Iowa Indian Reservation

Photo: Kansas Tourism License:

The Iowa Reservation of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska straddles the borders of southeast Richardson County in southeastern Nebraska, Brown, and Doniphan Counties in northeastern Kansas.

The reservation was defined in a treaty from March 1861.

The Iowa, or Baxoje as they call themselves, Tribe originated in the Great Lakes region. They migrated south and west into Missouri, but were relocated to Kansas under the provisions of the Platte Purchase of 1836.

Subsequent treaties in 1854 and 1861 further reduced the Iowa land holdings to the "Diminished Reserve." A band of Iowas left the reservation for Indian Territory beginning in 1878.
They became the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. The bands that stayed became the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Today, the Iowa reservation consists of 12,000 acres (49 km2) that are almost evenly divided between the states of Kansas and Nebraska. The reservation includes parts of Brown counties in Kansas and Richardson County in Nebraska.

As a sovereign nation the reservation has its own police and fire department, tribal court, health clinic, community health representatives, a senior citizen center, and meal site for seniors with a delivery program.