Our Tribe

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of four federally recognized tribes in Kansas. Established in 1861, our tribe is located across portions of Brown County and Doniphan County in Northeast Kansas and Richardson County in Southeast Nebraska. The reservation covers 12,038 acres with the tribe currently holding approximately 6000 acres in trust.

We are the Ioway; best known today as the tribe for whom the state of Iowa was named, we are often called Ioway to help distinguish us from the state of Iowa. Tribal members use both Iowa and Ioway to represent themselves, though our traditional name is Baxoje, meaning grey snow. By the time white settlers first entered Iowa in the mid 1800s, we had already moved our villages into northern Missouri due to incessant warfare in Iowa between the Sioux in the northern and western parts of the state and the Sauk and Meskwaki in the souther and eastern parts of the state.
Archaeologists call the sites of the ancestral Ioway, Oneota, after one of the names for the Upper Iowa River where such sites were first located. Other closely related tribes such as the Otoe, Missouria, Winnebago, and Omaha also participated in the Oneota culture. This connection is supported by tribal traditions and linguistic studies,which assert that all those tribes were once one people. The Oneota are most identified with certain types of pottery but also with the use of pipestone, copper, and small triangular arrowheads. They were guardians of the pipestone quarry in Minnesota until about 1700.
Today, our tribe continues this tradition of guardianship as we continue to protect our lands, waters, culture, and peoples. Our story begins with our ancestors who lived in harmony with nature. Now, we honor that through our work in protecting our lands and community through regenerative agriculture, conservation land stewardship, re-establishing inter-tribal trade routes, and developing a strong and vibrant economy through diverse economic development solutions. We believe that it is our duty to support the future generations through this work and provide for them a place better than we had.
We believe in ensuring that all tribes have access to the work we are doing so that they will not have to go through the same challenges we have. In this pursuit we created Grey Snow Management Solutions to not only support our own tribe, but to support all tribes inclusively. We are stronger together and our journey to tribal sovereignty is best paved by sharing our strengths and expertise to build a future that is better for all.

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