They left their ancestral homelands in Southern Wisconsin for Eastern Iowa, a state that bears their name.

[5] Their autonym (their name for themselves) is Bah-Kho-Je, pronounced [b̥aꜜxodʒɛ] (alternate spellings: pahotcha, pahucha, báxoje[6]), which translates to "grey snow".

They were a semi-nomadic people who had adopted horses for hunting, but they also had an agricultural lifestyle similar to the tribes inhabiting the Eastern woodlands.

Like the Osage or Kansa, Iowa men traditionally shaved their heads and decorated them with deer hide.

In the 16th century, they moved from the Mississippi River to the Great Plains, and possibly then separated from the Ho-Chunk tribe.

In the early 19th century, the Iowa had reached the banks of the Platte River, where in 1804 Lewis and Clark visited their settlements.

In 1837 they settled in a strip of land in Kansas, south of the Big Nemaha River, along with the Sauk and the Meskwaki, tribes with which they had long had friendly relations (though speaking unrelated Algonquian languages).

Some 45 Iowa fought in the American Civil War in the Union Army, among them Chief James White Cloud, grandson of Mahaska.

In 1883 a number of Iowa moved to Indian Territory preferring to live in the older community village way of life.