The Gray Snow People

Last month in a book I was reading was a passage about the Ioway Indians - "The gray snow people who spoke French". It piqued my interest. Was it factual or just something made up for the novel? I made a note to look it up someday.
When I was in sixth grade in our one-room country school, I studied Iowa History (as did all sixth graders in Iowa at that time). My favorite part was learning about the Indians that once roamed "the land between rivers" or "beautiful land" - two of the reported Indian meanings for the name of our state. But I don't remember ever hearing or learning the Ioway Indians referred to as The Gray Snow People.

I do have a memory of seeing this picture of White Cloud, an Ioway chieftan painted by George Catlin in 1845. It must have been in my history book or perhaps a copy was in the State Historical Building in Des Moines, which we visited as school children, and where my favorite area was where all the Indian artifacts were displayed.

As white settlers began moving into Iowa, the Native people were pushed west into Nebraska, eventually being moved to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. The Iowa Nation now consists of two tribes, one in Perkins, Oklahoma and one in Whitecloud, Kansas.

From the official website of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma: "In the Iowa language, we call ourselves Baxoje (Bah Kho-je), meaning "People of the Grey Snow".
Well, that confirms it. It wasn't something made up for a novel. Interesting. But why do they call themselves that?
Again, from the official website: "The story of our name has been handed down from generation to generation. When men had to leave our village, upon their return, they looked down from a rise and they saw that our village had been burned. It appeared as though the village was covered with grey snow, even though the winter season was not upon us. For you see, the ashes had settled over the village site and all that was visible to the warriors were the burned remnants of what used to be our homes."

I love that a brief mention in a book led me to learn something I did not know about my beautiful native land - once upon a time, the home of The Grey Snow People.