INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 445 
tained from their own traditions farther back than one hundred years. It so happens, 
however, that most of the Indians at the present time living on the Lower Missouri 
migrated from the eastward, and were visited and noticed by the earliest explorers of the 
country. The writings of the Jesuit fathers are invaluable to the student of Indian his- 
tory. I shall, therefore, content myself with making a few extracts from such of their 
works as are within my reach, without pretending at this time to exhaust the subject. 
That the Iowas migrated from the Mississippi westward to their present location on the 
Missouri, we have very reliable written evidence. According to Schoolcraft, Father Mar- 
quette visited the Iowas as far back as 1673, and records their residence near the mouth 
of the Des Moines River. Allusion is also made to them in the narrative of the adven- 
tures of one of La Salle’s party, Father Zenobius Membré, who seems to have visited the 
different tribes located in the Mississippi Valley in 1680. He remarks that the Kicka- 
poos and the Ainones (Iowas) live on the western side (of Mississippi), and occupy two 
villages. In Le Sueur’s Voyage up the Mississippi, in 1699-1700, several references are 
made to this tribe, called by him Ayavois. On page 101 of Mr. J. G. Shea’s admira- 
ble collection of “ Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi,” Le Sueur says: “ At this 
spot (near Mankato or Blue Earth River, latitude 44° 13’ N.), he met nine Scioux, who ~ 
told him that this river was the country of the Scioux of the West, of the Ayavois, and 
the Otoctatas (Otos), a little further ; that it was not their custom to hunt on the grounds 
of others without being invited by those to whom they belonged; that when they should 
wish to come to the fort to get supplies, they would be exposed to be cut off by their 
enemies coming up or going down these rivers, which are narrow, and that if he wished 
to take pity on them, he must settle on the Mississippi, in the neighborhood of the mouth 
of St. Peter’s River, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the Scioux could come as well as 
they.” It seems also that even at that time, the Iowas as well as the Otos were to some 
extent an agricultural people. On page 104: “On the 22d, two Canadians were sent out 
to invite the Ayavois and the Otoctatas to come and make a village near the fort, because 
these Indians are laborious and accustomed to cultivate the ground, and he hoped to obtain 
provisions from them, and make them work the mines.” Again, we may from Le Sueur’s 
account arrive very nearly at the time when the Iowas and Otos migrated across the 
country westward to the Missouri. On page 106 of the same work: “On the 16th (of 
November, 1699), the Scioux returned to the village, and it was ascertained that the Aya- 
vois and Otoctatas had gone to station themselves on the side of the River MUSSOuE in 
the neighborhood of the Maha, a nation dwelling in those quarters.” 
In Alcedo’s Spanish Geography, we find the following paragraph in regard to Iowa 
River: ‘“‘ Which runs southeast into the Mississippi, sixty-one miles above Iowa Rapids, 
where, on the east side of the river, is Iowa Town, which twenty years ago could furnish 
