[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 137 (Thursday, October 17, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S10670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      IN COMMEMORATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE CELEBRATION

 Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise to commemorate the American 
Indian Heritage Celebration which took place at Frank Vaydik Line Creek 
Park in Kansas City, MO on October 5th and 6th of 2002, and to 
recognize the Otoe-Missourina nation. For over 10,000 years, the Kansas 
City area has been home to several ancient cultures with sites that are 
recorded with the Archaeological Survey of Missouri and the National 
Register of Historic Places.
  In 1673, when French explorers traveled along what is now the 
Missouri River, they named the indigenous people living in the area, 
Oumessourit, meaning ``people of the big wooden dug out canoes.'' 
Oumessourit, later became Missouri and the state of Missouri would 
subsequently be named after the natives.
  The Missouria's main village was approximately 90 miles east of 
Kansas City. A related tribe, the Otoe, lived in the area of Kansas 
City, particularly the ``Northland.'' Along with the Winnebagos and 
Loway, the Otoe and Missouria were once part of a single nation living 
in the Great Lakes area. The Otoe and Missouria would later reunite to 
become the Otoe-Missouria nation and in the late 1800s were relocated 
to a reservation in Oklahoma.
  Lewis and Clark once spoke of the Missouria as ``a remnant of the 
most numerous nation inhabiting the Missouria''. Today, there are no 
pure blood Missourias left, only distant decedents which have been 
absorbed into the Otoe tribe.

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