IOWA

Mew-hew-she-kaw (The White Cloud), chief of the Iowa, painting by George Catlin, 1834 North American Indian people of Siouan linguistic stock who in their prehistoric period migrated westward from north of the Great Lakes to the general area of the present state of Iowa. In 1836 they ceded their lands to the United States and moved to a reservation on what is now the Kansas-Nebraska border. Some were later moved to a reservation in Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). Their estimated population in the mid-18th century was 1,100. In the late 20th century there were more than 100 Iowa descendants living on the reservation in Kansas-Nebraska and more than 100 living in Oklahoma. Unlike many Plains people, the Iowa were not solely hunters. Their semisedentary, agricultural way of life bore more resemblance to that of the Eastern Woodlands tribes. They raised corn (maize) and traded fur pelts and clay pipes with the French. They lived in oven-shaped, earth-covered houses, using tepees when hunting or on the warpath. Like the Osage and Kansa, Iowa warriors wore a scalp lock decorated with deer hair. They recognized three grades of battle exploits: victorious captaincy, killing an enemy, and decapitating and scalping an enemy. The Midwest. constituent state of the United States of America, lying in the Midwestern region in the north-central United States, bounded on the north by Minnesota, on the east by Wisconsin and Illinois, on the south by Missouri, and on the west by Nebraska and South Dakota. The landscape is typified by gently rolling prairie. The capital is Des Moines. The French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were probably the first Europeans to reach Iowa, but permanent settlement did not take place until the 1830s. Iowa became a part of the United States with the rest of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Following the purchase of eastern Iowa from the Sauk and Fox Indians in the 1830s, settlers from the Eastern states rapidly moved in. Iowa became a territory in 1838 and the 29th state in 1846. The population grew rapidly but stabilized about 1900. Iowa's terrain and rich soils are products of the glaciation that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene epoch, between 1,600,000 and 10,000 years ago. Most of the state is overlain by glacial drift. Lakes or swamps that were left by the ice have long since been drained by natural erosion, leaving a rolling landscape of great uniformity. Broad, flat uplands cover 12,300 square miles (32,000 square km) of the state's central and north-central portions. The most varied relief in the state is in the northeast, where tributaries of the Mississippi River have cut deeply into the underlying bedrock. Iowa winters are cold and summers warm and humid. In the northwest, January's average temperature is 14 F (-10 C), in the southeast, 22 F (-6 C). Winter snowfall is generally light. The average July temperature is 74 F (23 C). Precipitation ranges from less than 28 inches (700 mm) in the northwest to 35 inches (889 mm) in the southeast. Summer thunderstorms increase precipitation significantly. Iowa was settled largely by immigrants from states lying directly to the east and from northwestern Europe. The people were and continue to be mostly Protestant. In the 20th century the only notable immigration into Iowa has been that of blacks to the larger urban areas. Blacks, however, compose only a small percentage of the total population. Iowa is about three-fifths urbanless urban than any bordering state except South Dakota. The state's population grew only slightly between 1970 and 1980 and then began slowly to decrease. Iowa is one of the nation's leading states in production of livestock (especially hogs), corn (maize) for feed, soybeans, and oats and hay. Iowa's manufacturing output is closely related to its agricultural predominance; in the 20th century it became a major breadbasket of the United States. The main industries are devoted to food processing and the manufacture of agricultural machinery. One famous exception is the manufacture of refrigeration equipment in Amana. Except for the mining of portland cement and gypsum, mineral resources play a minor role in the economy. In the 1920s Iowa developed an extensive rural-road system designed to serve the relatively low population density. Inland-waterway traffic is carried along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The major cultural centres in Iowa are the large state and smaller private universities and colleges. The fine arts are notably supported at the University of Iowa, where the regional painter Grant Wood did much of his work. There is a natural-history museum and planetarium at Cherokee and a Norwegian-American historical museum at Decorah. Folk traditions are maintained in the Amana Colonies (Oktoberfest) and in the Dutch community of Pella, with its annual tulip festival. Area 56,275 square miles (145,753 square km). Pop. (1990) 2,776,755. constituent state of the United States of America. As a north central state, it forms a bridge between the forests of the east and the grasslands of the high Prairie Plains to the west. Its gently rolling landscape rises slowly as it extends westward from the Mississippi River, which forms its entire eastern border. The state is bounded on the north by Minnesota, on the east by Wisconsin and Illinois, on the south by Missouri, and on the west by Nebraska and South Dakota. Its area is 56,275 square miles (145,753 square kilometres). Iowa, named for the Iowa (or Ioway) Indians who once inhabited the area, was admitted as the 29th state of the Union on Dec. 28, 1846. Des Moines has been the capital since 1857. The popular image of Iowaone of corn (maize) and hogs, flat prairies, and conservative peopleis not altogether incorrect, but it masks both a subtle variety and the fact that Iowa and its people are very much in a middle position economically, politically, and geographically. With 90 percent of its total land area devoted to farming, Iowa is a major breadbasket of the United States and of the world. In addition, a large part of its industry is directly related to agriculture, and the rural population is still considerable. Iowans are strongly Republican in most years, but they exhibit a lively independence when they feel that the times dictate a different tack. Iowa has not shared the full benefits that have accrued from economic and demographic expansion elsewhere in the nation. Economic downswings that have afflicted other regions affect Iowa to the extent that they involve agriculture. Additional reading Federal Writers' Project, Iowa: A Guide to the Hawkeye State (1938, reprinted as The WPA Guide to 1930s Iowa, 1986), is still quite useful and is the only comprehensive guide to the background of many localities in the state. H.L. Nelson, A Geography of Iowa (1967), surveys the state's agriculture, physical resources, manufacturing, commerce, and cities; while Wayne I. Anderson, Geology of Iowa: Over Two Billion Years of Change (1983), analyzes the important natural resources, as well as the geologic processes that have formed the state. DeLorme Mapping Company, Iowa Atlas & Gazetteer (1998), provides topographic maps. Virgil J. Vogel, Iowa Place Names of Indian Origin (1983), combines geography and local history. Tom C. Cooper and Nyla Sherburne Hunt (eds.), Iowa's Natural Heritage (1982), examines the state's natural history. Stephen Wilbers, The Iowa Writers' Workshop: Origins, Emergence, & Growth (1980), traces the development of this creative writing program. The Iowan (quarterly) focuses on to the land, people, and history of Iowa. Marshall McKusick, Men of Ancient Iowa: As Revealed by Archeological Discoveries (1964), discusses historical Native Americans and their culture, movements, and artifacts. Overviews of state history include Cyrenus Cole, Iowa Through the Years (1940), a political treatment; Leland L. Sage, A History of Iowa (1974, reissued 1987); and Joseph Frazier Wall, Iowa: A Bicentennial History (1978). Hubert H. Wubben, Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement (1980), studies Iowa's Democrats during the Civil War. Annals of Iowa (quarterly) provides scholarly articles on social and political history. Neil E. Salisbury The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica