NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 23 



Bellin in 1744, place them on the east side of the Missouri across from 

 the mouth of the Platte. Du Pratz, 1757, locates them in Nebraska 

 south of the Platte, and the later maps all show their main village on 

 the Platte above the mouth of the Elkhorn, close to the modern town 

 of Yutan. In 1835 the Oto built a new village only 6 miles above the 

 mouth of the Platte. (Merrill, Samuel P., 1892, p. 158.) From the 

 historic evidence it thus appears probable that from about 1670 to 1744 

 the Oto range was mainly in Iowa, during which time they were in 

 close association with the Iowa tribe, and that between 1701 and 1757 

 they had shifted west, settling on the Platte in Nebraska, thus coming 

 under the influence of the Pawnee (fig. 2). A priori, one would expect 

 the material culture of the Oto, as revealed by archeology, to be very 

 similar to that of the Iowa and probably to that of the Ponca and 

 Omaha. In future archeological research it must be borne in mind 

 that such late sites as the village near Yutan will probably show strong 

 Pawnee influence ; hence if earlier historic sites in southeastern Ne- 

 braska or in Iowa can be located, a more typical culture would be ex- 

 pectable. At the time of this writing no documented historic sites of 

 either Oto, Omaha, Ponca, or Iowa have been excavated by scientists 

 in Nebraska ; hence the archeological characteristics of this occupation 

 on the eastern border of the State are as yet entirely unknown. 



The two remaining tribes of the Chiwere group to be associated with 

 Nebraska, namely, the Missouri and the Iowa, may be dealt with 

 briefly. All our maps prior to 1804 show the Missouri tribe well to 

 the south of the Nebraska-Kansas boundary. Following their crushing 

 defeat by the Sauk and Fox and their allies, which took place about 

 1700, the remnants of the Missouri affiliated with the Osage, Kansa, 

 and Oto. In 1804, Lewis and Clark found a number of Missouri living 

 with the Oto at the Yutan site. Later, in 1839, when the Oto were 

 living just above the mouth of the Platte, the Missouri group estab- 

 lished another village across the river. When the Oto went to their 

 Oklahoma reservation in 1882, they were accompanied by the Mis- 

 souri. (McGee, 1897, p.195; Merrill, Moses, 1892, p. 176.) Thus 

 the Missouri may be regarded as a Nebraska people only after the 

 breakdown of their own tribal life and their affiliation with the Oto. 

 The Iowa present a somewhat more complex problem. From the 

 concrete data at hand this tribe does not seem to have permanently 

 occupied or claimed any major portion of Nebraska within the historic 

 period, though they undoubtedly had villages and camps on the west 

 side of the Missouri River at various times. Our maps from 1673 to 

 1697 show them in the region of northern Iowa and southern Minne- 

 sota, whereas the later maps locate them in various parts of the State 



