Chiwere (also called Iowa-Otoe-Missouria) is a Siouan language originally spoken by the Missouria, Otoe, and Ioway peoples in Northeast Kansas and parts of Missouri and Nebraska. The language is closely related to Ho Chunk (Winnebago). Today, Chiwere is only spoken by a very few elder people within the tribal communities of the Otoe-Ioway in Oklahoma. The only dialect spoken today is the Ioway dialect. The last fluent speaker of the Otoe-Missouria variety was Truman W. Dailey (Eagle clan name: Mashi Manyi, man name: Sunge Hka) who died in 1996.

Christian missionaries first documented Chiwere in the 1830s, though since then there has been virtually nothing published about the language. Chiwere suffered a steady decline after European colonization in the 1850s, and by 1940 the language had almost totally ceased to be spoken.

Currently, Chiwere is highly endangered. With the last two fluent speakers dying in the Winter of 1996, only a handful of semi-fluent speakers remain, all of whom are elderly. Although the Otoe-Ioway people themselves have no Chiwere learning programs, a few external sources are working to preserve the language into the next decade. In spite of these efforts, it is likely that Chiwere will become extinct in the very near future.

External Links

• Ioway-Otoe-Missouria Language Website
• A paper on the disappearance of Chiwere
• A brief grammar
• The Lord's Prayer in Chiwere.

Siouan languages | Endangered languages