The Native Americans

bigpigeon.us webpage History > Iowa History > The Native Americans, updated by RAC 17 Oct 2023.
Incomplete.

The accompanying map shows tribal locations in the Great Lakes area about the time of early contact with European traders.

Around 1600, the French entered the Great Lakes from the St. Lawrence River.
Trading began from what is now Albany, New York in 1614, first by the Dutch and starting in 1664 by the English.
The catastrophic Beaver Wars by Iroquois tribes in the mid 1600s drove many of the tribes shown here westward. The Potawatomi, Sauk, and Fox shown here in Michigan moved westward into Wisconsin and eventually through Illinois to Iowa.

Great Lakes Tribes before the Beaver Wars.

The accompanying maps show the Native American occupants of Iowa and Nebraska at an unspecified date, probably in the 1700s. The Omaha and Ponca were recent arrivals in the area. European impact had yet to force the Sauk and Fox/Meskwaki westward into Iowa.

Iowa Indians before European Settlement

Nebraska Indians before European Settlement

Sources for Big Pigeon's History > Southwest Iowa History > The Native Americans webpage:

The Great Lakes Tribes map is courtesy of the Milwaukee Public Museum and is found at https://www.mpm.edu/plan-visit/educators/wirp/history.
The Indians Before European Settlement maps are courtesy of http://www.native-languages.org.