Iowa

White Cloud, chief of the Iowa, by Catlin (1845), National Gallery of Art
Total population
estimated 2,567[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma)
Languages
Chiwere language, English
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Otoe, Missouria, Ho-Chunk, and other Siouan peoples

The Iowa (also spelled Ioway), also known as the Báxoje, are a Native American Siouan people. Today they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Together with the Missouria and the Otoe, the Ioway are part of the Chiwere-speaking peoples, claiming the Ho-Chunks as their "grandfathers." Their estimated population of 1,100 (in 1760) dropped to 800 (in 1804), a decrease caused mainly by smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity.

In 1824, the Iowa were moved from Iowa to reservations in Brown County, Kansas, and Richardson County, Nebraska. Bands of Iowa moved to Indian Territory in the late 19th century and settled south of Perkins, Oklahoma, becoming the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

Name[link]

Their name has been said to come from ayuhwa ("asleep"), but their autonym (their name for themselves) is Báxoje pronounced [b̥aꜜxodʒɛ] (alternate spellings: pahotcha, Bah-kho-je) ("dusted faces" or "grey snow"). The translation "dusted faces" is a likely folk etymology, since the Ioway words use different consonants.^[3] Early European explorers often adopted the names of tribes from the ethnonyms which other tribes gave them, not understanding that these differed from what the peoples called themselves. Thus, ayuhwa is not an Ioway word. The word Ioway comes from Dakotan ayuxbe via French aiouez. The Ioway called themselves Báxoje or a variant thereof.^[4]

The state of Iowa was named after this tribe, where they once lived. Their name has been applied to other locations, such as Iowa County, Iowa and Iowa River.

Demography[link]

In 1760 the Iowa tribe population was roughly 1,100, but their numbers were reduced to 500 by 1900. In 1960 there were 100 in Kansas and 100 in Oklahoma.

By 1980 their population had recovered to 1,000 (of which only 20 spoke Iowa). In 1990 there were 1,700 people. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 1995 there were 533 individuals living in the Iowa reservations of Kansas and 44 in Nebraska (Horton Agency), while 857 people lived in the Oklahoma Iowa Tribe (Shawnee Agency), amounting to a total of 2,934 people. According to the 2000 census, 1,451 people identified as full-blood Iowa, 76 were of mixed-Indian descent, 688 of mixed-race descent, and 43 of mixed-race and tribe descent, amounting to 2,258 people.

Culture[link]

The Iowa have had customs similar to those of the other Siouan-speaking tribes of the Great Plains, such as the Omaha, Ponca and Osage. They were a semi-nomadic people who had adopted horses for hunting, but they also had an agricultural lifestyle similar to the tribes inhabiting the Eastern woods. They planted maize, manufactured alum pipes and traded these along with furs with the French colonizers.

Their more permanent houses were oven shaped, covered with earth for protection from extremes of temperature and oriented to a cardinal direction. A smoke hole enabled ventilation from a central hearth. During the hunting season or in their bellic incursions, they used the portable teepee. Like the Osage or Kansa, they shaved their heads and decorated them with deer skin. Like the tribes of the Great Plains, they valued three feats during a battle.

History[link]

Iowa Indians in London and París, by Catlin (1861), National Gallery of Art

In prehistoric times, the Iowa emigrated from the Great Lakes region to present-day Iowa. In the 16th century, they moved from the Mississippi River to the Great Plains, and possibly then separated from the Ho-Chunk tribe.

From the 15th to 18th centuries, they lived in the Red Pipestone Quarry region (Minnesota). In the early 19th century, the Iowa had reached the banks of the Platte River, where in 1804 Lewis and Clark visited their settlements. There they engaged in trading with the French and local tribes, thanks to their advantageous situation regarding the alum deposits.

Between 1820 and 1830, the Iowa ceded their Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri lands to the U.S. government. By 1836 most were relocated to a reservation along the Kansas-Nebraska border, led by their chief Chief Mahaska (Mew-hew-she-kaw, "White Cloud"; archaic Ioway Maxúshga pronounced [mõxuʃꜜkɐ]; contemporary Maxúhga). They finally surrendered the Little Platte territory in Missouri by 1824.

In 1836 they settled in a strip of land in Missouri, along with the Sauk and the Fox. Some 45 Iowa fought in the American Civil War in the Union Army, among them Chief James White Cloud, son of Mahaska

In 1883 a number of Iowa moved to Indian Territory preferring to live in the older community village way of life. The new reservation was located in Lincoln, Payne and Logan counties in the Indian Territory. However, despite their efforts to block allotment, their lands were divided anyway. Today the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas is approximately 2,100 acres (8.5 km²) in size, and has more than 150 residents.

In 1988 Louis Deroin was chosen as chief of the Nebraska and Kansas Iowa. Janice Kurak is the current tribal chairperson of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.^[5]

The Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska operates the Casino White Cloud at White Cloud, Kansas on the Ioway Reservation.

Notable Iowa people[link]

• Marie Aioe Dorion
• Chief Mahaska

See also[link]

Indigenous peoples of North America portal

• Native American tribes in Nebraska

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Iowa (tribe)

• Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, official website
• Ioway Cultural Institute
• Download recording of a courtship song from the Library of Congress' Omaha Indian Music Collection; performed by George Miller in 1897, collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche
• "Lost Nation: The Ioway" – a historical documentary film about the Ioway Tribe
• "Maps, Material Culture, and Memory: On the Trail of the Ioway"
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Iowa (Indian tribe)

Theodore Salvatore Fiorito (December 20, 1900 – July 22, 1971), known professionally as Ted Fio Rito, was an American composer, orchestra leader and keyboardist (on both the piano and the Hammond organ) who was popular on national radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 30s. His name is sometimes given as Ted Fiorito or Ted FioRito.

Biography[link]

He was born Teodorico Salvatore Fiorito in Newark, New Jersey to an Italian immigrant couple, tailor Louis (Luigi) Fiorito and Eugenia Cantalupo Fiorito, when they were both 21 years old; and he was delivered by a midwife at their 293 15th Avenue residence. Ted Fiorito attended Barringer High School in Newark.^[1]

He was still in his teens when he landed a job in 1919 as a pianist at Columbia's New York City recording studio, working with the Harry Yerkes bands—the Yerkes Novelty Five, Yerkes' Jazarimba Orchestra and the Happy Six. His earliest compositions were recorded by the Yerkes groups and Art Highman's band. Fio Rito had numerous hit recordings, notably his two number one hits, “My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii” (1934) and “I’ll String Along with You” (1934). He composed more than 100 songs, collaborating with such lyricists as Ernie Erdman, Gus Kahn, Sam Lewis, Cecil Mack, Albert Von Tilzer and Joe Young.^[2]

He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1921 to join Dan Russo's band, and the following year he was the co-leader of Russo and Fio Rito's Oriole Orchestra. When Russo and Fio Rito opened at Detroit, Michigan's Oriole Terrace, their band was renamed the Oriole Terrace Orchestra. Their first recordings (May 1922) included Fio Rito's "Soothing." He did "Sleep" and other tunes for the AMPICO Reproducing Piano.

Radio remotes[link]

The band returned to Chicago for a booking at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, where they did their first radio remote broadcast on March 29, 1924. In August 1925, the Russo-Fio Rito orchestra opened Chicago's new Uptown Theatre. They opened the famous Aragon Ballroom in July 1926, doing radio remotes nationally from both the Aragon and the Trianon ballrooms. Dan Russo left the band in 1928, and Fio Rito took over as leader, touring the midwest with engagements in St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati.

In August 1929, the band's first recording without Russo featured Ted Lewis on clarinet and vocal. Billed as Ted Fio Rito and His Edgewater Beach Hotel Orchestra, they headed for San Francisco to fill in for the Anson Weeks orchestra at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.

Radio in the 1930s[link]

Fio Rito on the air with Clara, Lu, and Em, 1936. He led his band while playing the piano.

Fio Rito reached a national audience through syndicated and network radio programs. In Chicago, the band was heard on the Brunswick Brevities program, and they were the featured orchestra on NBC's Skelly Gasoline Show in New York. They broadcast on many 1930s radio programs, including The Old Gold Hour, Hollywood Hotel, The Al Jolson Show, Frigidaire Frolics and Clara, Lu, and Em.

The Fio Rito Orchestra's vocalists included Jimmy Baxter, Candy Candido, the Debutantes, Betty Grable, June Haver, the Mahoney Sisters, Muzzy Marcellino, Joy Lane (1947–1951), Billy Murray (the Denver Nightingale), Maureen O’Connor, Patti Palmer (birth name Esther Calonico), Kay and Ward Swingle.

During the 1940s, the band’s popularity diminished, but Fio Rito continued to perform in Chicago and Arizona. He played in Las Vegas during the 1960s. In his last years, he led a small combo at venues throughout California and Nevada until his death in Scottsdale, Arizona from a heart attack. He is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles.

Recordings[link]

Fio Rito made his first records for Columbia in 1929, then recorded for Victor from late 1929 through 1930. In late 1930, his did a session for Hit of the Week Records. He then signed with Brunswick in late 1932, remaining there until 1935. He signed with Decca in early 1936 and remained through at least 1942. He also did a single session for Bluebird in 1940.

Most of his recording sessions were in San Francisco and Los Angeles, although his band recorded in Chicago.

References in popular culture[link]

Fio Rito is mentioned in The Honeymooners episode, "Young at Heart," that aired February 11, 1956. Reminiscing about bands from their youth, Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Ed Norton (Art Carney) recall Fio Rito, Isham Jones, Basil Fomeen, Little Jack Little and Johnny Messner and his toy piano.

Songs and recordings[link]

• "Toot, Toot Tootsie!"
• "Charley, My Boy"
• "Alone at Last"
• "No, No Nora"
• "When Lights Are Low"
• "Sometime"
• "I Never Knew"
• "Drifting Apart"
• "Laugh, Clown, Laugh"
• "King for a Day"
• "Then You’ve Never Been Blue"

• "Now That You’re Gone"
• "Three on a Match"
• "Kalua Lullaby"
• "I Want Somebody to Cheer Me Up"
• "I’m Sorry Sally"
• "Nothing on My Mind"
• "When the Moon Hangs High"
• "Roll Along, Prairie Moon"
• "Alone at a Table for Two"
• "Yours Truly"
• "Lily of Laguna"

References[link]

Listen to[link]

• "Boogie Woogie Lullaby," remote from the Naval Air Station at Banana River, Florida (August 1945)
• "Charley, My Boy": Ted Fio Rito Orchestra with Billy Murray vocal (1924)
• "Night in Manhattan": Ted Fio Rito Orchestra with Muzzy Marcellino vocal
• "Sleep" AMPICO Piano Roll

External links[link]

• Liner notes by Jeff Hopkins (August 2002)
• Ted Fio Rito at Find a Grave