The Oto tribe numbered about 900 in the 1780's. The tribe was related to the Southern Sioux tribes according to a PBS website.  They lived along the Missouri River near the eastern border with Nebraska and Missouri.  The homes in which they lived were "Earth Lodges" and the women of the tribe grew much of their own food.  The men and boys hunted buffalo and other animals for meat. 
     The tribe was not war-like. They were related to the Missouri tribe and were never very large. This tribe lived very close to Bellevue, Nebraska at the time Lewis and Clark were exploring the area.
    During the early 1800's many of the tribe died from smallpox, whopping cough, and other new sicknesses and only a few were left. One history source suggested that there were no more than 100 people left.  Lewis and Clark estimated that there were about 250 Oto Indians in 1804.  Lewis and Clark invited the Oto chiefs to go to meet President Jefferson and talk about peace.
     In 1805 a group of Oto Indians went to Washington D.C and met with President Jefferson.  He told them he would help then obtain trade goods and make peace with their neighbors.
      Missionaries Rev. Moses P. Merrill and his wife Eliza Wilcox Merrill opened a school for the Oto in 1833.  They established a mission and school eight miles southwest of Bellevue.  These missionaries created spelling and reading books and also a hymn book for the Oto in their own language.
     History tells us that before white people came to America, the Oto and the Missouria tribes were really one tribe and they lived south of the Great Lakes.  Their language is similar.  It is called Chiwere Siouan. 
Back