saw white men between forty and fifty years ago, near the mouth of the Missouri.

The same missionary gentlemen, in the same paper, make these observations, which every one who has ever engaged in Indian researches, or in inquiries of the Indians themselves, will endorse as entirely correct:

In tracing their history, religion, &c., it will be exceedingly difficult to proceed with certainty and satisfaction, from the differences we find in the notions of different individuals: e. g. today we will sit down with an old Indian, who will enter into a plausible detail of their history, or religious belief, or some traditions of their fathers. Another of the same age and patriarchal rights will give quite a different statement about the same things; or perhaps the same individual would tomorrow give his own story quite a different shade. This is the reason why the reports of the transient observers vary so much. It requires long acquaintance, and close observation, to arrive at anything like just conclusions on these points; and it is only by collecting different and conflicting notions, and balancing them, that we can find which prevails.

Now, in regard to the story of the “old Ioway Indian” above quoted, it may be remarked that it is quite certain the Ioway Tribe did not “about sixty years” previous to 1848, that is, in 1788, live anywhere on the east side of the Mississippi, nor had they for more than a hundred years before 1848, and it is doubtful if they had ever done so since the advent of the whites upon the great lakes. But though documents extant negative this story of the “old Ioway Indian” as to time, may there not be in this statement the shadowy tribal recollection of the period when they were a Band of the HōtchankÆrÄ or Winnebago, and lived near them? This lake and river “east of the Mississippi,” their former residence, may have been Mille Lacs and its outlet in Minnesota, subsequently the home of the Sioux when first visited by De Groseilliers and Raddison,81 and then by DuLuth 82 and Hennepin? or the Chippeway River? or the Wisconsin? or Rock River? Traditions of the Santee [EsanyÄtē] Sioux who up to 1852 occupied the upper Mississippi in Minnesota allege that when they emigrated from the North the Ioway were in possession of the region around the mouth of the Minnesota river, and that they drove them away. On this head, two of their reliable missionaries, Reverends Dr. Williamson and G. H. Pond, have communicated articles to the Minnesota Historical Collections.

Mr. Pond writes, in the number for 1852, pages 23 and 24, as follows:

Takoha, the old war prophet, says that the Iowa Indian never occupied the country around the mouth of the Minnesota river. He affirms that it once belonged to the Winnebagoes who were long ago driven from it by the Dakotas—a few others of the Dakotas agree with Takoha. But Black Tomahawk, who is by some of the most intelligent half-breeds considered the best Mdewakantonwan traditionist, says that in the earliest years of the existence of the Dakotas they became acquainted with the Iowa Indians, and that they lived in a village at the place which is now called Oak Grove, seven or eight miles from Fort Snelling, on the north side of the Minnesota river. The numerous little mounds which are to be seen about Oak Grove, he says, are the works of the Iowa Indians.

The old man says that in ancient times, when the Dakotas had no arms but the bow and stone or horn headed arrows, and used knives and axes manufactured from the same materials, these little mounds which we now see at the place above named were the dwellings of the Iowas. They were the enemies of the Dakotas, who used occasionally to make a warpath from Mille Lac, where they then resided, down to the Iowa village, and carry off with them scalps, which made glad the hearts of their wives and daughters. The strife between the two nations eventually became desperate, and the gods, who are always deeply interested in Indian wars, espoused the cause of the Dakotas.

The thunder, which the Dakotas believe to be a winged monster, and which in character seems to answer very well to the Mars of the ancient heathen, bore down upon the Iowa village in a most terrible and god-like manner. Tempests howled, the forked lightnings flashed, and the thunders uttered their voices; the earth trembled; a thunderbolt was hurled at the devoted village, which ploughed the earth, and formed that deep ravine near the present dwelling of Peter Quinn. This occurrence unnerved the Iowas, and the Dakotas, taking advantage of it, fell upon their enemies and drove them across the Minnesota river and burned up their village.

The Iowas then built another village on the south side of the river near the present planting grounds of Grey Iron, where they remained till the Dakotas obtained firearms, when they fought their last battle with them in Minnesota, on Pilot Knob, back of Mendota. The Iowas who escaped on this occasion fled and erected their next village at the mouth of the Iowa river, from which they were again eventually driven by the Dakotas towards the Missouri. The old man from whom we gather the substance of what has gone before says that these mounds are the remains of the dwelling houses of the ancient Iowas. Some say that they are not the remains of the dwellings of the Iowas, but those of some other people with whom tradition does not acquaint them; and others still say that they are ancient burial places.

The following two or three facts may not be without interest to the reader. Some six years since, Mr. Quinn of Oak Grove removed the earth of one of these mounds at the same place where Black Tomahawk says the ancient Iowa village stood. As the earth was removed on a level with the natural surrounding surface, charred poles and human bones were found. It was easy and natural for the imagination to supply the rest, and make the fact corroborate the tradition of the old man, when he says that the Iowas constructed their houses by leaning poles together at the top and spreading them at the foot, forming a circular frame, which they covered with earth. In one of these houses a man or woman had been killed, and the timbers of the house fired, which, of course, would let the earth fall in upon the dead body and burning poles.

Dr. Williamson, on page 10 to 12, of the Minnesota Historical Collections of 1856, says:

We think it is sufficiently manifest that the Sioux occupied the better part of Minnesota when Europeans entered it, a little after the middle of the seventeenth century. It does not, however, appear that they were the first, much less the only inhabitants of the country. Their common and most reliable traditions inform us, that when their ancestors first came to the Falls of St. Anthony, the Iowas—whom they call Ayuhba [Drowsy]—occupied the country about the mouth of the Minnesota river, and the Shiens, called by the Dakotas Sha-i-ena, sometimes written by the French Chaienne, and by others Shiene, dwelt higher up on the same river. We cannot pretend to determine with certainty at what time the Sioux first came to the Falls of St. Anthony; but may say, with confidence, it was a long time ago, probably before the discovery of America by Columbus. One of the best informed men concerning their traditions that I have met with among the Dakotas, who has been dead more than ten years, when questioned on this point, told me, that they supposed it to be at least equal to the lifetime of four old men, who should live one after the other; and as an example of an old man, named his father, who, I suppose, was at the time at least eighty years old, [which would make the time three hundred years.]

The Winnebagoes, Otoes, and Omahas, have been named among the nations driven by the ancestors of the Dakotas from the Minnesota valley. I have not found any evidence, satisfactory to my mind, that the Winnebagoes ever had a home in this Territory prior to their late removal into it by the United States government. As respects the Otoes and Omahas it seems not improbable that they were reckoned as a part of the Dakota nation, when the Sioux first hunted on the banks of the Mississippi, and for some time after. The Anthontantas, mentioned as a part of the Nadouesiouz, by Hennepin, were probably the same people as the Otoctatas, mentioned in connection with the Ayavois, as owners of the country about Blue Earth river, in the fragment of Le Sueur, preserved by La Harpe, and again some further on, as having recently left their village in that neighborhood, and settled near the Mahas on the Missouri river, and it is highly probable that the Otoctatas of Le Sueur are the same people now called Ottoes or Otoes. The Mawhaws, Shiens and Schiannesse, are mentioned by Carver, as bands of the Naudowessiex of the plains. Thus it appears that the Shiens, the Iowas, the Omahas and the Ottoes, were the earliest inhabitants of Minnesota of whom we have any written or certain traditional account. I have neither seen nor heard of any artificial mounds, ancient fortifications, or monuments of any kind in or near the Minnesota valley, which might not have been constructed by these Indians. Such mounds are probably as numerous in the lower part of the valley of the Minnesota, and the contiguous part of the Mississippi, as anywhere else between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains; but they are very small, compared with those near the Ohio, not to speak of those farther south. Some of them are still used by the Dakotas, as burying places for their dead, and in this way are receiving a small increase almost every year. The situation of many others indicates that they had a similar origin.

But by far the most numerous class appear from their size and situation, to be what Dakota tradition says they are, the remains of houses, made of poles and bark, covered with earth, such as were a few years since, and probably still are, the habitations of the Mandans, and some other tribes living on the Missouri.... Mounds of this class are found in clusters, of from less than half a dozen to upwards of fifty, arranged irregularly as we find the bark houses of the Indians at present. Their base usually approaches to an oval form. Their length is from ten to forty feet, and a few exceed this, with a height of from one or two feet, to three or four. Very few of this class exceed four feet; though some of those used for places of sepulture are more than twice that height. Back of them we find the land level, or nearly so, dry and fertile. In front it descends towards some water, and almost always there is a lake or morass in sight, indicating that the inhabitants depended for a subsistence partly on cultivating the earth, and partly on water fowl or roots, which they obtained from wet swampy land. Several clusters of such mounds may be seen about Oak Grove, where the Dakotas say the Iowas lived, when their ancestors first came to this country. The path from Mendota to Shakopee, or Prairieville, passes through several. One large one, a little south of what has been called Black Dog’s or Grey Iron’s village, where the Iowas are said to have resided after they were driven from Oak Grove. Another is not far from the tamarack swamp below Shakopee. Many may be found on the bluffs of the Mississippi and Lake Pepin. Such mounds are very numerous in the prairie near the mouth of Cannon river.

It is somewhat remarkable that the Iowas, whose language shows that they are descended from the same stock as the Dakotas, should have been viewed and treated by the Dakotas as enemies. While the Shiens, who Gallatin says have a language kindred to the Algonquin, were received as allies, and though speaking a different language were long, if they are not still counted as a part of the Dakota nation. Hence their name, Sha-i-e-na in the Ihanktonwan dialect, being equivalent to Sha-i-api in the Isanyati [missionary special alphabet spelling]83 both applied to those who speak a different language from the Dakotas, and applied especially to Shiens, because all others speaking a different language were counted as enemies. It is also worthy of remark, that notwithstanding the hostility between the Iowas and Sioux, the former, who are called by the latter Ayukba, (they sleep, or “sleepy ones”), from which we probably got Iowa, remain much nearer their original location than the Shiens, or any of the other tribes, who dwelt in the Minnesota valley before the Dakotas.

When the Dakotas first came in contact with the Shiens, I have not been able to learn, farther than that the Shiens formerly planted on the Minnesota, between Blue Earth and Lac-qui-Parle, whence they moved to a western branch of Red River of the North, which still bears their name; being called by the Dakotas who hunt in that region, Shai-e-na-wojupi, (“the place where those of another language plant”). The various spellings of this name, all show plainly their origin from the Dakota name. From this planting place on the Chaienne, or Shienne of the North, this people removed across the Missouri, where they gave their name to another river; and having ceased to cultivate the soil, it is said they now hunt on the head waters of the Platte and of the Arkansas. From their retiring so rapidly, it is probable that the Shiens had not occupied the Minnesota valley long before the arrival of the Dakotas, and that the first inhabitants of it, if not the Iowas, were Otoes, Omahas, or some other family of the Dakota stock. The languages of the tribes just named, as well as of the Winnebagoes and Osages, are so similar to the Dakota, as to indicate a common origin. In the languages of the Mandans, Minetares and Crows or Upsarakas, so many Dakota words have been found, as to render it highly probable, that they also, in part at least, belong to the same stock....

Various circumstances, ... indicate that the Sioux resided long in the region where Hennepin found them. Many of them suppose that they originated there. They [the modern Sioux],84 have a tradition, however, that their ancestors came thither from the Northeast, where they had resided on a lake. It has been generally supposed, that the lake referred to in this tradition, is Rainy lake, or Lake of the Woods. It is more probable, however, that it was the northern shore of Lake Superior, or Hudson’s Bay, or some of the lakes between those large expanses of water. The Ojibwas have a tradition, that their ancestors drove the Sioux from the shores of Lake Superior.

In Schoolcraft’s Collections, Volume III, page 256, there is presented a map drawn by the Ioway Missionaries, the Reverends Hamilton and Irvin, from the rough draft of “Waw-non-que-skoon-a,” an Ioway brave, showing the successive migrations of the tribe: their starting point being given from the mouth of Rock River in Illinois: which last named river, it may be observed, answers exactly the description of the one on which was the ancient or first residence of the Tribe mentioned in the tradition before given as being “a river which runs from a lake to the Mississippi from the east, and on the east side of that river:” Rock river heading as is well known in the “Four Lakes” upon the banks of one of which Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, is built, and also in another, Lake Koshkonong; which lakes, however, did not become the seat of the Winnebago until long after they were known to the whites. The letter-press description of this map of the “Migrations of the Ioway,” Vol. III, at page 257, of Schoolcraft, we here copy, with additional explanations, inserted in brackets:

The object of Waw-non-que-skoon-a was to denote the places where the Iowas had lived during the sixteen migrations which preceded their residence at their present location, the Missouri; and, in truth, it nearly exhausts their history. The marks to denote a fixed residence, are a symbol for a lodge. These are carefully preserved, with their exact relative position. Their order, as given, is also preserved by figures. Could eras be affixed to these residences, it would give entire accuracy to the modern part of their history.

As it is, it depicts some curious facts in the history of predatory and erratic tribes, showing how they sometimes crossed their own track, and demonstrates the immense distances to which they rove.

The earliest date to which their recollection extends, as indicated by location No. 1, is at [or near] the junction of Rock river with the Mississippi. This was, manifestly, in or very near Winnebago territory, and confirms the traditions of several of the Missouri tribes (vide Fletcher’s paper), [and also of the Ioway Indian aged “sixty years or more”]. From this point they migrated down the Mississippi to the river Des Moines, and fixed themselves at No. 2, on its south fork. [eighty miles above the mouth]. They next made an extraordinary migration, abandoning the Mississippi and all its upper tributaries, and ascending the Missouri to a point of land formed by a small stream, on its east shore, called by the Indians Fish creek, which flows in from the direction of, and not far from, the celebrated Red Pipe stone quarry, on the heights of the Coteau des Prairies. No. 3.

They next descended the Missouri to the junction of the Nebraska, or Great Platte river, with that stream. No. 4. They settled on the west [or right] bank, keeping the buffalo ranges on their west. They next migrated still lower down the Missouri, and [crossing to its left side], fixed themselves on the headwaters of the Little Platte river. [not far from Fort Leavenworth], No. 5.

From this location, when circumstances had rendered another change desirable, they returned to the Mississippi, and located themselves at the mouth of Salt river. No. 6. Here passed another period. They next ascended the Mississippi, and settled on its [“left”] east bank, at the junction of a stream in the present area of Illinois. [about midway between the Des Moines and the Ioway]. No. 7. Their next migration carried them still higher on that shore, [nearer the mouth of the Ioway] to the junction of another stream, No. 8, which is well nigh—[within fifty or sixty miles], to their original starting point at No. 1.

They receded again to the south and west, first fixing themselves on Salt river, No. 9, above their prior site, No. 6, and afterwards changing their location to its very source. [about thirty miles higher]. No. 10. They then passed, evidently by land, [about sixty miles due west], to the higher forks of the river Chariton, of Missouri, No. 11, and next descended that stream to near its mouth. No. 12. The next two migrations of this tribe were [about thirty miles] to the west valley of the Grand river, and then to its forks. [twenty-five miles from them]. No. 14. Still continuing their general migrations to the south and west, they chose the east bank of the Missouri, opposite the present site of Fort Leavenworth, No. 15, and finally settled on the west bank of the Missouri, [on their Reservation] between the mouth of the Wolf and Great Namahaw, No. 16, where they now reside.85

These migrations are deemed to be all of quite modern date, not excepting the probable period to which well-known tradition could reach. They do not, it would seem, aspire to the area of their ancient residence on the lower and upper Iowa rivers, and about the region of St. Anthony’s falls.86

We are taught something by these migrations. They were probably determined by the facility of procuring food. They relied, ever, greatly on the deer, elk, and buffalo. As these species are subject to changes, it is probable they carried the Indians with them.87 It is not probable that their locations were of long continuance at a place. Not over a dozen years at a location, on the average. It might be longer at some places, and less at others. This would not give a period of more than 180 years, before their arrival at their present place....88

It is not probable that the game-pursuing Indians were more fixed in their ancient, than in their modern locations. Indeed, the very reverse is true; for the modern hunter tribes avail themselves of the proximity of military posts, and out-settlements, to guard themselves from the approaches of hostile bands.

The population of the Iowas, as given at early dates, is very uniform, having evidently been copied by one writer from another. In some ancient MS. data in the Royal Marine Office, at Paris, which were submitted to the inspection of the American Minister (General Cass) in 1842, their numbers were put down, for about 1730, at 1100. When Colonel Bouquet marched over the Alleghanies against the western Indians, in 1764, the same numbers were used. Each of these dates assigns their residence to the Missouri, and there had, evidently, no recent information been received. The French alone were at that time in communication with them, and their alliance with the western Indians, in this war, made it impracticable to obtain further data.

By the official returns made to the Indian Bureau, in 1848, they are stated at “a fraction under seven hundred and fifty souls,” but in Sub-Agent Vaughan’s report in the fall of the same year, 669 is the enumeration.89 In the report of 1844 their census is stated at 470. In 1701,90 D’Iberville’s memorial 91 to France says:

the Ayooues and the Octootatas, their neighbors, are about 300 families. [In M. Chauvignerie’s Report 92 of the Census of tribes, made to the French government in 1736, the “Ayouas” are put down at 80 warriors].

In the report of the Indian Bureau for 1874, the Ioway and Otoe together, including some Sauk and some Missourie, numbered 864 persons.

It is recorded, that there were ten Ioway “Ayeouais”) with Montcalm and the French Army at the seige of Ticonderoga in July, 1757, and also 48 Winnebago (“Puants”)—De Tailly being their joint Interpreter.

According to Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike’s report of 1806,93 the “Aiowais” were called by the French, colloquially, “Ne Perce”; which was probably “Nez Perce,” Pierced or Perforated Noses:94 the first syllable of PÄhutchÆ, their own tribal name, being translated nose, which in some word-relations would be correct; while probably the last two syllables—ru’tchÆ—were deemed to be in the sense of Kēru’tchÆ, a word signifying to divide or part. This was a near enough translation for the early French traders, who were not particular.

MA-HAS-KAH, THE YOUNGER

Clyx.com