"Lost Nation: The Ioway" -- The Film

The Film

The Film & Sequels

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An Unforgettable and Vivid Journey into America's Native Past & Present!

In 1824, during the twilight of Native American dominion, two conflicted Ioway leaders met with William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) to sign a momentous treaty. White Cloud (Mahaska) saw cooperation as survival for his people, while Great Walker (Moanahonga) regretted the loss of their ancestral homeland. This pivotal moment led both men to different tragic destinies in their battle with epic change.

Ioway Elders join historians and archaeologists to tell the dramatic and true story of the small tribe that once claimed the territory between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Pipestone, Minnesota to St. Louis. What was a quest for survival in the past, has become a struggle to retain a unique Native American culture and language in the present.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, the award winning and critically acclaimed filmmakers of "Villisca: Living with a Mystery," began shooting "Lost Nation: The Ioway" in July 2005 and completed the project in the summer of 2007. The project received grants from Humanities Iowa, the the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Kansas Humanities Council, the Oklahoma Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

The dramatic saga of Iowa’s early inhabitants unfolds in a 57-minute film available on DVD homevideo. The DVD features an alternative soundtrack in the nearly extinct Ioway language, known as Báxoje (bah-kho’-jay), and a 10-minute version for young children.

"Lost Nation: The Ioway" premiered at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines October 2007 and has screened over 100 times in over 65 cities throughout the country.

It was an Official Selection at numerous film festivals, including the Landlocked Film Festival. It won BEST DOCUMENTARY at the Cherokee International Film Festival, the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, and the Iowa Independent Film Festival; Second Place (out of 40 documentaries) in the "Best Documentary" category at the Beloit Independent Film Festival; HONORABLE MENTION at the Archaeology Channel's International Film Festival; a Bronze Telly Award for "Excellence in a Television Documentary".

It was released nationally on DVD in 2008 and was broadcast on PBS stations throughout the Midwest in October and November 2010.

An educational Curriculum Guide to "Lost Nation: The Ioway" was developed and created by Middle School teachers Kathy Jensen and Alice Kurtz and was launched at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in October 2009. The Curriculum Guide integrates social studies, language arts and reading skills for students grades 4th-8th. The goals and objectives of the Curriculum Guide meet Iowa State Standards.

"Lost Nation: The Ioway" Curriculum Guide Information

A high school and college Teacher's Study Guide created by Archaeologist Colin Betts of Luther College is also available with the film for classroom use.

Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 (in production)

“Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3” (working title) begin where the first film ended.

“Ioway 2” deals with the period between 1838 and 1878 which finds the Ioway adapting to a new life on a reservation in Kansas and Nebraska, and coping with forced acculturation which leads to the eventual split of the tribe into two factions, with the more traditional group leaving for Indian Territory in Oklahoma in 1878.

Lost Nation: The Ioway 3 (in production)

“Ioway 3” deals with the period between 1879 and the 1970s, following the two tribes’ perseverance through years of severe poverty, hunger, depression over loss of culture and language, their resurgence in American Indian culture and political activism in the 1970s and the ultimate successful winning of land claims. Both films will interweave present day Ioway life in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska and the current efforts underway to reclaim their history, culture and language.

Production began on the sequel projects in the Fall of 2009 and will continue through 2011. The film has received grants from The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Humanities Council, and Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area. The completion of the film projects is slated for 2012.

Interested in Contributing to the Sequel Projects?

For information about how to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Lost Nation: The Ioway documentary sequel projects, please click here! Thank you for supporting the completion of the Ioway story.

Click Here to Preview "Lost Nation: The Ioway"

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