Members of the Otoe Missouria Tribe in Oklahoma visited Iowa Monday to see portions of their ancestral homeland.
They retraced their removal path through Kansas and Nebraskan, and Staff member Naomi Roubeadoux Quiroga says it can be painful to see the land they lost. “I love Oklahoma, but it is the landscape does not always fit our culture, and it’s kind of difficult to grow your own food and to really survive in ways that we ancestrally lived,” she says.
During their stop in Decorah she says it’s important, especially for young members of the tribe. “These trips help us to open our eyes to that, to our roots, to where we come from, to the landscapes that we once lived on,” Quiroga says.
Staff member Annette Arkeketa says seeing these sights is like a homecoming. “We were so loved by our ancestors, and they took care of us for so many generations. I mean, they always knew that we were going to come along, so they left things for us, and now we’re coming back, and we’re touching those things and the things that they left for us, and the memories that they want us to know about who we are as a people.”
The group visited sites near Council Bluffs and Okoboji. They will visit Effigy Mounds in eastern Iowa before entering Wisconsin.
(By Gavin McGough, Iowa Public Radio)