Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma - Perkins, Oklahoma
Posted by: 
The Snowdog
N 35° 55.665 W 097° 01.413
14S E 678306 N 3977739
Of the 800 members of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, about 490 live on the tribal lands south of Perkins, Oklahoma.
Waymark Code: WM146D1
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 04/28/2021
Views: 0
The Bah Kho Je (People of the Grey Snow, or Iowa Tribes) originated around the Great Lakes, and their first contact with European settlers was in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In face of European-American encroachment, the Iowa moved east in what is now Iowa and Missouri but in 1839 the tribe ceded their lands and moved to the Ioway Reservation on the Kansas-Nebraska border. There factionalism broke out between the mixed blood and full blood Iowas. In the attempt to preserve their traditions, the full blood faction of the Iowa Tribe began moving into Indian Territory in 1878. The Curtis Act of 1898 dismantled tribal government, but the tribe was able to reorganize under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 as the
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. The tribe ratified a constitution and by-laws in 1937. The tribal lands cover parts of Lincoln, Logan, Payne, and Oklahoma counties. This waymark is set at the tribal headquarters, a few miles south of Perkins.
A unique tribal service is the Bah Kho-Je Xla Chi or
Grey Snow Eagle House. This eagle aviary was built in January 2006 within the tribe's buffalo preserve. Bah Kho-Je Xla Chi serves both to rehabilitate injured eagles and to house eagles that cannot be released back in the wild. This was the first facility in the state of Oklahoma that is allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department to house injured eagles. The facility is open to the public (by appointment only) and is used by many Oklahoma tribes.