The Nishnabotna River is a tributary of the Missouri River in southwestern Iowa, northwestern Missouri and southeastern Nebraska in the United States. It flows for most of its length as two parallel streams in Iowa, the East Nishnabotna River and the West Nishnabotna River. The east and west branches are each about 100 mi (160 km) long; from their confluence the Nishnabotna flows approximately another 12 miles. Nishnabotna means, "crossed with a canoe."