Ioway Environmental

Ioway Environmental Land and Water Department and Ioway Climate Resilience Program for the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska

🌼It was a good morning to be out on the community prairie 🌼We were joined by our office staff as we spent a little time ...
06/23/2026

🌼It was a good morning to be out on the community prairie 🌼

We were joined by our office staff as we spent a little time seeing who is flowering and buzzing around behind our admin building. We opened the circle with Sage gathered from the site last season and shared about our relationships to the prairie as a cultural ecosystem. We ended with a scavenger hunt to identify 4 of our traditional foods and medicines. Thanks for joining us!

Do you ever wish you could identify a bird by their sounds? Do you ever wish you could identify a plant on the spot?For ...
06/17/2026

Do you ever wish you could identify a bird by their sounds? Do you ever wish you could identify a plant on the spot?

For those without newer phones that identify through settings... try these phone apps! They can be found on the app store whether you are on an apple phone or a samsung! They are also completely free and catered to the user.

https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
https://www.inaturalist.org/

Merlin ID was developed by CornellLab in order to help the everyday person to identify birds! Simply start recording audio and it will tell you exactly what that bird is and its other noises! Merlin ID helped Zack make the connection between the short call and the noise of a woodpecker drilling into trees!

iNaturalist promotes citizen science (ID in your yard, ID on a trail!) and a collection of data. You can put in a photo or two, say where you are, and it'll find a match! For those in their back yard or have issues with sharing locations... you can always choose not to show your location. You can also see what other people in the area have identified!

Do you not want to go into that much detail for plant and animal ID? iNaturalist also provides an app called Seek (and it should say it is also by iNaturalist) where you can position your phone around an object and it will identify it as best as it can! iNaturalist is a bit more specific.

Try these out in our office walking trail!

There's an app out there for everyone, and if you ever need help or a walkthrough, please contact the page!

Check out all the plants flowering behind our administrative offices, on the walking trail! This year is by far the most...
06/02/2026

Check out all the plants flowering behind our administrative offices, on the walking trail! This year is by far the most diverse plant life we've seen since beginning our prairie restoration efforts here. Thankful today for all the hands who have who supported us with the late winter/early spring burns and seedings! We as Ioway people have always cultivated the land, this returning prairie is just one example of the ways we cultivate land and support our foods and medicines to thrive by community driven stewardship.

Photo #1 - Purple coneflower (Echinacea )
Photot #2 - Ma inje, Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Photo #3 - Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea)
Photo #4 - Brown eyed susan (Rudbekia triloba)
Photo #5 - Háxoje , Prairie Sage (Artemesia ludoviciana)
Photo #6 - Hoary vervain (Verbena stricta)
Photo #7 -
Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

Má^inje potluck 🦋Hope you can make!
05/25/2026

Má^inje potluck 🦋
Hope you can make!

We had the immense pleasure to learn alongside the beautiful prairies and peoples of the Pacific Northwest. Together, wi...
05/21/2026

We had the immense pleasure to learn alongside the beautiful prairies and peoples of the Pacific Northwest. Together, with many other tribal land stewards and land based educators, we gained tools for how we can further welcome our Ioway community back into our prairies and support our foods to thrive.

During a “Cultural Ecosystems: Camas Prairies & Food Forests” training, we were reminded how our traditional stories, foods, medicines, ways of tendering the land with fire and seed have been throughlines for our people since time immemorial.

The following day we participated in an intertribal camas dig on a nearby prairie. Witnessing families digging and laughing inspired us to host similar gatherings on our lands. The teachings continued at an Intertribal Camas Bake, where representatives from over 13 tribes gathered for 4 days to share skills, songs, and ceremony.

We are grateful to the Native Plants and Foods Institute and Coast Salish Youth Coalition for welcoming us into their communities! Visiting the camas prairies and witnessing the thriving community around this traditional food source provided us inspiration and tools for supporting our people returning to our cultural landscapes and foods.

Má^inje Harvest! **This is a family friendly event - Youth encouraged!! Hope to see you there! 🌱
05/18/2026

Má^inje Harvest!
**This is a family friendly event - Youth encouraged!!
Hope to see you there! 🌱

Many thanks to the Sac and Fox for inviting us to their Earth Day celebration! What an amazing turnout. Many organizatio...
05/14/2026

Many thanks to the Sac and Fox for inviting us to their Earth Day celebration! What an amazing turnout. Many organizations were able to attend and had their own stations for the kids to rotate through! Teaching our younger generations are what we are all about.

Unfortunately, we committed to the messiest table: seed balls! The kids got to get dirty, make their own mixes, and take them home in biodegradable cups! No tools needed!

Hopefully Smokey makes another appearance next year, but we'll have to see about his schedule.

Thank you very much Sac and Fox for all you have done and will continue to do! Thank you Amy, Will, Stephen, Landon, our EPA fellows, and the rest of the tribal members who helped make this day memorable!

🌱🦋 má^inje 🦋🌱Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is growing fast out here on the Ioway reservation. Our people alongsid...
05/12/2026

🌱🦋 má^inje 🦋🌱

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is growing fast out here on the Ioway reservation. Our people alongside monarchs, red milkweed beetles and many other insects (over 450 known species!) flock to this plant for nourishment. Here we have Elizabeth helping us learn how to say their name!

Address

White Cloud, KS

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ioway Environmental posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category