Wimihsoorita

Wimihsoorita is the Illinois name for the Missouria people, referring to their dugout canoes. French speakers adapted the name, which came to be applied to the Missouri River itself. The Missouria lived near the junction of that river with the Grand, where their villages stood above the floodplain. They were related by language to the neighbouring Otoe and Ioway and combined cultivation with hunting. In the eighteenth century epidemics and warfare weakened the Missouria, and many joined the Otoe farther west.