Iowa (people)
The Iowa or Ioway (Bah-Kho-Je) are a North American Indian people who were temporarily resident in the US state of Iowa , to which the tribe gave its name. The 2000 census found 1,451 Iowa, plus 76 descendants of various tribes, 688 descendants of white and Native American ancestors, and 43 others for a total of 2,258 people.
The name goes back to "ayuhwa" ("asleep" or "one who goes to sleep"), but the self-designation was "Pahotcha" or "Bah-kho-je", which means something like "dusty faces" or "gray snow" .
history
The oldest known residences of the Ioway were probably north of the Great Lakes . Possibly they split off from the Ho-chunk as they migrated from the Mississippi to the Plains. The map by Guillaume Delisle from 1716 shows the residence of the "Aiaouez" on the upper Missouri. The French offered them, as they were threatened by enemy tribes in the region, to settle near St. Louis . White Cloud's father, Man-haw-gaw (Wounding Arrow), led the tribe to southeastern Iowa. But around 1800 they moved back to Missouri . They met Lewis and Clark in 1804 on the Platte River in Minnesota .
As early as the 17th century, Sauk and Fox , Kickapoo and Anishinabe, displaced by the Europeans, had moved to the areas of Iowa. This led to wars. Around 1760 the tribe had around 1,100 members, in 1804 only 800. In 1819 Man-haw-gaw was probably killed by a Sioux .
With the acquisition of Louisiana from France in 1803, the USA began to interfere in the relations between the tribes. The first treaty provided for peace between the tribes in 1805. The signatory for the Ioway was a Voi-Ri-Gran . During the British-American War between 1812 and 1814, most of the Ioway were allied with the British, but some along with the Otoe supported the Americans. As early as 1809, the US President Hard Heart had appointed Iowa chief, although the establishment of a permanent chief was alien to them. A kind of council of elders had to make the decisions until then. With Hard Heart (also called White Cloud I.) a dynasty emerged.
In 1824 the Ioway were supposed to move to a reservation on what is now the border between Kansas and Nebraska , and later to an Indian territory in Oklahoma . Their chief at that time was Mahaska (Mew-hew-she-kaw, known as White Cloud I. ). He was invited to Washington in 1824 . The tribe gave up their territory that year, except for the Little Platte River area , and sold northern Missouri , which they would vacate by 1826. But this treaty led to a split in the tribe. One part was led by White Cloud, who sided with the United States, while Great Walker led the resistance. This group was called "the Pouting Party" by the American press. Great Walker refused to leave the area until his death. With the treaty of 1824, the USA created a no man's land between the warring tribes of the Sioux , as well as the Sac and Fox. The Iowa should belong to the group of Fox and Sac living in the south.
However, since the tribes could not agree on the boundaries of the hunting areas in Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota, and accordingly there were repeated fighting, the USA intervened again, especially since it was now clear that the expulsion of all Indians from the area east of the Mississippi. In a new treaty, the Iowa also had to cede areas in which no white settlers were allowed to live, but Washington reserved the right to settle Indians from the east. In addition, the Iowa apparently did not even realize that they had to cede land, because the negotiations were conducted without an interpreter . In 1834 Mahaska was killed by two tribesmen who had been extradited for an attack on the Omaha and who had fled.
In 1836, Iowa relocated to the Missouri according to a new contract (the "Platte Purchase") with some Fox and Sauk , some separated from them and in 1838 moved to Oklahoma . In doing so, they avoided the increasing pressure of white settlers, but also the pressure of the Fox based on conquering rights. They were also cheated to the greatest extent by the Indian agent Vanderslice. He appropriated considerable parts of the land for himself and his relatives, and the Ioway were forced to move north, where they were settled around Whitecloud in 1854 . The next year the tribes in the Great Nemaha Half-Breed Tract divided up their land and sold it. Many of them joined the growing immigrant population, some joined the Ioway.
Mahaska's son, Chief James White Cloud , fought in the Northern Army during the Civil War . In 1861 two reservations were established in the border area between Kansas and Nebraska , the west of their area had to be ceded. Starting in 1878, some of them moved to Oklahoma, in areas in Lincoln , Payne and Logan Counties (Oklahoma) Logan County, where the President in 1883 ordered the establishment of a reservation. From 1887 the land became individual property, so that there was soon a patchwork of Indian, white and mixed race property. From 1891, most of the southern areas fell victim to the Oklahoma Land Run , so that this tribal area was also dissolved.
There are only a few hundred Iowa left in both areas today. Since they were able to set up a casino , they can purposefully buy back their old land from the profits.
language
The Iowa spoke a Sioux language called Chiwere (Báxoje ich'è or Bah Kho Je). The last people who were able to speak the language fluently died at the end of 1996; in 2008 there were six speakers who were halfway fluent in the language. Jimm Goodtracks, one of them, is putting together a dictionary and the language is to be taught again.
Remarks
- ↑ The text of the treaty can be found here: TREATY WITH THE IOWA, 1815 (Treaty of Portage des Sioux (Missouri)) .
- ^ The Rush to Oklahoma
- ↑ Jimm Good Tracks: Ioway Otoe-Missouria language. In: Ioway Otoe-Missouria language website. Retrieved April 16, 2020 .
- ^ Chiwere, Language of the Ioway-Otoe-Missouria. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ See Terry Rombeck: Native tongue. Lost language comes to life on screen in new movie, in: LJcom, May 31, 2008 .
literature
See also
Internet media
- Lost Nation: The Ioway (2006), teaser on YouTube for the film
- Interview with producers Kelly and Tammy Rundle
- Joann Comer - I Am Ioway
