This map shows a few select sites where the 12,000+ years of human history on this land can be witnessed today. There are thousands of sites across the region as Native and then non-Native peoples lived across the whole area.

Hopewell cultures extended across the Midwest and further during the time span between about AD 0 and AD 500. The absence of an indication of archaeological cultures on this map does not imply that there were no thriving communities in those areas.

This map depicts the general location of select archaeological societies between around AD 900 and AD 1700. Not all of these societies existed for the whole time period, and different social groups lived within each of the individual regions. Please also note the overlaps on the map.

A general indication of exchange routes and exchange hubs. Much of the exchange networks depicted here existed in this or similar forms from about 2000 BC on. When European (Spanish, French, Scottish, and English) traders came to the region, they mostly continued to trade within these established networks

Francisco Vazquez de Coronado led a Spanish expedition from Mexico into what today is Kansas. He turned around after meeting different societies and reaching “Quivira.” This is the first time peoples in Iowa would have heard information about Europeans. At the same time, Hernando de Soto led a different Spanish expedition throughout the Southeast, reaching southern Missouri / northern Arkansas. No doubt, news of that endeavor also reached Iowa.

The earliest Europeans to reach what now is Iowa were French explorers, traders, and missionaries. They came from the Saint Lawrence river through the Great Lakes and began to explore inland from there, finding the Mississippi.

French exploration continued, and as traders and missionaries began to live with different Native communities, more of the region came into direct contact with Europeans and learned about interactions with them (see also map “French posts and settlements”).

In the beginning of the 18th century, the French began to explore the Missouri, the Spanish tried again to reach Native peoples in Kansas and Nebraska across the plains, and eventually the French began to explore and establish trading relations on the northern plains, coming from what today is Winnipeg.

The French began to establish many outposts for trade and for missionaries, sometimes also for mining. Many of these posts were short-lived. They indicate a more intensive interaction, however, and a desire by the French (and other Europeans) to stay in the area and to establish settlements. This map indicates a select few of these posts and settlements with the dates of their establishment.

After the United States acquired the claim to eventual European ownership to lands in the Missouri watershed from the French in 1803, Americans began to try and replace already existing French, Spansih, Metis, and English traders. To do so, the United States launched official explorations in the region to establish control over trade routes.

This map is based off a French map. Not all Native nations in the region are represented, only those figuring in French reports.

A map, based on different French and English maps dating to around 1750, indicating the general location of select Native nations in the region.

Main locations of select Native nations in the region, based on French, English, and American maps from around that time.

By 1825, several states were established in the region, but Native nations still held lands within these boundaries.

The state of Iowa is established in 1846, after several treaties (see the maps of the treaties). Those treaties removed Native nations from the state territory. At this time, the Dakota still hold territory in northern Iowa. The absence of Native nations on this map does not indicate the absence of all Native people from those areas. Several other Native nations, often removed from much farther east, held reservations in this region in 1850, especially west of Missouri, but these areas are not indicated here.

A map of Meskwaki displacements as an example of the effects of removal policies (see also the treaties maps). Areas indicated are general and approximate.

Early treaties include the 1804 “treaty” with the Sauk and Meskwaki, which was never acknowledged by the tribe, but led to the Blck Hawk war in 1832, the establishment of the “half-breed tract” and the lands reserved to the Ioway in what today is northwest Missouri.

The Treaty of Prairie du Chien drew boundary lines between Native nations, making it easier for the United States to negotiate future treaties. The treaty gave most of the future Iowa to both the Ioway as well as the Sauk and Meskwaki.

In 1830, the Sauk and Meskwaki sold what would become western Iowa to the United States, which then used it to house the removed Potawatomi. In northern Iowa, another treaty established the “neutral zone” between the Dakota and the Sauk and Meskwaki, which the United States then used to settle the removed Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin. In 1832, the U.S. forced the Meskwaki to sell eastern Iowa after the Black Hawk war. This opened the first parts of future Iowa to American settlement.

Between 1836 and 1842, the Sauk and Meskwaki had to sell the rest of their lands in future Iowa to the United States, having to remove from the area in 1845. In 1846, the Potawatomi were also removed. In 1851, the Dakota had to sell their lands.

The treaties of 1842 and 1846 opened the door for Iowa to become a state in 1846. The treaty with the Dakota removed the last Native nation from Iowa.

Today, five Native nations have lands in Iowa.