American Indian Studies Program

American Indians and Alaska Native peoples are the indigenous peoples of the continental United States. They are members of sovereign Native nations. Since 1924, they are all also citizens of the United States. In this, they enjoy a similar, but not identical status to that of First Nation, Inuit, and Metis people in Canada. There are currently about 8.8 million people in the U.S. who self-identify as at least partially American Indian or Alaska Native.

American Indian and Alaska Native is not a cultural, ethnic, or racial category, but a legal category. Every nation, or “tribe”, has its own membership criteria. In the beginning of 2025, 574 tribal entities in the United States are federally recognized. They all have different cultures, histories, worldviews, languages, ancestral territories, laws, economies, political interests, and beliefs.

Native nations are inherently sovereign. They were sovereign before the United States existed, made treaties with the United States as fellow sovereign nations, and are only limited in their sovereignty because the United States unilaterally imposed a guardian/ward relation over them. From the founding of the United States, its sovereignty has coexisted with the sovereignty of Native nations. The U.S. constitution, its interpretation, and application has always existed in the context of Native nations. In order to understand the United States social, economic, political, and legal history and reality, it is thus necessary to understand its relationships to Native nations.

The program and its mission

The American Indian studies program at Iowa State University is disciplinary and has offered students opportunities to learn more about Native nations, communities, and people since 1972. It teaches a variety of courses designed to explore the realities of sovereign Native nations and their relationships to the United States.

The AIS program offers an undergraduate minor in American Indian studies, and an undergraduate major through the LAS interdisciplinary major program. We welcome all students to our courses, and most courses do not have prerequisites. Most of the faculty in AIS are also members of the graduate faculty and serve on graduate student committees; they offer graduate courses on Native subjects through different graduate degree programs.

The AIS program teaches courses that provide an in-depth discussion of important issues for Native communities and for students who may want to work in and with them. Whether they are aware of it or not, all graduates of ISU will work with, serve, and meet Native people in their professional and personal lives, and should have an understanding of Native realities. American Indians are neighbors, co-workers, family members, and acquaintances. Importantly, Congress enacts the special legal framework that governs many Native communities. All American citizens should therefore be informed about these issues.

The American Indian studies program is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). The program currently crosslists courses with political science, natural resource and environmental management, anthropology, and English. AIS courses or an AIS minor may also be of special interest for students in education, human services programming, engineering, biology, agriculture, health care, legal services, or public administration. AIS faculty work frequently with AIS students and graduate students to provide independent studies courses on subjects of interest to students that are not offered as regular classes.

The activities of two student organizations, the United Native American Student Organization and the ISU chapter of the Association of Indian Science and Engineering Society, provide additional resources for students and the surrounding communities.

American Indian studies and the state of Iowa

Iowa has a rich archaeological heritage with sites representing paleoindian big-game hunters, early Woodland horticulturalists, and prehistoric mound builders. Historic sites across the state showcase Native communities and their stewardship of and impact on the landscape. From Blood Run on the Big Sioux to Toolesboro Mounds on the Iowa, from Glenwood in the Loess Hills to the Effigy Mounds National Monument in the northeastern corner of the state, and everywhere in between, Native people lived, gathered, hunted, planted, harvested, and shaped the state.

Native peoples in Iowa – just like all over the Midwest – have been agricultural for over four thousand years. The Midwest is one of only a few areas in the world where the domestication of plants was independently invented. People grew locally domesticated crops for thousands of years before adding corn to the mix of subsistence crops around a thousand years ago. One of the first permanent settlements found so far in the area was located near present-day Des Moines and predates these agricultural efforts.

In historical times, the Iowa (or Ioway), the Oto, Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi, and other nations lived in Iowa. The name Iowa comes from the Iowa river, which is named after the nation. Many names in the state derive from Native nations or people. This includes the Des Moines river and the city of Des Moines. The name originated from a society living along the river whom the French called Moingona. Accordingly, the river was called Riviere des Moingonas, which was then shorted to the River des Moines or the Des Moines river.

Native nations in Iowa had trade and diplomatic relations with the French, the Spanish, the British, and the Americans. A series of treaties between 1824 and 1851 ceded the land to the United States. These treaties are the supreme law of the land as defined in the U.S. constitution. The treaties in Iowa were effected under the policy of removal. According to this federal policy, all Native nations were to be removed to what was called Indian Territory. However, in 1858 the state of Iowa, in a remarkable act, actively supported the Meskwaki in returning, buying land, and resettling on the Iowa river.

Currently, the Meskwaki, the Omaha, the Winnebago, and the Ponca own sovereign lands within the borders of the state of Iowa. The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska additionally owns land in the state. Iowa has a rich Native history that spans the last 15,000 years. It provides great insights on agriculture, engineering, diplomacy, trade, politics, and many more issues important to the people of the state.