Iowa were a small Plains tribe of the United States. They used to live in the Midwestern state that was named after them. The name meant “sleepy ones” in the language of their Sioux enemies. The Iowa combined farming with buffalo hunting. They were related in language and customs to the nearby Oto and Missouri tribes. According to tradition, these three tribes migrated southward from the Great Lakes region. These tribes measured their wealth in buffalo hides and finely carved calumets (tobacco pipes).
An early French trader spoke of the Iowa people as “industrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth.” The Iowa carried tipis on hunting trips on the Plains, but their settlements had dome-shaped houses of bent poles covered with bark.
