Oto(e) — A Chiwere Sioux tribe closely akin to the Ioway, and somewhat more distantly related to the Hočągara. In Hočąk they are called Wajokjája. They were located just north of the Missouri and west of the Mississippi in what is now northern Missouri and Iowa. They traced their origins to a band that split off form the Hočągara. This band split again as the ancestors of the Oto and Missouria forged on to the Missouri River, leaving behind the Ioway on the Mississippi. They came to be situated out of the Platte River in southeastern Nebraska. In the earliest times, the Oto lived in villages and practiced farming, but eventually they adopted the culture of the plains. In 1881 they moved to a reservation in Oklahoma with the Missouria. The language of the Oto is very close to Ioway. To Hočąk speakers, many Oto words have the charm of sounding archaic.
White Elk – Oto by E. S. Curtis
https://www.indigenouspeople.net/oto.htm
Oto Leaders
ChoncapeChonmanicase
or L’Ietan
Hayne Hudjihini
(Eagle of Delight)
Nowaykesugga
The Oto, a tribe of North American Indians, lived in Wisconsin in prehistoric times. They spoke a Siouan language of the Hokan-Siouan stock. Along with the MISSOURI and the IOWA, they separated from the WINNEBAGO to settle near the Iowa River. After a factional fight on Grand River, the Oto went farther up the Missouri; in the late 18th century they numbered more than 1,000 in several villages along the Platte River in Nebraska. The Oto lived in oven-shaped earth houses when cultivating along the river but used tepees while on excursions into the plains to hunt bison. Society was organized in nine clans based on male ancestry, cut across by voluntary associations, such as the Medicine, Buffalo, and Curing Lodges. Mystical vision quests were important male rites.
Despite several peace treaties between 1817 and 1841, the Oto sometimes joined the OSAGE to raid in Nebraska. After the Civil War about 400 Oto and 50 Missouri moved onto a reservation in northwest Kansas, ceding much land in Nebraska. In 1881, ten years after their last bison hunt, they sold their reservation and moved to INDIAN TERRITORY, where they became members of the NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH. Chief Whitehorse led the Oto during difficult days in Oklahoma. During World War I oil was discovered on their land, but its irregular production has failed to provide the Oto with a substantial income source. The Otoe-Missouria tribe numbered about 1,350 in 1991.
Stories
Dore and Wahredua
How the Man got into the Moon
How Too-loo-lah, the rainbow, got its colors
Rabbit and Muskrat
An Oto Legend – The Two-Legged Creature
Long ago, when man (which was called the two-legged creature) could talk to animals, there was peace. Everyone called one another “brother”. One day in winter, man was waking up and saw bear. He asked, “Brother, where are you going?”
Bear answered, “I’m going fishing.” Man asked if he could go too. Bear said, “Yes.” So they went to the lake. When they got to the lake, bear told man not to try to fish because he did not have thick fur like bear. But man thought he could do it, so he jumped in. The water was freezing! Bear swam over and took man to shore. Bear covered man with his fur. Bear was mad! Man had not listened to him.
A few days later, all the animals had a meeting about man. They all agreed that man was not listening to them. Then dog said, “I will stay with man and keep him out of trouble.”
Horse said, “I’ll go, too.” Then dog and horse went with man. So that is why the dogs and horses are good friends with humans.
Otoe-Missouria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe located in Oklahoma. The tribe is made up of Otoe and Missouria Indians. The Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians is headquartered in Red Rock, Oklahoma and their tribal jurisdiction includes Noble, Oklahoma and Kay County, Oklahoma. The primary duty of the Tribal Council is to enforce the Tribal laws and policies and to serve as the decision-making authority on budgets and investments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoe-Missouria_Tribe_of_Indians At one time the Otoes, the Missourias, the Winnebago and the Iowa Tribes were part of a single tribe that lived in the Great Lakes Region of the United States. In the 16th century the tribes separated from each other, although they remained in close proximity to each other in the lower Missouri River Valley. The Otoes who called themselves Jiwere (jee-WEH-ray) and the Missourias who called themselves Nutachi (noo-TAH-chi) were related to each other in language and customs, but they were two distinct people. The state of Nebraska gets its name to the Otoe-Missourias. It is from two Otoe-Missouria words “Ni Brathge” (nee BRAHTH-gay) which means “water flat”. This name came from the Platt River which flows through the state and at some places moves so slowly and calmly that it is flat. The state of Missouri and the Missouri River are both named after the Missouria Tribe, which once lived in the region and controlled traffic and trade along the Missouri River and its tributaries. Trade was a vital part of Otoe and Missouria life for centuries. They traded with the Spanish, French and Americans for various goods. All three nations courted the Otoes and Missourias for exclusive trading agreements.
The ancestors of the Otoe-Missouria Indians were a Siouan people of the Chiwere linguistic family. Along with the Iowa and the Winnebago, they once comprised a single northern Great Lakes tribe. The Otoe, Missouria, and Iowa migrated to the west-southwest during the sixteenth century and divided. By the late seventeenth century the Otoe had settled along the present Minnesota-Iowa border, and the Missouria dwelled near the confluence of the Missouri and Grand rivers in Missouri. Contact between the Otoe and Europeans first occurred in 1680. The Otoe subsequently crossed the Missouri River and established themselves near the Platte River in southeastern Nebraska. They remained in that vicinity until their removal to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) in 1880–81. Meanwhile, the Missouria, ravaged by smallpox and warfare with the Sac and Fox and other enemies, faced extinction. Around 1796 roughly eighty Missouria settled among the Otoe, and a remaining few joined the Osage and the Kaw. The Otoe-Missouria lived in sedentary earth lodge villages (tipis and bark lodges were also utilized). Their society was patrilineal, with members divided into seven to ten exogamous clans. The clan chiefs formed a tribal council, with the Bear clan providing the principal leadership. The Otoe-Missouria hunted bison, gathered plants, and grew corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash. They believed in Wakanda, a universal spirit. Their population was an estimated fifteen hundred in 1830 and 358 in 1890. Flag of the Otoe-Missouria The Otoe (Chiwere: Jiwére) are a Native American people of the Midwestern United States. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa, Missouria, and Ho-Chunk tribes. Historically, the Otoe tribe lived as a semi-nomadic people on the Central Plains along the bank of the Missouri River in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. They lived in elm-bark lodges while they farmed, and used tipis while traveling, like many other Plains tribes. They often left their villages to hunt buffalo. In the early 19th century, many of their villages were destroyed due to warfare with other tribes. European-American encroachment and disease also played a role in their decline. Today, Otoe people belong to the federally recognized tribe, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, headquartered in Red Rock, Oklahoma. The Otoe were once part of the Ho-Chunk and Siouan-speaking tribes of the Western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest. Around the 16th century, successive groups split off and migrated west and south. These became distinct tribes, the Otoe, the Missouria, and the Ioway. The Otoe settled in the lower Nemaha River valley. They adopted the horse culture and semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Great Plains, making the American bison central to their diet and culture. At one time, the Otoes and Missourias, along with the Winnebago and Iowa Tribes, were once part of a single tribe that lived in the Great Lakes Region of the United States. In the 16th century the tribes separated from each other and migrated west and south although they still lived near each other in the lower Missouri River Valley. The Otoes also call themselves Jiwere (jee-WEH-ray) and the Missourias, who call themselves Nutachi (noo-TAH-chi), were related to each other in language and customs, but they were still two distinct people. The state of Nebraska gets its name from the Otoe-Missourias. It is from two Otoe-Missouria words “Ni Brathge” (nee BRAHTH-gay) which means “water flat”. This name came from the Platte River which flows through the state and at some places moves so slowly and calmly that it is flat. The state of Missouri and the Missouri River are both named after the Missouria Tribe, which once lived in the region and controlled traffic and trade along the Missouri River and its tributaries. Trade was a vital part of Otoe and Missouria life for centuries. They traded with the Spanish, French, English and Americans for various goods. All of these nations courted the Otoes and Missourias for exclusive trading agreements. The Missouria or Missouri Indians, a Siouan tribe, lived in and gave their name to the state of Missouri. Their name means “one who has dugout canoes” in the Illinois language. In their own language, the Missouri called themselves Niúachi. The tribe originiated in the Great Lakes region before European contact. They belonged to the to the Chiwere division of the Siouan language family, along with the Ioway and Otoe tribes. They began migrating south in the 1500s and By 1600, the Missouria lived near the confluence of the Grand and Missouri Rivers and extended as far north as the Platte River. The French explorer Jacques Marquette contacted the tribe in 1673 and paved the way for trade with the French. Ictinike (also spelled Ishjinki, Ishtinike, and other ways. Sometimes he is referred to as Old Man Ishjinki.) Ictinike is the Trickster figure of the Ioway, Otoe, and Missouri tribes. Ictinike was the son of the Sun God, but due to his bad behavior was exiled to earth, where he had many adventures and got in every imaginable kind of trouble. These mythical twins whose mother was killed by a monster are common to the folklore of many Midwestern and Eastern tribes. They are generally portrayed as heroic monster-slayers in Otoe legends. Sharp Elbows (Itopa’hi) A man-eating ogre with spikes on his elbows and faces on both sides of his head. The Story of Dore and Wahredua: Mythology of the Otos: Otoe-Missouria Tribe 8151 Hwy 177 Red Rock, OK 74651 Phone: 877.692.6863
Ioway-Otoe-Missouria Language
Ioways Today
Lewis and Clark to the Oto Indians
National Geographic: Lewis & Clark—Tribes—Oto Indians
Notes on the Oto by ES Curtis
Oto Mission
Treaty with the Oto & Missouri, 1833
Important Otoe Mythological Figures
Otoe Indian Folklore
An Iowa-Otoe legend about the Twin Holy Brothers.
Early 20th-century collection of Oto legends.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
