Missouri
Art, History & Archaeology Sites & Museums

Located in the Heartlands of the Midwest, Missouri takes its name from one of the area’s indigenous communities. Missouri’s pre-Columbian indigenous peoples displayed differences in culture and subsistence that reflected the geographical differences between the woodlands in the east and the open plains in the west. French settlers arrived in the 18th century, although the territory was transferred to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1821, Missouri became a U.S. state and in the 1830s much of its indigenous population was forcibly relocated to ‘Indian Territory’ in modern Oklahoma. Missourians fought on both sides in the American Civil War, although the state largely remained with the Union.