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VAN BUREN COUNTY, IOWA -- What does “Iowa” mean, anyway?

Thanks to a grant given to the University of Iowa, we may now be able to obtain more information about the Hawkeye State’s namesake.

With a budget totaling over $46-thousand, the Office of the State Archaeologist has plans to excavate Iowaville, home of the Ioway Indian Tribe.

“This is a site that was important in Southeastern Iowa’s history because Ioway Indians occupied this sight from about the middle 1700’s up until the early 1800’s, before they were moved to a reservation in Kansas,” said State Representative Curt Hanson. “Now, of course, the Ioway Indians are the namesake of Iowa, so I think it’s important for us to learn more about this site.”

Archaeologists have known about the site since 1971, but the excavation, which will take place in November 2010, will be the first professional dig.

“Knowledge of the past is always important,” said Hanson. “We need to have some good information. A lot of this information was overlooked in early American history. We were very much concerned at that point about moving West and the expansion, and a lot of the culture and artifacts were overlooked or destroyed. So, perhaps we can learn more about what took place in Southeastern Iowa before the white settlers arrived.”

The excavation site is in an undisclosed, cultivated field in Van Buren County, near Selma. Hanson said there is an important reason for why the exact location is being kept under-wraps.

“They’re not making public knowledge of where this sight is located because they want it to be perfectly sterile when they arrive at the scene, without other people going in ahead of time and trying to find their own findings.”