Iowa’s Native Past

Iowa’s Native Past

By Ryan Graden

I absolutely hated History class in High School. Sitting in a room attempting to learn and memorize what happened long ago that led us to where we are now as a nation drove me nuts. I knew it was good for me, but to sit in a classroom and endure a lecture day after day did not excite me in ANY way!

Fast forward 20 years, things are very different. I have become somewhat of a history buff. Anything that I can learn about early colonial settlers, the westward expansion, historical wars, and historical lifestyles fascinate me. You can ask my wife and children. Our satellite TV is set to record all kinds of history shows and survival shows. I can’t get enough of it.

Personally, I’ve wished quite often that I would have the chance to jump back in time just for a little while to live a different lifestyle. I want to see what it might have looked like to live here in Iowa some 200 years ago. What did the lifestyle look like? What would my house look like? How might I have fed my family? What kind of game might I have hunted? More than once I have told friends and family that I feel like I was born a few hundred years too late. Life might have been more of an adventure had I lived in that time and era.

These thoughts about history, what Iowa looked like, who else was here before I was, and often times come about while I’m in the timber. Whether I’m hunting, hiking, camping, shed hunting, or something else, I have the constant reminder that I was not the first man to be standing on this rich Iowa soil. I often times wonder who might have walked the same ridge that I’m on a few hundred years before me? Or when I see a giant oak tree that is so big I can’t wrap my arms around it, I wonder what it has seen over its years of existence. What animal has crawled through its branches or rubbed against its trunk. What man or woman sat underneath its shade or hunted from its limbs.

These thoughts often plague my time in the timber and it has caused me to seek some answers in recent years. I want to know what Iowa looked like over the last couple hundred years. Stay tuned and I’ll give you a small taste!

Wild Game
We all are very lucky to be outdoorsmen here in the Midwest. Frankly, there are a lot of folks from other states that would give their right arm to take part in what Iowa has to offer for the outdoors. Excellent fishing, hunting, and other outdoor activities are all over the place if you’re willing to put in the effort. With all that said though, did you know that Iowa had much more to offer not too long ago? In fact, when the first explorers came through our neck of the woods, there were a few more animals that made Iowa their home.

Bison
It is estimated that at the peak of their existence, bison in North America numbered somewhere between 50-75 million head throughout the states. That included Iowa. Our prairies were littered with bison. It actually was one of the most plentiful species in the area and they provided quite a bit to the people who made this land their home.
A plains bison could weigh anywhere between 750 pounds on up to 2,000 pounds on the hoof. They provided a lot of meat, warm hides, bones, teeth, and other parts all useful to the Native Americans peoples in a lot of ways.

When the settlers came through, the bison numbers dropped dramatically. Overhunting was the main reason for the decline. However, the reasons for overhunting varied. Some folks just wanted the chance to take down these massive beasts. Others were actually commissioned by parts of our government to reduce the bison population in order to cause tribes to move elsewhere. Regardless, we were left without an amazing natural resource in our great state.

Elk
Nowadays when we think of elk, we think of these great majestic animals that scatter the mountain sides of the Rockies in the West. But did you know that just a few hundred years ago, elk roamed the Iowa prairies just as much as deer, and bison. That’s right, it was estimated that at their population peak, elk numbered somewhere around 10 million animals in North America. Again, these animals were a great source of food, clothing, and tools for the local Native American tribes.

Elk roamed the prairies of Iowa just as much as other native species. They had their herds and could be found in multiple Iowa counties until the early 1800’s. The westward expansion, depletion of the natural resources that they needed, and over hunting were some of the major reasons why elk are not present here in Iowa today. Most herds migrated westward to the safety of the mountains and that’s where they have thrived for the last few hundred years.

Occasionally, local “rock hounds” and artifact hunters will stumble across elk antlers that have been buried in soil for a good number of years. If you are ever on a canoe or kayak ride down one of Iowa’s great river systems, keep your eyes open for odd looking “sticks” exposed in eroded banks. You just might be one of those lucky ones to find an ancient shed!

Bear
I bet you weren’t thinking about this one were you? However, yes, even bears roamed the prairies of Iowa until the early 1800’s. Bears were prized mainly for a couple of things. First, their meat was delicious if cooked properly. Most settlers were surprised when they first tried it. On some accounts, the taste was said to remind them of a good pork roast. Bear skins were the other benefit of a harvest. Warm, thick, furry bear hides provided protection from the cutting Midwest winter winds.

Although a predator, Bears didn’t seem to be too much of a problem to those coming west. Black bears were eventually pressured westward and northward into neighboring states as a result of hunting pressure and loss of habitat. However, before that, many Iowa families who settled in this area had the opportunity to harvest this predator for their table fare.
There are many more animals such as cougars, bobcats, wolves, passenger pigeons, and cranes that you don’t often see in Iowa anymore. They once used to be plentiful, but for many reasons, they are not here anymore. Just picture what that must have looked like. How amazing would a hunt have been 200 years ago?

People
When some of the first French explorers came through Iowa, they wrote in their memoirs, “We have never seen a land so plentiful with game.” It wasn’t only the game that they discovered. These men came upon the early residents of Iowa hailing from a number of different tribes, all calling this land their home. The natural resources that this land provided made it possible for generations of Native people to live and thrive upon it. But, much like the natural resources, these people are almost gone too.

The Ioway
The Ioway tribe is believed to be one of the earliest people to make Iowa their home. Originally coming from the Missouri area, bands of Ioway people settled in central Iowa and expanded into the northeast a little bit as well as the south central areas.

Ioway’s lived a “great plains” lifestyle. They hunted, fished, and farmed depending on the season and would, if needed, travel to survive. They were semi-nomadic and were one of the first people groups met by early French explorers. Bows, lances, and stone weapons were used in their hunting and gathering. They were proud of their way of life, and frankly, until the white men began to settle, they were a thriving, growing tribe here in Iowa.

As with the natural resources, the more Europeans that showed up, the more the population of the Ioway tribe began to dwindle. By 1760 there were only 1,100 Ioway people left. By the year 1804, the population had dropped to 800 due to the pressures of settlers as well as new sicknesses and diseases brought from Europe. By 1837 the Ioway Tribe had been relocated to reservations along the Nebraska Kansas border where some remain to this day.

Meskwaki
This tribal name might be more familiar to current Iowan’s due to the amount of land and business operations of this Native American people. These people have fought hard to make their existence stand here in the state of Iowa and in the process of doing so, they have left an amazing historical mark on our great state.

The Meskwaki were originally a combination of two different tribes found here in Iowa. The Sac (Sauk) and the Fox. Around 1832, the United States government combined the two tribes for treaty purposes and in the years following, they have become known as the Meskwaki.

The Meskwaki were believed to have moved to the Iowa region from the great Algonquin Woodland culture that inhabited the Great Lakes area in the 1600’s. They thrived much the same way as other Native American peoples in Iowa. Hunting, fishing, and farming were their means of provision and they lived primarily in the Eastern Iowa regions.

Even though the tribe lost their lands through a treaty act in 1845 and were moved to a reservation in Central Kansas, some stayed in Iowa. Hiding and remaining “under the radar” until years later when, through a series of events, the tribe was able to actually purchase 80 acres of land in their native woodland area of Iowa.

Over the years, the Meskwaki people have purchased more and more land, started businesses, and continued to grow and share their history within Iowa. They have left a long-lasting mark in Iowa, and we are thankful to have it.

History Continues
There is evidence of many other people and tribes that made Iowa their home. Historians and archeologists are continually putting the pieces of discoveries together to learn more and more about our state’s past and what it looked like. Cultures and civilizations, animals, and habitat have changed over the last few thousand years, but that is what has shaped us into the state that we are today.

So, next time you are walking through the timber, allow yourself to dwell on those historical thoughts. You might be laying down similar footprints that somebody else did hundreds of years before you. Take the time to look on the ground or in the stream bottoms for some of our history that might have been left behind. There is nothing more amazing than picking up an arrowhead that has been sitting on the ground for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and realizing that the last person that touched that lived here too.

Embrace our states great history and do your best to continue it’s story.