Since the days of Marquette (1673) the Iowa have ranged over the country
between the Mississippi and Missouri, up to the latitude of Oneota
(formerly upper Iowa) river,- and even across the Missouri about the mouth
of the Platte. Chauvignerie located them, in 1736 west of the Mississippi
and (probably through error in identification of the waterway) south of
the Missouri; and in 1761 Jefferys placed them between Missouri river and
the headwaters of Des Moines river, above the Oto and below the Maha
(Omaha). In 1805, according to Drake, they dwelt on Des Moines river,
forty leagues above its mouth, and numbered 800. In 1811 Pike found them
in two villages on Des Moines and Iowa rivers. In 1815 they were decimated
by smallpox, and also lost heavily through war against the tribes of the
Dakota confederacy. In 1829 Porter placed them on the Little Platte, some
15 miles from the Missouri line, and about 1853 Schoolcraft located them
on Nemaha river, their principal village being near the mouth of the Great
Nemaha. In 1848 they suffered another epidemic of smallpox, by which 100
warriors, besides women and children, were carried off. As the country
settled, the Iowa, like the other Indians of the stock, were collected on
reservations which they still occupy in Kansas and Oklahoma. According to
the last census their population was 273.
The Missouri were first seen by Tonty about 1670; they were located near
the Mississippi on Marquette's map (1673) under the name of Ouemessourit,
probably a corruption of their name by the Illinois tribe, with the
characteristic Algonquian prefix.
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