Otoe

The Otoe (

Historically, the Otoe tribe lived as a semi-nomadic people on the Central Plains along the bank of the Missouri River in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. They lived in elm-bark lodges while they farmed, and used tipis while traveling, like many other Plains tribes. They often left their villages to hunt buffalo.

In the early 19th century, many of their villages were destroyed due to warfare with other tribes. European-American encroachment and disease also played a role in their decline. Today, Otoe people belong to the

The Otoe were once part of the

Like other Great Plains tribes, the Otoe periodically left their villages to hunt for bison. Between 1817 and 1841, the Otoe lived around the mouth of the Platte River in present-day Nebraska. Otoe County, Nebraska still bears their name. During this time, the Missouria families that survived European diseases and encroachment rejoined them to form the Otoe-Missouri tribe. They gathered with others to trade for European goods.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1830s, European-American traders tried to influence tribal members through alcohol. As their dependence on alcohol grew, the men no longer hunted, but resorted to looting vacant Pawnee villages while the people were out hunting.^[5] Christian missionaries built a mission there.

In 1854 the Otoe-Missouria ceded most of their lands south of the Platte River in eastern Nebraska to the U.S. by treaty. They retained the

During the 1870s, the tribe split into two factions. The Coyote band favored an immediate move to

By the spring of 1880, about half the tribe had left the reservation and taken up residence with the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory. By the next year, in response to dwindling prospects of self-sufficiency and continued pressure from white settlers, the remaining Otoe members in Nebraska sold the Big Blue reservation. They migrated to Oklahoma.

With the Otoe-Missouria already there, they purchased a new reservation in the

• Annette Arkeketa, poet and playwright
• Carol Channing, actress^[6]
• Chono Ca Pe, early 19th-century leader
• Hayne Hudjihini
  , or Eagle of Delight (c. 1795–1822), wife of Sų Manyi Kathi
• Johny Hendricks, MMA fighter
• Tommy Morrison, former heavyweight boxer and co-star in Rocky V movie
• Sų Manyi Kathi
  , or Prairie Wolf (c. 1785–1837), sub-chief and diplomat
• Anna Lee Walters, author
• Della Warrior, director, New Mexico Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

See also

• Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)
• Woodcliff Burials

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otoe.

• Ioway-Otoe Language, Ioway Cultural Institute; Baxoje, the Ioway Nation, on NativeWeb
• Otoe-Missouria Genealogy, Database of members and descendants from reservation, Native Website