Missouria Indians

Last week we spent a few days exploring Van Meter State Park in west central Missouri. Spanning 1,105 acres, this absolutely gorgeous park is adjacent to the MO river in Saline county and contains wetlands, bottomlands, woodlands and prairies.  A very interesting cultural arts center within the park offers a great deal of Native American history.

What is now the park is known to be the earliest home of the Missouria (Missouri) Indians. The French called them Oumessourit. I took a photo of this Missouria chief from one the park's storyboards. 

They were the first known residents of the area, predating all other tribes in the general region. When the Europeans were moving westward, the Missouria were the first people they encountered.  

The canoe is on display in the center.

The name Missouria means “people of the dug-out canoes” and referred not only to the people, but later the name of both the river and our state. Thriving in what is now Van Meter State Park, the land provided everything needed. Missouria grew corn, beans and squash in the bottomlands. They hunted bison and other animals in the area and gained building materials from the woods.

A replica lodge is on display, showing how the
 interior may have looked when occupied.

Both garden and household tools were constructed by these
resourceful people.

In the early 1700s the Missouria Indians were profoundly affected by European diseases, primarily smallpox. The illnesses coupled with warfare (among other tribes) greatly reduced their population. Early on, there may have been 5,000 Missouria Indians, but the population had been reduced to 750 by the mid-1700s. By the time Lewis and Clark passed through the area in 1804, the few  remaining Missouria had joined the Otoe tribe where they continue to reside in Oklahoma. There are no full-blooded Missouria alive today, but Van Meter State Park is doing a wonderful job of telling their story.