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KCUR 89.3
This year the state of Missouri is celebrating its 200th birthday. But few people today know about the Native American tribe behind the state’s name.
Before English, French or any European language was spoken in the spot of the map where Missouri sits, Native American tribes brought their own dialects to the region.
One of those dialects was Chiwere, a Siouan language originally spoken by the Otoe, Iowa and Missouria tribes.
It s an endangered language that researchers and descendants of its speakers are working hard to preserve.
The Missouria is the tribe behind the state of Missouri’s name. Its people originally came from the Great Lakes region. They were thought to be part of a bigger tribe with the Otoe, Iowa, Winnebago and Ho-Chunk peoples, before they split off and moved south to the area that is now North Central Missouri in the 1500’s.