Iowa

From NativeWiki

The Iowa (also spelled Ioway), also known as the Baxoje, are a Native American people. Together with the Missouri, the Omaha, the Oto and the Ponca they are part of the Chiwere-speaking peoples, claiming the Ho-Chunks as their "grandfathers." Their estimated population of 1100 (in 1760) dropped to 800 (in 1804), mainly due to smallpox. In 1824, the Iowa were moved to a reservation in Kansas. Today, some of them also live in Oklahoma. As of 1990, their population is roughly 1500.

The tribe operates the Casino White Cloud at White Cloud, Kansas. The tribe has not advocated the removal of the name squaw at the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near their White Cloud reservation. In 2004 the tribe in fact took ownership and re-opened the Squaw Creek Truck Plaza, a landmark on the Interstate 29 exit leading to the refuge and the casino.

U.S. Recognition

The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognized two Iowa Tribes (circa 2005):

Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma

Music sample

Download recording of a courtship song from the Library of Congress' Omaha Indian Music Collection; performed by George Miller in 1897, collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche