A
Chiwere Siouan language-speaking people, the Iowa originally lived near the
Great Lakes and were once part of the
Ho-Chunk Nation. In the 17th century, Iowa people lived in northern
Iowa and southern
Minnesota. During the 1820s and 1830s, the tribe signed numerous treaties with the US federal government and were assigned a
reservation near the
Great Nemaha River near the Kansas–Nebraska border in 1836. On 1 August 1953, the
United States Congress passed
House Concurrent Resolution 108 which called for the immediate termination of the
Flathead,
Klamath,
Menominee,
Potawatomi, and
Turtle Mountain Chippewa, as well as all tribes in the states of
California,
New York,
Florida, and
Texas. Termination of a tribe meant the immediate withdrawal of all federal aid, services, and protection, as well as the end of reservations. A memo issued by the
Department of the Interior on 21 January 1954 clarified that the reference to "Potawatomi" in the Resolution meant the
Potawatomi, the
Kickapoo, the
Sac and Fox, and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska tribes in Kansas. Because jurisdiction over criminal matters had already been transferred to the State of Kansas by the passage of the
Kansas Act of 1940, the government targeted the four tribes in Kansas for immediate termination. The Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation tribal leader,
Minnie Wishkeno Evans (Indian name: Ke-wat-no-quah) led the effort to stop termination. Tribal members sent petitions of protest to the government and multiple delegations went to testify at congressional meetings in Washington, DC. Tribal Council members Vestana Cadue, Oliver Kahbeah, and Ralph Simon of the
Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas traveled at their own expense to testify as well. The strong opposition from the Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes helped them, as well as the
Sac and Fox and the Iowa Tribe, avoid termination. In 2021 Johnson County, IA Conservation Board donated 7 acres of land to the Iowa Tribe of Nebraska and Kansas. The first land owned by the Iowa Tribe in Iowa (Article). ==21st century==