Ioway people

“ The best talent of the South, for a generation, went into politics, in the passionately loyal endeavor to prop up a doomed economic and social system; and the loss to the intellectual life of the country cannot be reckoned. Over vast sections of our prosperous and intelligent people of the Mississippi Basin to-day the very genius of commonplaceness seems to hover. Take the great State of Iowa, with its well-to-do and homogeneous population, its fortunate absence of perplexing city-problems, its general air of prosperity and content. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Half a century hence the sun is sure to shine upon countless villages, silvered spires and domes, denoting the march of intellect, and wealth's refinements, in this beautiful and far off solitude of the West, and we may perhaps hear the tinkling of the bells from our graves.” These descriptions of the country from 1832 to 1835, when Iowa was beginning to attract the attention of eastern people present a vivid picture of the beautiful prairies, rivers, valleys and groves before its soil was broken for cultivation and before its Indian population had removed from their favorite hunting grounds. ”

“ No Ioway can spill the blood of an enemy on the ground where the hands and the hearts of man and woman are joined together. This is the command of the Great Spirit, and an Ioway warrior cannot break it. My friend, these warriors you see around me with myself had sworn to kill the first human being we met on our war excursion ”

“ To the seekers after new homes, from the old world, or from the Eastern and Middle States of the Union--be they mechanics, agriculturists, or professional men--Iowa offers many advantages. On her soil, with prudence, economy and sobriety, added to good health, no one can fail to acquire a competency, if not to amass a fortune.
We have said thus much of Iowa, because we believe it to be due to her; due to her enterprise, and due to the worthy people who have made her soil their home;--and because, although no longer one of her citizens, we love her still! ”

“ AFTER the death of Dubuque, the first white man known to have made a home in the limits of Iowa was Chevalier Marais, a scion of the French nobility and an adherent of Louis XVI. When the French Revolution swept over his country and the lives of the nobility were in danger, Marais fled to America and for twenty-two years was a wanderer of the west. In 1812 he married the daughter of the head chief of the Ioway Indians, established a trading post at the mouth of Buck Creek in the present limits of Clayton County, and lived there several years carrying on trade with the Indians and fur dealers. ”

“ When the Territory of Iowa was established in 1838 there were within its limits twenty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine people. Eight years later, when the Commonwealth was admitted into the Union, this number had increased to one hundred and two thousand three hundred and eighty-eight.
Thus in less than a score of years the pioneers had founded a new Empire west of the Mississippi. And such an Empire! A land of inexhaustible fertility! A hundred thousand pioneers with energy, courage, and perseverance scarcely less exhaustible than the soil they cultivated! ”

“ I will venture to say, that this ingenious adaptation will excite a smile, if not some degree of real amusement, as well as applause, whenever it is fairly heard and understood by an English audience. The occasion that calls for this song in the Ioway country is, when a party of young men who are preparing to start on a war excursion against their enemy (after having fatigued the whole village for several days with the war dance, making their boasts how they are going to slay their enemies, &c.) ”

“ The best civilization is that which maintains the highest standard of life for its average citizen.
"Since the Civil war the state of Iowa has increased in population to almost 2,225,000 of people, and most of the time has had the least illiteracy of any state in the Union. Doubtless for that we are indebted to many of the older states, whose enterprising and courageous citizens constitute so large a portion of our population. ”

“ This is a very curious mode, and presents an appearance at once that distinguishes them from the Ojibbeways and other tribes, who cultivate the hair to the greatest length they possibly can, and pride themselves on its jet and glossy black. Every man in the Ioway tribe adheres to the mode of cutting all the hair as close as he can, excepting a small tuft which is left upon the crown, and being that part which the enemy takes for the scalp, is very properly denominated the “scalp-lock.” ”

“ In the amusements as there given, there was an addition to those which had been made in Lord’s Cricket-ground some weeks before, having in Vauxhall brought horses in to add, with equestrian exercises, to the completion of all the modes practised by this tribe. The Ioways, like most of the Indians of the prairies of America, subsist upon the food of the buffalo, and kill them from their horses’ backs, with their bows and arrows, while running at full speed. In the same manner they meet their enemies in battle, in which they carry their shield and lance. ”

“ The Making of a State. — A fertile soil and a genial climate are two very necessary elements in the creation of a Commonwealth. A third and most important factor is an intelligent, honest, and industrious people. It has been Iowa's good fortune to have such a population, without which, indeed, the figures given in the previous chapter could never have been written. But long before Iowa was settled by white men other peoples dwelt upon our rivers and roamed across our prairies. ”

“ The ax and rifle were their chief implements and dependence, and every man and boy was an expert in the use of both. The men built their own houses and constructed nearly all of their farm implements, while the women of the household, in addition to the ordinary work, spun the yarn, wove the cloth and made all the clothing for the family. Such people could make homes beyond the reach of mills, stores, mails, churches or schools, and regard it no hardship.” In the little book published in 1846 by Mr. Newhall are found many items of interest, showing the condition of Iowa when it became a State. ”

“ The early settlements in Iowa were largely made by men and women with little of worldly possessions beyond youth, health, industrious habits and a determination to better their condition in a new country where most of the people were similarly situated. ”

“ William Hamilton and Rev. Samuel McCleary Irvin, Presbyterian missionaries to the Iowa and Sauk and Fox Indians located near the mouth of the Great Nemaha river. They established what was known as the Ioway and Sac Mission Press at their station in 1848, issuing therefrom several volumes now of great rarity including An Ioway Grammar and The Ioway Primer, the latter in two editions. (See illustration) . For a complete list of their writings see Pilling, Bibliography of the Siouan Languages, p. 31 et seq. There is an autobiography of Hamilton in Nebraska State Historical Society Reports, Vol. ”

“ The fragments of the debates which have come down to us contain many remarks suggestive of the life, character, and political ideals of the people of early Iowa. For example, the discussion concerning newspapers, already referred to, brought out an expression of the popular ideal of economy and frugality. To be sure, newspapers containing information concerning the Convention and the fundamental instrument of government which was in the process of making would, if circulated widely throughout the Territory, educate and enlighten the people. ”

“ As the immigrant mother leads her sons and daughters into the undeveloped paths of wealth—as civilization elevates a race out of the sloughs of semi-barbarism—as national prosperity exalts a land—or as science raises the human intellect from darkness into dazzling light—thus Iowa, with rapid strides, ascends the precipitious sides of prosperity's mountain range, bearing her sons and daughters to loftier, and still loftier peaks, and revealing to their gaze still wider and richer vistas. ”

“ Thus the people of Iowa, through their law-making body, paid a fitting though somewhat tardy tribute to the memory of the pioneers who, imbued with the true American spirit of progress, were willing to brave the hardships of the frontier that those who came later might share the blessings of a richer civilization. ”

“ Some few men were beginning to realize that the rapid settlement of the Iowa country was not an isolated provincial episode but the surface manifestation of a current that was of National depth. Far-sighted statesmen whose eyes were neither blinded by the lights of the moment nor yet always riveted upon that which for the time was most brilliant, saw that a plain, common-looking pioneer farmer from across the Mississippi had come upon the stage of National Politics and had already begun to play a role in the great drama of American Democracy. ”

“ On the 1st of June, 1832, there were probably not more than fifty white people living within the limits of the future State; but for many years the fame of the beautiful valleys, groves and rivers, amid the fertile prairies covered with nutritious grass and brilliant with wild flowers, had reached the distant East. But it was reserved from settlement and in sole possession of Indians, their ideal hunting ground. Thousands of people were waiting impatiently for the removal of the red men from such a fair land. ”

“ TREATY WITH THE IOWA, [MAY 17,] 1854 Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the city of Washington, this seventeenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, by George W. Manypenny, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the following-named delegates of the Ioway tribe of Indians, viz: Nan-chee-ning-a, or No Heart; Shoon-ty-ing-a, or Little Wolf; Wah-moon-a-ka, or the Man who Steals; and Nar-ge-ga-rash, or British; they being thereto duly authorized by said tribe. ”

“ This was Iowa, as it was first seen by white men, and no more enchanting land ever met the gaze of explorers. For six days the Frenchmen remained with their Indian friends, traversing the valley of the river, hunting elk, buffalo and prairie chickens, fishing and bathing in the pure waters, feasting on the choicest of the products of the fields, forests and streams. The natives exerted themselves to provide every entertainment possible for their white visitors, and urged them to prolong their stay. ”

“ Youv'e got a sort o’ way o’ gettin' along ur' these ere darned, ignorant, stupid sort o’ beings. I can’t do it: dod rot 'em! they put me out at every step; they are so eternally ignorant; did you ever see the like? I suppose you are going to stop awhile in Birmingham?” “A few days.” “I shall be here a week, and be bright and early enough to get into a decenter house than this is, and be glad to join you. I was told in London that the Ioway Indians went on here yesterday. I’m damned anxious to meet them: you’ve seen them, I suppose?” “Yes, I saw them in London.” ”

“ A STATE or Nation is in a large degree what its people make it. If they are ignorant, indolent, or bigoted the institutions of the land in which they live will partake of these characteristics. Had Iowa remained a Spanish possession and become settled by immigrants from that Nation, they would inevitably have planted upon its soil many of the institutions, laws and customs of the mother country. ”

“ Newell retained a quarter interest in the “Giant,” and some weeks later after thousands of people came and gazed with awe upon the wonder, and the receipts were reported to be reaching fabulous amounts, the value of the “Giant” was estimated at $240,000. Hull and Martin about this time were understood to have disposed of their interest in the “petrified man” to the syndicate. But the reader will naturally inquire—what connection has all of this with the history of Iowa?
More than a thousand miles westward, in the upper valley of the Des Moines River, was the picturesque village of Fort Dodge. ”

“ 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 15brought 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. ”

“ Iowa and Her People
"In all that is good Iowa affords the best."
Thus a few years ago wrote one of our state's most distinguished citizens. [C]
And his utterance found a ready response in the hearts of the men and women of our fair land, so that today the expression is an axiom. Every Iowan believes firmly in its truth.
There is no fairer land under the benevolent sun. Here plenty reigns, and prosperity has her home. Cheerful industry has redeemed the land that once was the home of wild animals and untamed savages. Iowa's waving corn fields ”