reached the mouth in 1682. He claimed
the entire Mississippi region for France.
In 1803 France sold the land to the
United States in the Louisiana Purchase.
#More to explore
Louisiana Purchase • Missouri River
• Ohio River • Twain, Mark
Missouri
The Missouri were a Native American
people whose homeland was the northcentral
part of what is now the state of
Missouri. The state takes its name from
these people.
The Missouri got their food by farming,
hunting, and gathering wild plants.
After the fall harvest they left their villages
to hunt deer. When they were
introduced to horses the Missouri used
them to travel to the Great Plains to
hunt bison (buffalo).
The Missouri were once part of a large
Native American group called the Winnebago
who lived in the Great Lakes
region. Long ago a group of these Indians
moved southwest and split into three
tribes. These were the Oto, the Iowa,
and the Missouri.
In 1673 French explorers entered the
lands of the Missouri. The Missouri
became trading partners of the French.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, wars
with other tribes caused the Missouri to
scatter. Many settled among their Oto
and Iowa relatives.
In 1817 and 1854 the U.S. government
forced the Missouri and the Oto to sign
agreements to give up most of their
land. In the 1880s they were forced to
move to a reservation in Indian Territory
(now Oklahoma). There they became
known as the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of
Oklahoma. By the end of the 20th century
there were about 1,500 Otoe-
Missouria in the United States.
#More to explore
Iowa • Native Americans • Oto
•Winnebago
Leaders of the Missouri people
wore necklaces made from
beads and bear claws.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Missouri 145
Missouri
The U.S. state of Missouri got its
name from a Native American
tribe that once lived in the area. The
French gave the name to the local river,
and it was later transferred to the state.
Missouri is often called the Show Me
State. The nickname probably came
from CongressmanWillard D. Vandiver.
In an 1899 speech he said, “I’m from
Missouri, and you’ve got to show me.”
The state capital is Jefferson City.
Geography
Missouri is nearly in the center of the
United States. Eight states border Missouri:
Iowa on the north; Nebraska,
Kansas, and Oklahoma on the west;
Arkansas on the south; and Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Illinois on the east. The
Missouri River forms the northwest
boundary, while the Mississippi River
runs along the eastern border.
North of the Missouri River, the state’s
landscape consists of gently rolling hills,
open plains, and prairie country. South
of the river the land is mostly rough
and hilly. The state’s southeastern
corner is part of the Mississippi River
floodplain.
People
White people of European heritage now
make up more than four fifths of Missouri’s
population. Many early settlers in
the state were from the eastern United
States. Others were immigrants from
European countries such as Germany,
Great Britain, and France. About 11
percent of the current population is
African American.
Saint Louis, Missouri, is famous for its Gateway
Arch. The arch was built in the early
1960s. It is a monument to the people who
used Saint Louis as a starting point for
exploring and settling the western United
States.
146 Missouri BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Economy
Missouri is known as a manufacturing
state.Major manufacturing areas include
transportation equipment and food
processing. Cars, trucks, and airplanes are
all built in the state.Hallmark Cards, the
company that creates greeting cards, has
its headquarters in Kansas City. Service
industries such as government operations,
real estate, commercial trade, health care,
and finance are vital to the state’s
economy. Leading agricultural products
are cattle, hogs, soybeans, and corn.
History
Native Americans of the Fox, Sauk, Missouri,
and Osage tribes lived in the area
when European explorers first arrived.
In 1682 the French explorer called the
Sieur de La Salle claimed the area for
France. The first permanent white settlement
was established in 1735.
In 1803 the United States purchased a
large area from France. It was known as
the Louisiana Purchase. The region that is
now the state ofMissouri was part of that
area. In 1804 the city of Saint Louis was
the starting point of the famous Lewis
and Clark Expedition. The expedition
was sent out to explore the area of the
Louisiana Purchase.Missouri became a
territory in 1812 and a state in 1821.
WhenMissouri wanted to become a state
it faced a problem because of the issue of
slavery. People in the territory owned
slaves. ThereforeMissouri would be a
slave state. Some people in the United
States Congress did not wantMissouri to
become a state because there were an
even number of slave and free states at
the time. The problem was solved by a
law known as theMissouri Compromise.
The compromise was this:Missouri
would join the Union as a slave state and
Maine would enter as a free state.
Although Missouri was a slave state, it
did not join the Confederacy with other
slave states during the American Civil
War (1861–65). Federal troops were
