Resources within Reach - State Historical Society of Iowa

hunting and gathering techniques and technologies changed to adapt to the newclimactic conditions and to the different plant and animal resources available.The lifestyles of people changed considerably about 5000 years ago as cultivation ofdomesticated plants began, supplementing the resources obtained through hunting andgathering. Semi-sedentary settlements existed within eastern and perhaps central Iowa.Since that time, human populations significantly increased the state and their societiesbecame much more complex. Technological advances in the form of pottery for foodstorage, food preparation, and for ceremonial purposes began about 3000 years ago.The bow and arrow was developed for hunting, warfare, and perhaps for fishingapproximately 1500 years ago. The construction of both burial and ceremonial moundsbecame more elaborate through time. Casual cultivation of native crops such asgoosefoot, marshelder, and sunflowers led to intensive agriculture practices involvingboth native and introduced crops such as corn and beans.Iowa’s modern day residents would easily recognize the patterns of life that beganaround 1000 years ago as settled villages were established in different portions of thestate by different groups of people. All of these Late Prehistoric cultures relied onhunting and intensive agriculture featuring corn as a staple crop. Hunting activities inwestern Iowa were focused on bison hunting to supply food, tools, clothing, anddwelling coverings. All of the people living in western Iowa during the Late Prehistoriccultural period lived in various styles of earthlodges. Daily scenes within Late Prehistoricvillages would have been very similar if not identical to those within the villages ofhistoric tribes along the Missouri River that early Euroamerican explorers encountered.The arrival of the Euroamerican explorers, and eventually cultures, caused greatstresses on the historic American Indian tribes. Great change occurred as many of thetribes traded for Euroamerican goods and materials, which were incorporated into theirtraditional cultures. Disputes arose between tribes over access to trade goods andrelationships with different colonial powers claiming different portions of North America.Warfare between the tribes and the Euroamerican settlers and colonial powershappened frequently. As advancing Euroamerican settlement forced dispossession oftribes from their homelands, many tribes moved primarily westward. These movementsin turn put dispossessed tribes in direct conflicts with the tribes already living in thewest. A good example of this scenario was the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes who wereoriginally from the northeastern United States but migrated westward and eventuallysettled in Iowa during the 1700s. These tribes gradually forced others in Iowa, such asthe Ioway, further westward. Diseases introduced by the Euroamerican explorers andlater immigrants took a severe toll on the populations of many tribes, reducing sometribes significantly. In some cases, whole groups of people nearly died off, leaving thefew survivors to join with other groups.The Historic Period begins in Iowa with the early explorers such as Marquette andJoliet in the late 1600s and Lewis and Clark during the early 1800s. Iowa was owned byFrance and Spain before the United States government acquired the LouisianaPurchase from France in 1803. Many trappers heavily interacted with the AmericanIndian peoples living here, sometimes living with and marrying into the tribes. As theResources within Reach: Iowa’s Statewide Historic Preservation Plan 25