The Omaha metropolitan region of which Council Bluffs is a part, is the 58th largest in the United States, with an estimated population of , It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River , across from Omaha, Nebraska. Until about Council Bluffs was known as Kanesville.
Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails because there was a steam-powered boat which ferried the settlers' wagons and cattle across the Missouri River. The first Council Bluff which is singular was on the Nebraska side of the river at Fort Atkinson , about 20 miles 32 km northwest of the city of Council Bluffs. It was named by Lewis and Clark for a bluff where they met the Otoe people on August 2, The Iowa side of the river became an Indian Reservation in the s for members of the Council of Three Fires of Chippewa , Ottawa , and Potawatomi who were forced to leave the Chicago area under the Treaty of Chicago clearing the way for the city of Chicago to incorporate.
The largest group of Native Americans who moved to the area were the Pottawatomi, who were led by their chief Sauganash "one who speaks English" , the son of the British loyalist William Caldwell , who founded Canadian communities on the south side of the Detroit River , and a Pottawatomi woman. Seeking to avoid confrontation with the Sioux , who were natives of the Council Bluffs area, the 1, to 2, Pottawattamie initially had settled east of the Missouri River in Indian territory between Leavenworth, Kansas and St.
Joseph, Missouri. When the area was bought from Ioway, Sac and Fox tribes in the Platte Purchase and part of Missouri in , Sauganash and the Pottawatomi were forced to move to their assigned reservation in Council Bluffs. The tribe were sometimes called the Bluff Indians. Army Dragoons built a small fort nearby.
Joseph's Mission to minister to the Potawatomi. De Smet was appalled by the violence and brutality caused by the whiskey trade, and tried to protect the tribe from unscrupulous traders.
