Missouri Indian Tribe

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Missouri Indian Genealogy

Missouri ('great muddy,' referring to Missouri river). A tribe of the Chiwere group of the Siouan family. Their name for themselves is Niútachi. According to Gale the early form of the word Missouri is Algonquian, of the Illinois dialect. The most closely allied tribes are the Iowa and the Oto.
     According to tradition, after having parted from the Winnebago at Green bay, the Iowa,  Missouri, and Oto moved westward to Iowa river, where the Iowa stopped. The rest continued westward, reaching the Missouri at the mouth of Grand river. Here, on account of some dispute, the Oto withdrew and moved farther up Missouri river. Marquette's autograph map of 1673, which is perhaps the earliest authentic notice of the tribe, locates the Semesssrit on Missouri river, apparently as far north as the Platte. Joutel (1087) appears to have been the first writer to use the name Missouri in this form. It is stated that Tonti met the tribe a day and half's journey from the Village of the Tamaroa, which was on the Mississippi, 6 leagues below Illinois river. About the beginning of the 18th century the French found them on the left bank of the Missouri, near the mouth of Grand river, and built a fort on an island near them. They continued to dwell in this locality until about 1800. Read more...

Missouri Indians of Kansas

Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi

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Native American Nations