This Is the Route of My Forefathers: The 1837 Ioway Map by William Green focuses on major treaty negotiations with the federal government and a map central to the tribe's argument. That map, used primarily in 1837, charts an Ioway area of influence spanning from Missouri to Wisconsin. It was dormant for more than 100 years in the National Archives until it was republished in the late 1970s.
Now, Iowa people are deciding what to do next with it.
Two Iowa tribes
There are two Iowa tribes: the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. That's because the nation split in two over differing views of white settlement after the Civil War; the Oklahoma branch wanted traditional lives in Indian Territory, while the latter hoped to retain its land through continued assimilation.
The tribe's members are also referred to as "Ioway." The collective Ioway people are the namesake of the midwestern state.
Green said most of his home state is unaware of the tribe's existence.
The map
The Ioway map includes the locations of 23 villages, routes of movement, and waterways like the Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Green, former state archaeologist for the University of Iowa, said the Ioway people created the map as the federal government invested in Native American removal.
"The tribes were being pushed as far west as possible … (the Ioway) realized they've always been a fairly small tribe, and they realized that they couldn't resist the U.S. militarily," Green said. "They understood that movement removal was almost inevitable, but they wanted compensation, and they wanted fair treatment."
In 1837, a tribal delegation traveled to Washington, D.C. to argue for ownership of the land in and surrounding Iowa after white squatters and other tribes moved into the area. It consisted of tribal leadership: Chief Francis White Cloud, Second Chief No Heart and War Chief Walking Rain.
According to Green, whoever created the map remains unknown, though it could likely be a product of the three leaders.
Joyce Big Soldier Miller, an Iowa tribal elder, said that although it was created nearly 200 years ago, it remains accurate to modern topographic maps, underscoring the importance of the leader's claims today.
"The young men got angry. The government wasn't doing anything. They were pushed and pushed," Miller said. "They presented it to the government and said, 'This is our land. This is what belongs to our people.' We wasn't asking for anything else."
While the tribal leaders did not sign an initial agreement in D.C., they agreed to sell part of eastern Iowa later that year. And in 1838, they would eventually forfeit their lands in Missouri and central and eastern Iowa due to government-sanctioned starvation, Green said.
What the tribe plans to do with it
Last month, the Oklahoma tribe held a gathering of its members to commemorate the book's release. There, Green and tribal members discussed the findings and potential uses for the map today.
Green says the map has never been to either of the Iowa reservations, though it has appeared in Iowa City. He said he would like it to appear in tribal territory.
He also suggested it could be condensed for tribal education and younger students, or exhibited in the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.
Perri Ahhaitty, vice chair of the Iowa Tribe, is a descendant of No Heart. He said the map was used for land claims in the 1970s, but could also be useful for future generations navigating the original territory. That preservation could also be aided through modern technology.
"This is something: to preserve things. And everything they did was through oral (tradition)," Ahhaitty said. "Being a small tribe as we are, we have to preserve a lot that we have because we're not that big, but we're making sure we're doing the best we can to maintain our ways."
Miller said it could go toward the tribe's plans of opening its own museum, in addition to preserving Ioway culture.
"It's for our people to understand and to know who they are, where they come from, who their folks were, our ancestors," Miller said. "Maybe not every one of our tribal members understand what Mr. Green is presenting to us today, but one day they will."