Inyanshashawtpa

Inyan Shasha is a Dakota name for the Des Moines River, a long tributary of the Mississippi that crosses the prairie of Iowa. The name refers to red stone, perhaps the reddish rock near the river’s headwaters or the bluffs farther downstream. Its two principal branches rise in southern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa before joining and flowing southeast. The river carried other names among its neighbours: an early French map called it the River of the Otoe, a people who lived in the interior of Iowa.