These migrations are deemed to be all of quite modern date, not excepting the probable period to which well-known tradition could reach. They do not, it would seem, aspire to the area of their ancient residence on the lower and upper Iowa rivers, and about the region of St. Anthony’s falls.[86] We are taught something by these migrations. They were probably determined by the facility of procuring food. They relied, ever, greatly on the deer, elk, and buffalo. As these species are subject to changes, it is probable they carried the Indians with them.[87] It is not probable that their locations were of long continuance at a place. Not over a dozen years at a location, on the average. It might be longer at some places, and less at others. This would not give a period of more than 180 years, before their arrival at their present place....[88] It is not probable that the game-pursuing Indians were more fixed in their ancient, than in their modern locations. Indeed, the very reverse is true; for the modern hunter tribes avail themselves of the proximity of military posts, and out-settlements, to guard themselves from the approaches of hostile bands. The population of the Iowas, as given at early dates, is very uniform, having evidently been copied by one writer from another. In some ancient MS. data in the Royal Marine Office, at Paris, which were submitted to the inspection of the American Minister (General Cass) in 1842, their numbers were put down, for about 1730, at 1100. When Colonel Bouquet marched over the Alleghanies against the western Indians, in 1764, the same numbers were used. Each of these dates assigns their residence to the Missouri, and there had, evidently, no recent information been received. The French alone were at that time in communication with them, and their alliance with the western Indians, in this war, made it impracticable to obtain further data. By the official returns made to the Indian Bureau, in 1848, they are stated at “a fraction under seven hundred and fifty souls,” but in Sub-Agent Vaughan’s report in the fall of the same year, 669 is the enumeration.[89] In the report of 1844 their census is stated at 470. In 1701,[90] D’Iberville’s memorial[91] to France says: the Ayooues and the Octootatas, their neighbors, are about 300 families. [In M. Chauvignerie’s Report[92] of the Census of tribes, made to the French government in 1736, the “Ayouas” are put down at 80 warriors]. In the report of the Indian Bureau for 1874, the Ioway and Otoe together, including some Sauk and some Missourie, numbered 864 persons. It is recorded, that there were ten Ioway (“Ayeouais”) with Montcalm and the French Army at the seige of Ticonderoga in July, 1757, and also 48 Winnebago (“Puants”)—De Tailly being their joint Interpreter.