Ioway
Mississippi River From Pike's Peak
Burial Mounds
Iowans Begin Raising Food
Europeans Come to Iowa
Influence of European Culture
Bone Fishhooks
Clamshell Fish Lure or DecoyThe First Iowans to Use the Rivers
Indians Needed Rivers
The first Native Americans came
to Iowa by following the river valleys. Many of the things they needed to
survive could be found by the rivers and streams. A village located next to
a stream always had plenty of water for cooking and drinking. Natives used
the trees along the shores for building shelters and canoes. They used the
stone and clay found along some river banks to make ceremonial pipes and paint.
Indians traveled on the rivers to move between villages or to go on long hunting
trips. The river valleys were full of the animals they needed for clothing
and food. The beaver with its thick coat lived in the streams. Thousands of
ducks and geese stopped at the marshes as they migrated. Fish grew to great
size in the rivers, and freshwater clams lay on the muddy bottoms. Deer and
buffalo came to the water's edge to drink.
Although the river valleys were good hunting places, the Indians took only
what they needed to survive. Indians believed that all parts of nature had
souls or spirits, and people had to cooperate with those spirits. Indians
told myths and legends about the rivers and streams. Some tribes buried their
dead near the rivers. On the bluffs along the Mississippi and Turkey rivers,
the Indians made the mounds in the shapes (or effigies) of animals.
An End to a Way of Life
The Indian way of life depended
on the rivers. But in some ways the rivers ended the Indians' way of life.
Rivers made it easier for white explorers to travel to Indian lands. Some
explorers were friendly, like Julien Dubuque. He was searching along the Mississippi
for deposits of lead. The Mesquakies welcomed him and let him mine the lead.
Nearby on Catfish Creek Julien Dubuque began the first permanent white settlement
in Iowa.
Rivers brought European and American fur traders to the Indians. Trappers
and voyageurs paddled canoes full of furs down river to the traders. Boats
carried the iron tools, blankets and guns that the Indians accepted in trade.
The fur trade brought the Indians things they needed and wanted. But it also
changed their way of life.
A New Use for Rivers
Europeans and Americans used rivers
in their struggle to control the land. They built forts along the rivers.
They talked tribes into giving up sections of land, and rivers were often
the boundaries of the sections. The tribes were forced to move beyond the
river. They were told they could never cross the boundary again. Thousands
of settlers poured into the land that had been the Indians' homes. Some came
in covered wagons pulled by oxen. Some settlers came in steamboats or flatboats
on the rivers.
The rivers brought change to the Indians and the land now called Iowa. But
many of the Indians' names for the rivers and streams in Iowa stayed the same.
Explorers translated the words into English or spelled the Indian words in
various ways. But the names of rivers still remind us of the Indians that
lived here and the explorers who came by river to meet them.
