The Otoe (Chiwere: Jiwére)[1] are a Native American people of the Midwestern United States.

[2] The Otoe were once part of the Ho-Chunk and Siouan-speaking tribes of the Western Great Lakes and Upper Midwest.

[3] When the Lewis and Clark Expedition headed up the Missouri River to explore the new territory the Otoe were the first tribe they encountered.

During this time, the Missouria families that survived European diseases and encroachment rejoined them to form the Otoe-Missouri tribe.

The Coyote band favored an immediate move to Indian Territory, where they believed they could better perpetuate their traditional tribal life outside the influence of the whites.

By the spring of 1880, about half the tribe had left the reservation and taken up residence with the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory.

By the next year, in response to dwindling prospects of self-sufficiency and continued pressure from white settlers, the remaining Otoe members in Nebraska sold the Big Blue reservation.