The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (;
Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, ...
:
/otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of
Native American tribes and
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on
language divisions: the
Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, ...
and
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
; collectively they are known as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ ("Seven Council Fires"). The term "Sioux" is an
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
created from a
French transcription of the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
term "Nadouessioux", and can refer to any ethnic group within the
Great Sioux Nation
The Great Sioux Nation is the traditional political structure of the Sioux in North America. The peoples who speak the Sioux language are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin (''Očhéthi Šakówiŋ'', pronounced ) or Seven Council Fire ...
or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
Before the 17th century, the
Santee Dakota
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided int ...
(; "Knife" also known as the Eastern Dakota) lived around
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
with territories in present-day northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They gathered
wild rice
Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...
, hunted woodland animals and used canoes to fish. Wars with the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
throughout the 1700s pushed the Dakota into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) and Teton (Lakota) were residing. In the 1800s, the Dakota signed treaties with the United States, ceding much of their land in Minnesota. Failure of the United States to make treaty payments on time, as well as low food supplies, led to the
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...
, which resulted in the Dakota being exiled from Minnesota to numerous reservations in Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Canada. After 1870, the Dakota people began to return to Minnesota, creating the present-day reservations in the state. The Yankton and Yanktonai Dakota ( and ; "Village-at-the-end" and "Little village-at-the-end"), collectively also referred to by the
endonym , resided in the
Minnesota River area before ceding their land and moving to South Dakota in 1858. Despite ceding their lands, their treaty with the U.S. government allowed them to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the
Pipestone Quarry, which is the cultural center of the Sioux people. They are considered to be the Western Dakota (also called middle Sioux), and have in the past been erroneously classified as
Nakota
Nakota (or Nakoda or Nakona) is the endonym used by those ''Assiniboine'' Indigenous people in the US, and by the Stoney People, in Canada.
The Assiniboine branched off from the Great Sioux Nation (aka the ''Oceti Sakowin'') long ago and moved f ...
. The actual Nakota are the
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
and
Stoney of
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada ...
and
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
.
The
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
, also called Teton (; possibly "dwellers on the prairie"), are the westernmost Sioux, known for their
hunting and warrior culture. With the arrival of the horse in the 1700s, the Lakota would become the most powerful tribe on the Plains by the 1850s. They fought the United States Army in the
Sioux Wars
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyo ...
including defeating the
7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune.
The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...
at the
Battle of Little Big Horn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...
. The armed conflicts with the U.S. ended with the
Wounded Knee Massacre.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Dakota and Lakota would continue to fight for their
treaty rights
In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States the term treaty rights specifically refers to rights for indigenous peoples enumerated in treaties with settler societies that arose from European colonization.
Exactly who is indigenou ...
, including the
Wounded Knee incident
The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota (sometimes referred to as Oglala Sioux) and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupie ...
,
Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the 1980
Supreme Court case, ''
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians
''United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians'', 448 U.S. 371 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that: 1) the enactment by Congress of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States tha ...
'', in which the court ruled that tribal lands covered under the
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also the Sioux Treaty of 1868) is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fo ...
had been taken illegally by the US government, and the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018, this amounted to more than $1 billion; the Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the
return of their land. Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
,
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, and
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
in the United States; and
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
, and southern
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
in Canada.
Culture
Etymology
The Sioux people refer to their whole nation of people (sometimes called the Great Sioux Nation) as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (pronounced , meaning "Seven Council Fires"). Each fire is a symbol of an oyate (people or nation). Today the seven nations that comprise the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ are the Thítȟuŋwaŋ (also known collectively as the Teton or Lakota), Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, and Sisíthuŋwaŋ (also known collectively as the Santee or Eastern Dakota) and Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ and Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (also known collectively as the Yankton/Yanktonai or Western Dakota).
They are also referred to as the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
or
Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, ...
as based upon dialect differences.
In any of the dialects, Lakota or Dakota translates to mean "friend" or "ally" referring to the alliances between the bands.
The name "Sioux" was adopted in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
by the 1760s from
French. It is abbreviated from the French ''Nadouessioux'', first attested by
Jean Nicolet
Jean Nicolet (Nicollet), Sieur de Belleborne (October 1642) was a French ''coureur des bois'' noted for exploring Lake Michigan, Mackinac Island, Green Bay, and being the first European to set foot in what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
Ea ...
in 1640.
The name is sometimes said to be derived from "Nadowessi" (plural "Nadowessiwag"),
[NAA MS 4800 9 Three drafts of On the Comparative Phonology of Four Siouan Languages. James O. Dorsey papers, circa 1870-1956, bulk 1870-1895. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution] an
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for the Sioux meaning "little snakes" (compare ''nadowe'' "big snakes", used for the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
). The French pluralized the Ojibwe singular "Nadowessi" by adding the French plural suffix "oux" to form "Nadowessioux," which was later shortened to "Sioux."
The
Proto-Algonquian
Proto-Algonquian (commonly abbreviated PA) is the proto-language from which the various Algonquian languages are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but there is less agreement on where it was ...
form ''*na·towe·wa'', meaning "Northern Iroquoian", has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (
massasauga
The massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') is a rattlesnake species found in midwestern North America from southern Ontario to northern Mexico and parts of the United States in between. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous.
Th ...
, ''Sistrurus'').
An alternative explanation is derivation from an (Algonquian) exonym '' na·towe·ssiw'' (plural '' na·towe·ssiwak''), from a verb ''*-a·towe·'' meaning "to speak a foreign language".
The current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is ''Bwaanag'' (singular ''Bwaan''), meaning "roasters". Presumably, this refers to the style of cooking the Sioux used in the past.
In recent times, some of the tribes have formally or informally reclaimed traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is also known as the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte, and the Oglala often use the name Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte, rather than the English Oglala Sioux Tribe or OST. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered improper.
Traditional social structure
The traditional social structure of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ strongly relied on kinship ties that extend beyond human interaction and includes the natural and supernatural worlds.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ ("all are related") represents a spiritual belief of how human beings should ideally act and relate to other humans, the natural world, the spiritual world, and to the cosmos.
The thiyóšpaye represents the political and economic structure of traditional society.
Thiyóšpaye (community) kinship
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the different Očhéthi Šakówiŋ villages (oyáte, "tribe/nation") consisted of many thiyóšpaye ("camp circles"), which were large extended families united by kinship (thiwáhe, "immediate family").
Thiyóšpaye varied in size, were led by a leader appointed by an elder council and were nicknamed after a prominent member or memorable event associated with the band. Dakota ethnographer
Ella Cara Deloria
Ella Cara Deloria (January 31, 1889 – February 12, 1971), also called ''Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ'' (Beautiful Day Woman), was a Yankton Dakota (Sioux) educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and novelist. She recorded Native American ...
noted the kinship ties were all-important, they dictated and demanded all phrases of traditional life:
During the
fur trade era, the thiyóšpaye refused to trade only for economic reasons. Instead the production and trade of goods was regulated by rules of kinship bonds.
Personal relationships were pivotal for success: in order for European-Americans to trade with the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, social bonds had to be created.
The most successful fur traders would marry into the kinship society, which also raised the status of the family of the woman through access to European goods.
Outsiders are also adopted into the kinship through the religious Huŋkalowaŋpi ceremony. Early European explorers and missionaries who lived among the Dakota were sometimes adopted into the thiyóšpaye (known as "huŋka relatives"), such as
Louis Hennepin
Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, (; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order (French: ''Récollets'') and an explorer of the interior of North Amer ...
who noted, "this help’d me to gain credit among these people".
During the later
reservation era, districts were often settled by clusters of families from the same thiyóšpaye.
Religion
![Blackhawk-spiritbeing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Blackhawk-spiritbeing.jpg)
The traditional social system extended beyond human interaction into the
supernatural realms.
It is believed that
Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka ("Great Spirit/Great Mystery") created the universe and embodies everything in the universe as one.
The preeminent symbol of Sioux religion is the
Čhaŋgléska Wakȟaŋ ("sacred hoop"), which visually represents the concept that everything in the universe is intertwined.
The creation stories of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ describe how the
various spirits were formed from Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka.
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and ...
describes the relationships with Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka as:
It is believed
prayer
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...
is the act of invoking relationships with one's ancestors or spiritual world;
the Lakota word for prayer,
wočhékiye, means "to call on for aid," "to pray," and "to claim relationship with".
Their primary cultural prophet is Ptesáŋwiŋ,
White Buffalo Calf Woman
White Buffalo Calf Woman ('' Lakȟótiyapi'': ''Ptesáŋwiŋ'') or White Buffalo Maiden is a sacred woman of supernatural origin, central to the Lakota religion as the primary cultural prophet. Oral traditions relate that she brought the "Seven S ...
, who came as an intermediary between Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka and humankind to teach them how to be good relatives by introducing the Seven Sacred Rites and the
čhaŋnúŋpa (
sacred pipe).
The seven ceremonies are
Inípi (purification lodge), Haŋbléčheyapi (
crying for vision), Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi (
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individua ...
), Huŋkalowaŋpi (making of relatives), Išnáthi Awíčhalowaŋpi (female puberty ceremony), Tȟápa Waŋkáyeyapi (throwing of the ball) and Wanáǧi Yuhápi (soul keeping).
Each part of the čhaŋnúŋpa (stem, bowl, tobacco, breath, and smoke) is symbolic of the relationships of the natural world, the elements, humans and the spiritual beings that maintain the cycle of the universe.
Dreams can also be a means of establishing relationships with spirits and are of utmost importance to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ.
One can gain supernatural powers through dreams; it is believed that dreaming of the
Wakíŋyaŋ
Wakíŋyaŋ is a Lakota word for "thunder." It also may be a portmanteau word
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words (thunder beings) would make someone involuntarily a
Heyókȟa, a sacred clown.
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and ...
, a famous Heyókȟa said: "Only those who have had visions of the thunder beings of the west can act as heyokas. They have sacred power and they share some of this with all the people, but they do it through funny actions".
Governance
Historical leadership organization
![Red Cloud and other Sioux](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Red_Cloud_and_other_Sioux.jpg)
The thiyóšpaye of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ would assemble each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, and participate in the
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individua ...
.
The seven divisions would select four leaders known as Wičháša Yatápika from among the leaders of each division.
Being one of the four leaders was considered the highest honor for a leader; however, the annual gathering meant the majority of tribal administration was cared for by the usual leaders of each division. The last meeting of the Seven Council Fires was in 1850.
The historical political organization was based on individual participation and the cooperation of many to sustain the tribe's way of life. Leaders were chosen based upon noble birth and demonstrations of chiefly virtues, such as bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom.
* Political leaders were members of the Načá Omníčiye society and decided matters of tribal hunts, camp movements, whether to make war or peace with their neighbors, or any other community action.
* Societies were similar to
fraternities
A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity ...
; men joined to raise their position in the tribe. Societies were composed of smaller clans and varied in number among the seven divisions.
There were two types of societies: Akíčhita, for the younger men, and Načá, for elders and former leaders.
* Akíčhita (Warrior) societies existed to train warriors, hunters, and to police the community.
There were many smaller Akíčhita societies, including the Kit-Fox, Strong Heart, Elk, and so on.
* Leaders in the Načá societies, per Načá Omníčiye, were the tribal elders and leaders. They elected seven to ten men, depending on the division, each referred to as Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ ("chief man"). Each Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ interpreted and enforced the decisions of the Načá.
* The Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ would elect two to four Shirt Wearers, who were the voice of the society. They settled quarrels among families and also foreign nations.
Shirt Wearers were often young men from families with hereditary claims of leadership. However, men with obscure parents who displayed outstanding leadership skills and had earned the respect of the community might also be elected.
Crazy Horse is an example of a common-born "Shirt Wearer".
* A Wakíčhuŋza ("Pipe Holder") ranked below the "Shirt Wearers". The Pipe Holders regulated peace ceremonies, selected camp locations, and supervised the Akíčhita societies during buffalo hunts.
Gender roles
Within the Sioux tribes, there were defined gender roles. The men in the village were tasked as the hunters, traveling outside the village.
The women within the village were in charge of making clothing and similar articles while also taking care of, and owning, the house.
However, even with these roles, both men and women held power in decision-making tasks and sexual preferences were flexible and allowed.
The term
wíŋtke would refer to men who partook in traditional feminine duties while the term witkówiŋ ("crazy woman") was used for women who rejected their roles as either mother or wife to be a prostitute.
Funeral practices
Traditional Funeral Practices
![Funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief 0044v crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Funeral_scaffold_of_a_Sioux_chief_0044v_crop.jpg)
It is a common belief amongst Siouan communities that the spirit of the deceased travels to an
afterlife. In traditional beliefs, this spiritual journey was believed to start once funeral proceedings were complete and spanned over a course of four days. Mourning family and friends would take part in that four-day
wake in order to accompany the spirit to its resting place.
In the past, bodies were not embalmed and put up on a
burial scaffold for one year before a ground burial. A platform to rest the body was put up on trees or, alternately, placed on four upright poles to elevate the body from the ground. The bodies would be securely wrapped in blankets and cloths, along with many of the deceased personal belongings and were always placed with their head pointed towards the south. Mourning individuals would speak to the body and offer food as if it were still alive. This practice, along with the
Ghost Dance helped individuals mourn and connect the spirits of the deceased with those who were alive.
[Mooney, James. ''The Ghost Dance Religion and Wounded Knee''. New York: Dover Publications; 1896] The only time a body was buried in the ground right after their death was if the individual was murdered: the deceased would be placed in the ground with their heads towards the south, while faced down along with a piece of fat in their mouth.
Contemporary Funeral Practices
According to Pat Janis, director of the
Oglala Sioux Tribe
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...
’s Burial Assistance Program, funeral practices of communities today are often a mix of traditions and contemporary Christian practices. While tree burials and scaffold burials are not practiced anymore, it is also now rare to see families observe a four-day wake period. Instead, the families opt for one- or two-day wake periods which include a funeral feast for all the community. Added to the contemporary funeral practices, it is common to see prayers conducted by a medicine man along with traditional songs often sung with a drum. One member of the family is also required to be present next to the body at all times until the burial.
Gifts are placed within the casket to aid with the journey into the afterworld, which is still believed to take up to four days after death.
Music
History
Ancestral Sioux
The ancestral Sioux most likely lived in the Central Mississippi Valley region and later in Minnesota, for at least two or three thousand years.
The ancestors of the Sioux arrived in the northwoods of central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin from the Central Mississippi River shortly before 800 AD.
Archaeologists refer to them as the Woodland Blackduck-Kathio-Clam River Continuum.
Around 1300 AD, they adopted the characteristics of a northern tribal society and became known as the Seven Council Fires.
First contact with Europeans
The Dakota are first recorded to have resided at the source of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
and the Great Lakes during the seventeenth century. They were dispersed west in 1659 due to warfare with the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
. During the 1600s, the Lakota began their expansion westward into the Plains, taking with them the bulk of people of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ.
By 1700 the Dakota were living in
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
and
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. As the Sioux nation began expanding with access to horses, the Dakota were put in a weakened position to defend the eastern border: new diseases (smallpox and malaria) and increased intertribal warfare between the migration of tribes fleeing the Iroquois into their territory of present-day Wisconsin, put a strain on their ability to maintain their territory.
In the Mississippi valley, their population is believed to have declined by one-third between 1680 and 1805 due to those reasons.
French trade and intertribal warfare
Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants. The French were trying to gain advantage in the struggle for the
North American fur trade against the English, who had recently established the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
. The
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
,
Potawatomi and
Ottawa bands were among the first to trade with the French as they migrated into the Great Lakes region.
Upon their arrival, Dakota were in an economic alliance with them until the Dakota were able to trade directly for European goods with the French.
The first recorded encounter between the Sioux and the French occurred when
Radisson and
Groseilliers reached what is now Wisconsin during the winter of 1659–60. Later visiting French traders and missionaries included
Claude-Jean Allouez
Claude Jean Allouez (June 6, 1622 – August 28, 1689) was a Jesuit missionary and French explorer of North America. He established a number of missions among the indigenous people living near Lake Superior.
Biography
Allouez was born in Saint ...
,
Daniel Greysolon Duluth, and
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur (c. 1657, Artois, France – 17 July 1704, Havana, Cuba) was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley.
Le Sueur came to Canada with ...
who wintered with Dakota bands in early 1700.
The Dakota began to resent the Ojibwe trading with the hereditary enemies of the Sioux, the
Cree and
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
.
Tensions rose in the 1720s into a prolonged war in 1736.
The Dakota lost their traditional lands around
Leech Lake
Leech Lake is a lake located in north central Minnesota, United States. It is southeast of Bemidji, located mainly within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and completely within the Chippewa National Forest. It is used as a reservoir. The lake ...
and
Mille Lacs as they were forced south along the Mississippi River and St. Croix River Valley as a result of the battles.
These intertribal conflicts also made it dangerous for European fur traders: whichever side they traded with, they were viewed as enemies from the other.
For example, in 1736 a group of Sioux killed
Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye
Jean-Baptiste Gaultier de la Vérendrye (September 3, 1713 – June 6, 1736) was the eldest son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye and Marie-Anne Dandonneau Du Sablé. He was born on Île Dupas near Sorel, New France
Jean Baptist ...
and twenty other men on an island in
Lake of the Woods for such reasons.
However, trade with the French continued until the French gave up North America in 1763. Europeans repeatedly tried to make truce between the warring tribes in order to protect their interests.
One of the larger battles between the Dakota and Ojibwe took place in 1770 fought at the Dalles of the St. Croix. According to
William Whipple Warren
William Whipple Warren (May 27, 1825 – June 1, 1853) was a historian, interpreter, and legislator in the Minnesota Territory. The son of Lyman Marcus Warren, an American fur trader and Mary Cadotte, the Ojibwe-Metis daughter of fur trader ...
, a
Métis historian, the fighting began when the
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...
(Fox) engaged the Ojibwe (their hereditary enemies) around
St. Croix Falls
St. Croix Falls is a city in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,208 at the 2020 census. The city is located within the Town of St. Croix Falls.
U.S. Route 8, Wisconsin Highway 35, and Wisconsin Highway 87 are three o ...
.
The Sioux were the former enemies of the Meskwaki and were enlisted to make a joint attack against the Ojibwe.
The Meskwaki were first to engage with the large Ojibwe war party led by
Waubojeeg: the Meskwaki allegedly boasted to the Dakota to hold back as they would make short work of their enemies. When the Dakota joined the battle, they had the upper hand until Sandy Lake Ojibwe reinforcements arrived.
The Dakota were driven back and Warren states: "Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling floods below, there to find a watery grave. Others, in attempting to jump into their narrow wooden canoes, were capsized into the rapids".
While Dakota and Ojibwe suffered heavy losses, the Meskwaki were left with the most dead and forced to join their relatives, the
Sauk people
The Sauk or Sac are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group, who lived primarily in the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, when first encountered by the French in 1667. Their autonym is oθaakiiwaki, and th ...
.
The victory for the Ojibwe secured control of the Upper St. Croix and created an informal boundary between the Dakota and Ojibwe around the mouth of the Snake River.
As the Lakota entered the prairies, they adopted many of the customs of the neighboring
Plains tribes
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) ...
, creating new cultural patterns based on the horse and fur trade.
Meanwhile, the Dakota retained many of their Woodlands features.
By 1803, the three divisions of the Sioux (Western/Eastern Dakota and Lakota) were established in their different environments and had developed their own distinctive lifeways.
However, due to the prevalent cultural concept of thiyóšpaye (community), the three divisions maintained strong ties throughout the changing times to present day.
Treaties and reservation period beginnings
In 1805, the Dakota signed their
first treaty with the American government.
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson ...
negotiated for 100,000 acres of land at the confluence of the
St. Croix River about what now is
Hastings, Minnesota and the confluence of the
Minnesota River and
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
about what now is
St Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...
.
The Americans wanted to establish military outposts and the Dakota wanted a new source of trading. An American military post was not established at the confluence of the St. Croix with the Mississippi, but
Fort Snelling was established in 1819 along the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers.
In return, Dakota were promised the ability to "pass and repass, hunt, or make other uses of the said districts as they have formerly done".
![Catlin-Pipestone-Quarry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Catlin-Pipestone-Quarry.jpg)
In an attempt to stop intertribal warfare and to better able to negotiate with tribes, the American government signed the
1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien with the Dakota, Ojibwe, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa tribes.
In the
1830 Treaty of Prairie de Chien, the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) ceded their lands along the Des Moines river to the American government. Living in what is now southeastern South Dakota, the leaders of the Western Dakota signed the Treaty of April 19, 1858, which created the
Yankton Sioux Reservation. Pressured by the ongoing arrival of Europeans, Yankton chief
Struck by the Ree
Struck by the Ree, also known as Strikes the Ree (c. 1804–1888) was a chief of the Native American Yankton Sioux tribe.
Birth
In 1804, a great pow-wow was held for the Lewis and Clark Expedition at Calumet Bluff/Gavins Point (near present- ...
told his people, "The white men are coming in like maggots. It is useless to resist them. They are many more than we are. We could not hope to stop them. Many of our brave warriors would be killed, our women and children left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them. We must accept it, get the best terms we can get and try to adopt their ways."
Despite ceding their lands, the treaty allowed the Western Dakota to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the
Pipestone Quarry, which is the cultural center of the Sioux people.
![Treaty of Traverse des Sioux 1851](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Treaty_of_Traverse_des_Sioux_1851.jpg)
With the creation of
Minnesota Territory
The Territory of Minnesota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1849, until May 11, 1858, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Minnesota and west ...
by the United States in 1849, the Eastern Dakota (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton, and Wahpekute) people were pressured to cede more of their land. The reservation period for them began in 1851 with the signing of the
Treaty of Mendota
The Treaty of Mendota was signed in Mendota, Minnesota on August 5, 1851 between the United States federal government and the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota people of Minnesota.
The agreement was signed near Pilot Knob on the south bank of the M ...
and the
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux () was signed on July 23, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux in Minnesota Territory between the United States government and the Upper Dakota Sioux bands. In this land cession treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota ban ...
.
The Treaty of Mendota was signed near Pilot Knob on the south bank of the
Minnesota River and within sight of
Fort Snelling. The treaty stipulated that the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands were to receive US$1,410,000 in return for relocating to the
Lower Sioux Agency
The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was the federal administrative center for the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in what became Redwood County, Minnesota, United States. It was the site of the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency on August 18, 186 ...
on the
Minnesota River near present-day
Morton, Minnesota
Morton is a city in Renville County, Minnesota, United States. This city is ninety-five miles southwest of Minneapolis. It is the administrative headquarters of the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation. The population was 411 at the 2010 census.
His ...
along with giving up their rights to a significant portion of southern Minnesota.
In the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an acre.
However, the American government kept more than 80% of the funds with only the interest (5% for 50 years) being paid to the Dakota.
The US set aside two reservations for the Sioux along the
Minnesota River, each about wide and long. Later the government declared these were intended to be temporary, in an effort to force the Sioux out of Minnesota.
The
Upper Sioux Agency
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
for the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands was established near
Granite Falls, Minnesota
Granite Falls is a city located mostly in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, of which it is the county seat with a small portion in Chippewa County, Minnesota. The population was 2,737 at the 2020 census. The Andrew John Volstead House, a Na ...
, while the
Lower Sioux Agency
The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was the federal administrative center for the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in what became Redwood County, Minnesota, United States. It was the site of the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency on August 18, 186 ...
for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands was established about thirty miles downstream near what developed as
Redwood Falls, Minnesota
Redwood Falls is a city in Redwood County, located along the Redwood River near its confluence with the Minnesota River, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 5,102 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat.
History
As the immig ...
. The Upper Sioux were not satisfied with their reservation because of low food supplies, but as it included several of their old villages, they agreed to stay. The Lower Sioux were displaced from their traditional woodlands and were dissatisfied with their new territory of mostly prairie.
The US intended the treaties to encourage the Sioux to convert from their nomadic hunting lifestyle into more European-American settled farming, offering them compensation in the transition. By 1858, the Dakota only had a small strip of land along the Minnesota River, with no access to their traditional hunting grounds.
They had to rely on treaty payments for their survival, which were often late.
The forced change in lifestyle and the much lower than expected payments from the federal government caused economic suffering and increased social tensions within the tribes. By 1862, many Dakota were starving and tensions erupted in the
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...
.
Dakota War of 1862 and the Dakota diaspora
By 1862, shortly after a failed crop the year before and a winter starvation, the federal payment was late. The local traders would not issue any more credit to the Dakota. One trader,
Andrew Myrick
Andrew J. Myrick (May 28, 1832 – August 18, 1862) was a trader, who with his Dakota wife (''Winyangewin''/Nancy Myrick), operated stores in southwest Minnesota at two Native American agencies serving the Dakota (referred to as Sioux at the ti ...
, went so far as to say, "If they're hungry, let them eat grass."
On August 16, 1862, the treaty payments to the eastern Dakota arrived in
St. Paul, Minnesota, and were brought to
Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely was a frontier United States Army outpost from 1851 to 1867, built 1853–1854 in Minnesota Territory. The Sioux called it Esa Tonka. It was located overlooking the Minnesota river southwest of Fairfax, Minnesota. Half of th ...
the next day. However, they arrived too late to prevent the war. On August 17, 1862, the Dakota War began when a few Santee men murdered a white farmer and most of his family. They inspired further attacks on white settlements along the
Minnesota River. On August 18, 1862,
Little Crow
Little Crow III (Dakota: ''Thaóyate Dúta''; 1810 – July 3, 1863) was a Mdewakanton Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862.
In 1846, after surviving a violent leadership contest ...
of the Mdewakanton band led a group that attacked the
Lower Sioux Agency
The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was the federal administrative center for the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in what became Redwood County, Minnesota, United States. It was the site of the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency on August 18, 186 ...
(or Redwood Agency) and trading post located there. Later, settlers found Myrick among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass. Many of the upper Dakota (Sisseton and Wahpeton) wanted no part in the attacks
with the majority of the 4,000 members of the Sisseton and Wahpeton opposed to the war. Thus their bands did not participate in the early killings. Historian Mary Wingerd has stated that it is "a complete myth that all the Dakota people went to war against the United States" and that it was rather "a faction that went on the offensive".
Most of Little Crow's men surrendered shortly after the
Battle of Wood Lake at
Camp Release
The Surrender at Camp Release was the final act in the Dakota War of 1862. After the Battle of Wood Lake, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley had considered pursuing the retreating Sioux, but he realized he did not have the resources for a vigorous p ...
on September 26, 1862. Little Crow was forced to retreat sometime in September 1862. He stayed briefly in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
but soon returned to the western Minnesota. He was killed on July 3, 1863, near
Hutchinson, Minnesota
Hutchinson is the largest city in McLeod County, Minnesota, United States. It lies along the South Fork of the Crow River. The population was 14,599 at the 2020 census.
History
The Hutchinson Family Singers (John, Asa, and Judson Hutchinson) ...
while gathering
raspberries
The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus '' Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with ...
with his teenage son. The pair had wandered onto the land of a settler Nathan Lamson, who shot at them to collect bounties. Once it was discovered that the body was of Little Crow, his
skull
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
and scalp were put on display by the
Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota. The State held the trophies until 1971 when it returned the remains to Little Crow's grandson. For killing Little Crow the state increased the bounty to $500 when it paid Lamson.
![Execution of 38 Sioux Indians at Mankato Minnesota 1862](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Execution_of_38_Sioux_Indians_at_Mankato_Minnesota_1862.jpg)
On November 5, 1862 a
military tribunal
Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bod ...
found 303 mostly Mdewakanton tribesmen guilty of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
,
murder and
atrocities of hundreds of Minnesota settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. The men had no attorneys or defense witnesses, and many were convicted in less than five minutes.
President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
commuted the death sentences of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the hanging of 38 Santee men on December 26, 1862 in
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Minnesota, and the 5th-largest outside of the Minnea ...
. It was the largest mass-execution in U.S. history, on US soil. The men remanded by order of President Lincoln were sent to a prison in
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
, where more than half died.
Afterwards, the
US Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
annulled all treaty agreements with the eastern Dakota and expelled the eastern Dakota with the Forfeiture Act of February 16, 1863, meaning all lands held by the eastern Dakota, and all annuities due to them, were forfeited to the US government.
During and after the hostilities, the majority of eastern Dakota fled Minnesota for the
Dakota territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...
or
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. Some settled in the
James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to
Crow Creek Reservation
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá okášpe, '' lkt, Kȟaŋğí Wakpá Oyáŋke''), home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá oyáte) is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank ...
on the east bank of the
Missouri river.
There were as few as 50 eastern Dakota left in Minnesota by 1867.
Many had fled to the
Santee Sioux Reservation
The Santee Sioux Reservation ( dak, Isáŋyathi) of the Santee Sioux (also known as the Eastern Dakota) was established in 1863 in present-day Nebraska. The tribal seat of government is located in Niobrara, Nebraska, with reservation lands in K ...
in Nebraska (created 1863), the
Flandreau Reservation (created 1869 from members who left the Santee Reservation), the
Lake Traverse
Lake Traverse is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. It lies along the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and South Dakota. A low continental divide, part of the Laurentian Divide, separates t ...
and
Spirit Lake Reservations (both created 1867).
Those who fled to Canada throughout the 1870s now have descendants residing on nine small Dakota Reserves, five of which are located in
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
(
Sioux Valley,
Dakota Plain,
Dakota Tipi,
Birdtail Creek, and
Canupawakpa Dakota) and the remaining four (
Standing Buffalo,
White Cap, Round Plain
ahpeton and Wood Mountain) in
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
. A few Dakota joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military, later settling on the
Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.
Westward expansion of the Lakota
Prior to the 1650s, the Thítȟuŋwaŋ division of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ known as the Lakota was noted as being located east of the Red River,
and living on the fringes of the prairies and woods of the prairies of southern Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas by at least 1680.
According to Baptiste Good's
winter count
Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...
, the Lakota had horses by 1700.
While the Dakota continued a subsistence cycle of corn, wild rice and hunting woodland animals, the Lakota increasing became reliant on bison for meat and its by-products (housing, clothing, tools) as they expanded their territory westward with the arrival of the horse.
After their adoption of
horse culture
A horse culture is a tribal group or community whose day-to-day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. Beginning with the domestication of the horse on the steppes of Eurasia, the horse transformed each society that adopted it ...
, Lakota society centered on the
buffalo hunt on horseback.
![Tableau 31 Indians hunting the bison by Karl Bodmer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Tableau_31_Indians_hunting_the_bison_by_Karl_Bodmer.jpg)
By the 19th century, the typical year of the Lakota was a
communal buffalo hunt as early in spring as their horses had recovered from the rigors of the winter. In June and July, the scattered bands of the tribes gathered together into large encampments, which included ceremonies such as the
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individua ...
. These gatherings afforded leaders to meet to make political decisions, plan movements, arbitrate disputes, and organize and launch raiding expeditions or war parties. In the fall, people would split up into smaller bands to facilitate hunting to procure meat for the long winter. Between the fall hunt and the onset of winter was a time when Lakota warriors could undertake raiding and warfare. With the coming of winter snows, the Lakota settled into winter camps, where activities of the season, ceremonies and dances as well as trying to ensure adequate winter feed for their horses.
They began to dominate the prairies east of the Missouri river by the 1720s. At the same time, the Lakota branch split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the
Lake Traverse
Lake Traverse is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. It lies along the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and South Dakota. A low continental divide, part of the Laurentian Divide, separates t ...
area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, and the Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the
James River valley. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the
Missouri River, followed 10 years later by the Oglála and Brulé (Sičháŋǧu). By 1750, they had crossed the Missouri River and encountered Lewis and Clark in 1804. Initial United States contact with the Lakota during the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...
of 1804–1806 was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, which never came. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne for the
Black Hills
The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...
, who had earlier taken the region from the
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
.
The Cheyenne then moved west to the
Powder River country
The Powder River Country is the Powder River Basin area of the Great Plains in northeastern Wyoming, United States. The area is loosely defined as that between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills, in the upper drainage areas of the Powder, ...
,
and the Lakota made the Black Hills their home.
As their territory expanded, so did the number of rival groups they encountered. They secured an alliance with the Northern
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
and Northern
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
by the 1820s as intertribal warfare on the plains increased amongst the tribes for access to the dwindling population of buffalo.
The alliance fought the
Mandan
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...
,
Hidatsa
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent ...
and
Arikara
Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011) for control of the
Missouri River in North Dakota.
By the 1840s, their territory expanded to the Powder River country in Montana, in which they fought with the Crow. Their victories over these tribes during this time period were aided by the fact those tribes were decimated by European diseases. Most of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara were killed by smallpox and almost half the population of the Crow were killed due to smallpox, cholera and other diseases.
In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coat's village near the
Loup in Nebraska, killing many and burning half of the earth lodges, and 30 years later, the Lakota again inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee during the
Massacre Canyon
The Massacre Canyon battle took place in Nebraska on August 5, 1873 near the Republican River. It was one of the last hostilities between the Pawnee and the Sioux (or Lakota) and the last battle/massacre between Great Plains Indians in North Ame ...
battle near Republican River. By the 1850s, the Lakota would be known as the most powerful tribe on the Plains.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851
![Sioux-treaty-lands](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Sioux-treaty-lands.png)
The
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. Also known as Horse Cre ...
was signed on September 17, 1851, between
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
treaty commissioners and representatives of the
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
, Sioux,
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
,
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
,
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
,
Mandan
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...
,
Hidatsa
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent ...
, and
Arikara
Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011) Nations. The treaty was an agreement between nine more or less independent parties. The treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes as among themselves. The United States acknowledged that all the land covered by the treaty was Indian territory and did not claim any part of it. The boundaries agreed to in the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 would be used to settle a number of claims cases in the 20th century. The tribes guaranteed safe passage for
settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settl ...
s on the
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...
and allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories in return for promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The treaty should also "make an effective and lasting peace" among the eight tribes, each of them often at odds with a number of the others.
[Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 2, p. 594. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0594.htm ]
The treaty was broken almost immediately after its inception by the Lakota and Cheyenne attacking the Crow over the next two years.
In 1858, the failure of the United States to prevent the mass immigration of miners and settlers into Colorado during the
Pike's Peak Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 ...
, also did not help matters. They took over Indian lands in order to mine them, "against the protests of the Indians,"
and founded towns, started farms, and improved roads. Such immigrants competed with the tribes for game and water, straining limited resources and resulting in conflicts with the emigrants. The U.S. government did not enforce the treaty to keep out the immigrants.
[Paragraph 3]
Report to the President by the Indian Peace Commission, January 7, 1878
The situation escalated with the
Grattan affair in 1854 when a detachment of U.S. soldiers illegally entered a Sioux encampment to arrest those accused of stealing a cow, and in the process sparked a battle in which Chief Conquering Bear was killed.
Though intertribal fighting had existed before the arrival of white settlers, some of the post-treaty intertribal fighting can be attributed to mass killings of bison by white settlers and government agents. The U.S. Army did not enforce treaty regulations and allowed hunters onto Native land to slaughter buffalo, providing protection and sometimes ammunition. One hundred thousand buffalo were killed each year until they were on the verge of extinction, which threatened the tribes' subsistence. These mass killings affected all tribes thus the tribes were forced onto each other's hunting grounds, where fighting broke out.
On July 20, 1867, an
act of Congress created the
Indian Peace Commission
The Indian Peace Commission (also the Sherman, Taylor, or Great Peace Commission) was a group formed by an act of Congress on July 20, 1867 "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes." It was composed of four civilians and three, la ...
"to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes".
The Indian Peace Commission was generally seen as a failure, and violence had reignited even before it was disbanded in October 1868. Two official reports were submitted to the federal government, ultimately recommending that the U.S. cease recognizing tribes as sovereign nations, refrain from making treaties with them, employ military force against those who refused to relocate to reservations, and move the
Bureau of Indian Affairs from the
Department of the Interior to the
Department of War. The system of treaties eventually deteriorated to the point of collapse, and a decade of war followed the commission's work. It was the last major commission of its kind.
From 1866–1868, the Lakota fought the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
in the
Wyoming Territory
The Territory of Wyoming was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 25, 1868, until July 10, 1890, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. Cheyenne was the territorial capital. The bou ...
and the
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana.
Original boundaries
...
in what is known as
Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War) was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States that took place in the Wyoming and Mo ...
(also referred to as the Bozeman War). The war is named after
Red Cloud
Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...
, a prominent Lakota chief who led the war against the United States following encroachment into the area by the
U.S. military. The Sioux victory in the war led to their temporarily preserving their control of the Powder River country.
[*] The war ended with the
Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also the Sioux Treaty of 1868) was an agreement between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and the
Oglala
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...
,
Miniconjou
The Miniconjou (Lakota: Mnikowoju, Hokwoju – ‘Plants by the Water’) are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota people, who formerly inhabited an area in western present-day South Dakota from the Black Hills i ...
, and
Brulé
The Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands (sometimes called "sub-tribes") of the Teton (Titonwan) Lakota American Indian people. They are known as Sičhą́ǧu Oyáte (in Lakȟóta) —Sicangu Oyate—, ''Sicangu Lakota, o''r "Burnt ...
bands of
Lakota people,
Yanktonai Dakota
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided int ...
and
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851. It established the
Great Sioux Reservation
The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Lakota Sioux, who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ...
including ownership of the
Black Hills
The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...
, and set aside additional lands as "unceded Indian territory" in areas of
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
,
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
, and
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
, and possibly
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
. It established that the US government would hold the authority to punish not only white settlers who committed crimes against the tribes but also tribe members who committed crimes and who were to be delivered to the government rather than face charges in tribal courts. It stipulated that the government would abandon forts along the
Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863–68. Despite the fact that the major pa ...
, and included a number of provisions designed to encourage a transition to farming, and move the tribes "closer to the white man's way of life." The treaty protected specified rights of third parties not partaking in the negotiations, and effectively ended
Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War) was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States that took place in the Wyoming and Mo ...
.
The treaty overall, and in comparison with the 1851 agreement, represented a departure from earlier considerations of tribal customs, and demonstrated instead the government's "more heavy-handed position with regard to tribal nations, and ... desire to assimilate the Sioux into American property arrangements and social customs."
According to one source, "animosities over the treaty arose almost immediately" when a group of Miniconjou were informed they were no longer welcome to trade at Fort Laramie, being south of their newly established territory. This was notwithstanding that the treaty did not make any stipulation that the tribes could not travel outside their land, only that they would not permanently occupy outside land. The only travel expressly forbidden by the treaty was that of white settlers onto the reservation.
The government eventually broke the terms of the treaty following the
Black Hills Gold Rush
The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876–77.
Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early ...
and an
expedition into the area by
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
in 1874 and failed to prevent white settlers from moving onto tribal lands. Rising tensions eventually lead again to open conflict in the
Great Sioux War of 1876.
The 1868 treaty would be modified three times by the
US Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
between 1876 and 1889, each time taking more land originally granted, including unilaterally seizing the Black Hills in 1877.
The treaty formed the basis of the 1980
Supreme Court case, ''
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians
''United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians'', 448 U.S. 371 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that: 1) the enactment by Congress of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States tha ...
'', in which the court ruled that tribal lands covered under the treaty had been taken illegally by the US government, and the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018, this amounted to more than $1 billion. The Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the return of their land.
Great Sioux War of 1876 and the Wounded Knee Massacre
The ongoing raids and battles on the northern Plains that lasted from 1850-1890 are collectively known as the
Sioux Wars
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyo ...
. Included are the
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...
(1862-1864),
Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War) was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States that took place in the Wyoming and Mo ...
(1866-1868) and the
Black Hills War
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the ...
which includes the
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...
(1876-1877); the
Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 is considered the end of the Sioux wars and the beginning of a new era for Dakota and Lakota people.
The
Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 between the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
, Northern
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The cause of the war was the desire of the U.S. government to obtain ownership of the
Black Hills
The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...
.
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
had been discovered in the Black Hills and settlers began to encroach onto tribal lands, and the Sioux and Cheyenne refused to cede ownership to the United States.
The earliest engagement was the
Battle of Powder River, and the final battle was the
Wolf Mountain. Included are the
Battle of the Rosebud
The Battle of the Rosebud (also known as the Battle of Rosebud Creek) took place on June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and its Crow and Shoshoni allies against a force consisting mostly of Lakota Sioux and Nor ...
,
Battle of Warbonnet Creek,
Battle of Slim Buttes,
Battle of Cedar Creek
The Battle of Cedar Creek, or Battle of Belle Grove, was fought on October 19, 1864, during the American Civil War. The fighting took place in the Shenandoah Valley of Northern Virginia, near Cedar Creek, Middletown, and the Valley Pike. D ...
, and the
Dull Knife Fight
The Dull Knife Fight, or the Battle on the Red Fork, part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, was a battle that was fought on November 25, 1876, in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming between soldiers and scouts of the United States Army and warrior ...
.
Among the many battles and skirmishes of the war was the
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...
, often known as Custer's Last Stand, the most storied of the many encounters between the U.S. army and mounted
Plains tribes
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) ...
. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota,
Northern Cheyenne
The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation ( chy, Tsėhéstáno; formerly named the Tongue River) is the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe. Located in southeastern Montana, the reservation is approximately ...
, and
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
tribes and the
7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune.
The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...
of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the
Little Bighorn River in the
Crow Indian Reservation
The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Treasure counties in southern Montana in the United States. The Crow Tribe has an enrolled member ...
in southeastern
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana.
Original boundaries
...
.
The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, who were led by several major war leaders, including
Crazy Horse and
Chief Gall, and had been inspired by the visions of
Sitting Bull. The US 7th Cavalry, a force of 700 men, suffered a major defeat while under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
. Five of the 7th Cavalry's twelve companies were annihilated and Custer was killed. The total US casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded (six died later from their wounds), including four
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
scouts and at least two
Arikara
Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011) scouts. The
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana, in the United States. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Arm ...
honors those who fought on both sides. That victory notwithstanding, the U.S. leveraged national resources to force the tribes to surrender, primarily by attacking and destroying their encampments and property. The Great Sioux War took place under the presidencies of
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
and
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
. The Agreement of 1877 (, enacted February 28, 1877) officially
annexed Sioux land and permanently established Indian reservations.
![Woundedknee1891](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Woundedknee1891.jpg)
The
Wounded Knee Massacre was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota and the United States. It was described as a
massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
by General
Nelson A. Miles
Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) was an American military general who served in the American Civil War, the American Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War.
From 1895 to 1903, Miles served as the last Commanding Gen ...
in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the
7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune.
The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...
, supported by four
Hotchkiss guns (a lightweight
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
piece capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of the Lakota bands of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
. By the time it was over, 25 troopers and more than 150 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children. It remains unknown which side was responsible for the first shot; some of the soldiers are believed to have been the victims of "
friendly fire
In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...
" because the shooting took place at point-blank range in chaotic conditions. Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, many of whom may have died from
hypothermia
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...
.
Following a three-day blizzard, the military hired civilians to bury the dead Lakota. The burial party found the deceased frozen; they were gathered up and placed in a mass grave on a hill overlooking the encampment from which some of the fire from the Hotchkiss guns originated. It was reported that four infants were found alive, wrapped in their deceased mothers' shawls. In all, 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children reportedly died on the field, while at least seven Lakota were mortally wounded.
[Josephy, Jr., Alvin M., Trudy Thomas, and Jeanne Eder. Wounded Knee: Lest We Forget. Billings, Montana: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1990.]
For this 1890 offensive, the American army awarded twenty
Medals of Honor, its highest commendation. Contemporary Native American activists have urged the medals to be withdrawn, calling them "medals of dishonor". According to Lakota William Thunder Hawk, "The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty". In 2001, the
National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...
passed two resolutions condemning the Medals of Honor awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them.
1890–1920s: Assimilation era
Land allotment
By the 1880s, the Dakota and Lakota tribes were fragmented onto reservations which would eventually diminish in size, losing hundreds of thousands of acres by the 1920s. In 1887, the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passed the
General Allotment Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
(Dawes Act), which began the
assimilation of Dakota and Lakota people by forcing them to give up their traditional way of life. The Dawes Act ended traditional systems of
land tenure
In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
, forcing tribes to adapt government-imposed systems of
private property and to "assume a
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
and proprietary relationship with property" that did not previously exist.
In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota were holding statehood conventions and demanded reduction of the
Great Sioux Reservation
The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Lakota Sioux, who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ...
, which was established by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
Just months before those states were admitted to the
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
in November 1889, Congress had passed an act which partitioned the Great Sioux Reservation into five smaller reservations,.
Tribal leaders such as
John Grass
John Grass, Matȟó Watȟákpe or Charging Bear (1836–May 10, 1918) was a chief of the Sihasapa (Blackfeet) band of Lakota people during the 1870s through 1890s.Merkel, Diane and Dietmar Schulte-Möhring"John Grass."''American Tribes.'' 2009 ( ...
,
Gall, and
Sitting Bull opposed the bill, which created the following five reservations:
*
Standing Rock Reservation with its agency at
Fort Yates
Yates is a city in Sioux County, North Dakota, United States. It is the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and county seat of Sioux County. Since 1970 the population has declined markedly from more than 1,100 residents, as peo ...
;
*
Cheyenne River Reservation
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey ...
, with its agency on the Missouri River near the Cheyenne River confluence (later moved to
Eagle Butte following the construction of
Oahe Dam
The Oahe Dam is a large earthen dam on the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota, United States. The dam creates Lake Oahe, the fourth-largest man-made reservoir in the United States. The reservoir stretches up the course of the Mi ...
);
*
Lower Brule Indian Reservation
The Lower Brulé Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation that belongs to the Lower Brulé Lakota Tribe. It is located on the west bank of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley counties in central South Dakota in the United States. It i ...
, with its agency near
Fort Thompson;
*
Rosebud Indian Reservation
The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who are Sicangu, a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name ''Sicangu Oyate'' translates as ...
, with its agency near
Mission, South Dakota
Mission is a city on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in northern Todd County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,156 at the 2020 census.
Mission is home of the Sinte Gleska University. It is the largest incorporated community in ...
; and
*
Pine Ridge Reservation (
Oglala Lakota), with its agency at
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Pine Ridge (Lakota: ''wazíbló'') is a census-designated place (CDP) and the most populous community in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,138 at the 2020 census. It is the tribal headquarters of the Oglala ...
near the
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
border.
After the boundaries of these five reservations was established, the government opened up approximately 9 million acres (36,000 km²), one-half of the former Great Sioux Reservation, for public purchase for ranching and homesteading.
Much of the area was not homesteaded until the 1910s, after the
Enlarged Homestead Act increased allocations to for "semi-arid land".
Boarding schools
Besides the loss of land, the Dawes Act would also "outlawed Native American culture and established a code of Indian offenses regulating individual behavior according to Euro-American norms of conduct." Any violations of this code were to be "tried in a Court of Indian Offenses on each reservation." Included with the Dawes Act were "funds to instruct Native Americans in Euro-American patterns of thought and behavior through Indian Service schools" which forced many of the tribes into sending their children to
boarding schools
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
.
Boarding schools were intended to "kill the Indian to save the man", which meant the destruction of Dakota and Lakota societies: children were taken away from their families, their traditional culture and kinship roles.
They were dressed in Eurocentric clothing, given English names, had their hair cut and were forbidden to speak their languages.
Their religions and ceremonies were also outlawed and forbidden.
The goal was to teach academic studies in English, vocational skills suited to Euro-American society such as farming in order to replace traditional lifeways.
These schools were overcrowded and had poor sanitary conditions, which led to infectious diseases and students running away or dying while at the schools.
The schools achieved mixed outcomes of traumatic experiences for many while others such as
Charles Eastman
Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 – January 8, 1939) was an American physician, writer, and social reformer. He was the first Native American to be certified in Western medicine and was "one of the most prolific authors and speaker ...
,
Ella Cara Deloria
Ella Cara Deloria (January 31, 1889 – February 12, 1971), also called ''Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ'' (Beautiful Day Woman), was a Yankton Dakota (Sioux) educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and novelist. She recorded Native American ...
,
Luther Standing Bear
Luther Standing Bear (Óta Kté or "Plenty Kill," also known as Matȟó Nážiŋ or "Standing Bear", 1868 - 1939) was a Sicangu and Oglala Lakota author, educator, philosopher, and actor. He worked to preserve Lakota culture and sovereignty, and ...
and
Zitkala-Sa
Zitkala-Ša (Lakota: Zitkála-Šá, meaning Red Bird; February 22, 1876 – January 26, 1938), also known by her missionary and married name, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Yankton Dakota writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and polit ...
were able to use the education to their advantage to help their people.
1930s–1960s: Reorganization Act and Relocation Act
The
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) sought to overturn many of the policies of the Dawes Act by reversing the traditional goal of cultural assimilation of the tribes into American society. The IRA "ended land allotment, prohibited non-consensual land seizure, recognized tribal governments, encouraged the writing of tribal constitutions, and empowered Native people to manage their own resources".
Between 1934 and 1945, the tribes would vote on their government constitutions. The
Yankton Sioux Tribe
The Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is a federally recognized tribe of Yankton Western Dakota people, located in South Dakota. Their Dakota name is Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate, meaning "People of the End Village" which comes from the pe ...
is the only tribe in South Dakota that did not comply with the IRA and chose to keep its traditional government, whose constitution was ratified in 1891.
The
Spirit Lake Tribe
The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: ''Mniwakaƞ Oyate'', also spelt as ''Mni Wakan Oyate'', formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux Tribe) is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central Nort ...
and
Standing Rock Tribe would also vote against the IRA.
Because their constitution are not written under the authority of the IRA, they had to established tribal corporations which are managed separately from the tribal government in order to apply for loans.
In Minnesota, the IRA recognized the Dakota tribes as communities, allowing them to reestablish their reservations and to repurchase land lost during the
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...
. The Lower Sioux and Prairie Island reservations formed constitutions in 1936, the Upper Sioux formed as a community in 1938 and wrote a constitution in 1995, and the Shakopee Mdewakanton officially formed an IRA government in 1969.
Despite the IRA giving more land rights to the tribes, the federal government seized thousands of acres of land through the
Flood Control Act of 1944
The Pick-Sloan Flood Control Act of 1944 (P.L. 78–534), enacted in the 2nd session of the 78th Congress, is U.S. legislation that authorized the construction of numerous dams and modifications to previously existing dams, as well as levees acros ...
by creating the
Oahe Dam
The Oahe Dam is a large earthen dam on the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota, United States. The dam creates Lake Oahe, the fourth-largest man-made reservoir in the United States. The reservoir stretches up the course of the Mi ...
. As a result of the dam's construction the
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewe ...
lost bringing it down to today.
Standing Rock Reservation lost leaving it with . Much of the land was taken by eminent domain claims made by the Bureau of Reclamation. Over and above the
land loss
Land loss is the term typically used to refer to the conversion of coastal land to open water by natural processes and human activities. The term ''land loss'' includes coastal erosion. It is a much broader term than coastal erosion because land l ...
, most of the reservations' prime agricultural land was included in the loss. Most of the land was unable to be harvested (to allow the trees to be cut down for wood) before the land was flooded over with water. One visitor to the reservations later asked why there were so few older Indians on the reservations and was told that "the old people had died of heartache" after the construction of the dam and the loss of the reservations' land.
As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.
The
Indian Relocation Act of 1956
The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 (also known as Public Law 959 or the Adult Vocational Training Program) was a United States law intended to create a "a program of vocational training" for Native Americans in the United States. Critics charact ...
encouraged many tribal members to leave their reservations for urban areas. Some tribes had a dramatic loss of population: the
Yankton Sioux Tribe
The Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is a federally recognized tribe of Yankton Western Dakota people, located in South Dakota. Their Dakota name is Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate, meaning "People of the End Village" which comes from the pe ...
would fall to only 1,000 members living on the reservation in the 1950s; the
Santee Sioux Reservation
The Santee Sioux Reservation ( dak, Isáŋyathi) of the Santee Sioux (also known as the Eastern Dakota) was established in 1863 in present-day Nebraska. The tribal seat of government is located in Niobrara, Nebraska, with reservation lands in K ...
would lose 60 percent of its population (by 1962, only 2,999, mostly elderly people remained).
Roosevelt's
New Deal and Johnson's
War on poverty
The war on poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national ...
would bring new schools, roads, health clinics and new housing to the reservations.
1970s: Wounded Knee incident
:
Conflicting political values from "traditionalists" against the new form of government promoted through the
Indian Reorganization Act would create long-lasting tensions on the reservations.
The accusations of corruption by tribal leaders would lead to the
Wounded Knee incident
The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota (sometimes referred to as Oglala Sioux) and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupie ...
which began on February 27, 1973, when the town of
Wounded Knee, South Dakota
Wounded Knee ( lkt, Čaŋkpé Opí) is a census-designated place (CDP) on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 364 at the 2020 census.
The town is named for the Wounded Knee Cr ...
was seized by followers of the
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police br ...
(AIM). The occupiers controlled the town for 71 days while various state and federal law enforcement agencies such as the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
and the
United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforc ...
laid siege.
The members of AIM were protesting what they said was the local corrupt government, along with federal issues affecting Indian reservation communities, as well as the lack of justice from border counties. Native Americans from many other communities, primarily urban areas, mobilized to come and join the occupation. The FBI dispatched agents and
US Marshals
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
to cordon off the site. Later a higher-ranking DOJ representative took control of the government's response. Through the resulting siege that lasted for 71 days, twelve people were wounded, including an FBI agent left paralyzed. In April at least two people died of gunfire, after which the Oglala Lakota called an end to the occupation). Additionally, two other people, one of them an African American civil rights activist,
Ray Robinson, went missing, and are believed to have been killed during the occupation, though their bodies have never been found.
Afterward, 1200 American Indians were arrested. Wounded Knee drew international attention to the plight of American Indians and AIM leaders were tried in a Minnesota federal court. The court dismissed their case on the basis of governmental prosecutorial misconduct. However,
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and militant member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who, following a controversial trial, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two Fe ...
was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
1980s–present: Self-determination
After the Wounded Knee Incident, the Dakota and Lakota would continue to push for their tribal rights and
self-determination.
Black Hills Land claims
:
The Sioux never accepted the legitimacy of the forced deprivation of their Black Hills reservation. Throughout the 1920s–1950s, they would push their
Black Hills land claim into federal court. After 60 years of litigation in the Court of Claims, the Indian Claims Commission, the U.S. Congress, the Supreme Court heard the case in 1980 and ruled that the federal government had illegally taken the Black Hills and awarded more than $100 million in reparations to the tribes. Stating that the land was never for sale, the tribes have refused to accept the money which is now over one billion dollars.
Republic of Lakotah
:
After the Wounded Knee Incident in 1973, the
International Indian Treaty Council
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific working for the Sovereignty and Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition ...
was formed to support grassroots Indigenous struggles for human rights, self-determination and environmental justice through information dissemination, networking, coalition building, advocacy and technical assistance. This would influence the creation of the
Republic of Lakotah
The Republic of Lakotah or Lakotah is a List of active separatist movements in North America#United States, proposed independent republic in North America for the Lakota people. Proposed in 2007 by activist Russell Means, the suggested territo ...
in 2007. The Lakota Freedom Delegation, a group of controversial Native American activists, declared on December 19, 2007, the Lakota were withdrawing from all treaties signed with the United States to regain sovereignty over their nation. One of the activists,
Russell Means
Russell Charles Means (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012) was an Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of Native Americans, libertarian political activist, actor, musician, and writer. He became a prominent member of the American In ...
, claimed that the action is legal and cites
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
,
international
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
and
US law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as va ...
. The group considers Lakota to be a
sovereign nation
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...
, although as yet the state is
generally unrecognized. The proposed borders reclaim thousands of square kilometres of North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana. Not all leaders of the Lakota Tribal Governments support or recognize the declaration.
Foster care system
Throughout the decades, thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to
boarding schools
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
with a primary objective of assimilating Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture, while at the same time providing a basic education in Euro-American subject matters. Many children lost knowledge of their culture and languages, as well as faced physical and sexual abuse at these schools. In 1978, the government tried to put an end to these boarding schools (and placement into foster families) with the
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which says except in the rarest circumstances, Native American children must be placed with their relatives or tribes. It also says states must do everything it can to keep native families together.
In 2011, the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
made national news when
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's investigative series called ''Lost Children, Shattered Families'' aired.
It exposed what many critics consider to be the "kidnapping" of Lakota children from their homes by the state of South Dakota's Department of Social Services.
The NPR investigation found South Dakota has the most cases which fail to abide by the ICWA. In South Dakota, Native American children make up less than 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half of the children in foster care.
The state receives thousands of dollars from the federal government for every child it takes from a family, and in some cases, the state gets even more money if the child is Native American.
Lakota activists Madonna Thunder Hawk and
Chase Iron Eyes
Chase Iron Eyes (born March 6, 1978) is a Native American activist, attorney, politician, and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He is a member of the Lakota People's Law Project and a co-founder of the Native American news website ''Last Re ...
worked with the Lakota People's Law Project as they sought to end what they claimed were unlawful seizures of Native American Lakota children in South Dakota and to stop the state practice of placing these children in non-Native homes.
They are currently working to redirect federal funding away from the state of South Dakota's Department of Social Systems to a new tribal foster care programs.
In 2015, in response to the investigative reports by NPR, the Lakota People's Law Project as well as the coalition of all nine Lakota/Dakota reservations in South Dakota, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs updated the ICWA guidelines to give more strength to tribes to intervene on behalf of the children, stating, "The updated guidelines establish that an Indian child, parent or Indian custodian, or tribe may petition to invalidate an action if the Act or guidelines have been violated, regardless of which party’s rights were violated. This approach promotes compliance with ICWA and reflects that ICWA is intended to protect the rights of each of these parties."
The new guidelines also not only prevent courts from taking children away based on socioeconomic status but give a strict definition of what is to be considered harmful living conditions.
Previously, the state of South Dakota used "being poor" as harmful.
Protest against the Dakota Access oil pipeline
![Poisoning water is genocide - Stand with Standing Rock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Poisoning_water_is_genocide_-_Stand_with_Standing_Rock.jpg)
In the summer of 2016, Sioux Indians and the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic " Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaks ...
began a protest against construction of the
Dakota Access oil pipeline, also known as the Bakken pipeline, which, if completed, is designed to carry
hydrofracked crude oil from the
Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to the oil storage and transfer hub of
Patoka, Illinois
Patoka is a town in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 584 at the 2010 census.
History
The village was named after a local Native American chieftain.
Patoka is a town created in the 1860s United States.
Geography
Pat ...
. The
pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
travels only half a mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and is designed to pass underneath the
Missouri River and upstream of the reservation, causing many concerns over the tribe's drinking water safety, environmental protection, and harmful impacts on culture. The pipeline company claims that the pipeline will provide jobs, reduce American dependence on foreign oil and reduce the price of gas.
The conflict sparked a nationwide debate and much news media coverage. Thousands of indigenous and non-indigenous supporters joined the protest, and several camp sites were set up south of the construction zone. The protest was peaceful, and alcohol, drugs and firearms were not allowed at the campsite or the protest site. On August 23, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe released a list of 87 tribal governments who wrote resolutions, proclamations and letters of support stating their solidarity with Standing Rock and the Sioux people. Since then, many more Native American organizations, environmental groups and civil rights groups have joined the effort in North Dakota, including the
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
movement, Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders, the 2016
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
presidential candidate
Jill Stein
Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...
and her running mate
Ajamu Baraka, and many more. ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called it a "National movement for Native Americans."
Return of Artifacts
In November 2022, 150 sacred artifacts are repatriated to the Lakota Sioux peoples.
They were stored for more than a century at the Founders Museum in Barre, Massachusetts.
However, these are just a small fraction of circa 870,000 Native American artifacts (including nearly 110,000 human remains) that are still at prestigious colleges, museums and the federal government.
Language
![Chief Bone Necklace-Oglala Lakota-1899 Heyn Photo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Chief_Bone_Necklace-Oglala_Lakota-1899_Heyn_Photo.jpg)
The Sioux comprise three closely related language groups:
#
Eastern Dakota
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided in ...
(also known as Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta)
#* Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute)
#* Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ)
#
Western Dakota (or Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta)
#* Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ)
#* Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna)
#
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
(or Lakȟóta, Teton, Teton Sioux)
The earlier linguistic three-way division of the Sioux language identified ''Lakota'', ''Dakota'', and ''Nakota'' as
varieties
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee-Sisseton and Nakota = Yankton-Yanktonai.
However, the latest studies
show that Yankton-Yanktonai never used the autonym ''Nakhóta'', but pronounced their name roughly the same as the Santee (i.e. ''Dakȟóta'').
These later studies identify Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages, with Sioux being the third language. Sioux has three similar dialects: Lakota, Western Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai) and Eastern Dakota (Santee-Sisseton). Assiniboine and Stoney speakers refer to themselves as ''Nakhóta'' or ''Nakhóda''
(cf.
Nakota
Nakota (or Nakoda or Nakona) is the endonym used by those ''Assiniboine'' Indigenous people in the US, and by the Stoney People, in Canada.
The Assiniboine branched off from the Great Sioux Nation (aka the ''Oceti Sakowin'') long ago and moved f ...
).
The term ''Dakota'' has also been applied by
anthropologists
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
and governmental departments to refer to all Sioux groups, resulting in names such as ''Teton Dakota'', ''Santee Dakota'', etc. This was mainly because of the misrepresented translation of the Ottawa word from which ''Sioux'' is derived.
Ethnic and modern geographical divisions
![Keeble's family at MOH ceremony](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Keeble%27s_family_at_MOH_ceremony.jpg)
The Sioux are divided into three ethnic groups, the larger of which are divided into sub-groups, and further branched into bands. The earliest known European record of the Sioux identified them in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
After the introduction of the horse in the early 18th century, the Sioux dominated larger areas of land—from present-day Central Canada to the
Platte River
The Platte River () is a major river in the State of Nebraska. It is about long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itsel ...
, from Minnesota to the
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains a ...
, including the
Powder River country.
The Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and communities in North America: in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana in the United States; and in
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
, and southern
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
and in Canada. Today, many Sioux also live outside their reservations.
Isáŋyathi (Santee or Eastern Dakota)
In the past, they were a
Woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
people who thrived on hunting, fishing and farming.
Migrations of
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, with muskets supplied by the French and British, pushed the Dakota further into Minnesota and west and southward. The US gave the name "Dakota Territory" to the northern expanse west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
and up to its headwaters.
Today, the Santee live on reservations, reserves, and communities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada. However, after the Dakota war of 1862 many Santee were sent to
Crow Creek Indian Reservation
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá okášpe, '' lkt, Kȟaŋğí Wakpá Oyáŋke''), home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá oyáte) is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank ...
and in 1864 some from the Crow Creek Reservation were sent to the
Santee Sioux Reservation
The Santee Sioux Reservation ( dak, Isáŋyathi) of the Santee Sioux (also known as the Eastern Dakota) was established in 1863 in present-day Nebraska. The tribal seat of government is located in Niobrara, Nebraska, with reservation lands in K ...
.
* Santee division (Eastern Dakota) (''Isáŋyathi'')
**
Mdewakanton
The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan (also spelled ''Mdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'' and currently pronounced ''Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'') are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota ( Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake (Dakota: ''Mde W ...
wan (''Bdewékhaŋthuŋwaŋ'' "Spirit Lake Village")
**: notable persons:
Little Crow
Little Crow III (Dakota: ''Thaóyate Dúta''; 1810 – July 3, 1863) was a Mdewakanton Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862.
In 1846, after surviving a violent leadership contest ...
** Sisseton (''Sisíthuŋwaŋ'', perhaps meaning "Fishing Grounds Village")
** Wahpekute (''Waȟpékhute'', "Leaf Archers")
**: notable persons:
Inkpaduta
Inkpaduta (Dakota: Iŋkpáduta, variously translated as "Red End," "Red Cap," or "Scarlet Point") (about 17971881) was a war chief of the Wahpekute band of the Dakota (Eastern or Santee Dakota) during the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre and later West ...
** Wahpetonwan (''Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ'', "Leaf Village")
**: notable persons:
Charles Eastman
Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 – January 8, 1939) was an American physician, writer, and social reformer. He was the first Native American to be certified in Western medicine and was "one of the most prolific authors and speaker ...
(Ohiyesa)
Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (Yankton-Yanktonai or Western Dakota)
The Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, also known by the
anglicize
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...
d spelling Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ: "End village") and Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna: "Little end village") divisions consist of two bands or two of the seven council fires. According to ''Nasunatanka'' and ''Matononpa'' in 1880, the Yanktonai are divided into two sub-groups known as the Upper Yanktonai and the Lower Yanktonai (Hunkpatina).
Today, most of the Yanktons live on the
Yankton Indian Reservation
The Yankton Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of the Dakota tribe.
The reservation occupies the easternmost 60 percent of Charles Mix County in southeastern South Dakota, United States and abuts the Missouri River a ...
in southeastern South Dakota. Some Yankton live on the
Lower Brule Indian Reservation
The Lower Brulé Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation that belongs to the Lower Brulé Lakota Tribe. It is located on the west bank of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley counties in central South Dakota in the United States. It i ...
and
Crow Creek Indian Reservation
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá okášpe, '' lkt, Kȟaŋğí Wakpá Oyáŋke''), home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá oyáte) is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank ...
. The Yanktonai are divided into Lower Yanktonai, who occupy the Crow Creek Reservation; and Upper Yanktonai, who live in the northern part of
Standing Rock Indian Reservation, on the
Spirit Lake Tribe
The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: ''Mniwakaƞ Oyate'', also spelt as ''Mni Wakan Oyate'', formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux Tribe) is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central Nort ...
in central North Dakota, and in the eastern half of the
Fort Peck Indian Reservation
The Fort Peck Indian Reservation ( asb, húdam wįcášta, dak, Waxchį́ca oyáte) is located near Fort Peck, Montana, in the northeast part of the state. It is the home of several federally recognized bands of Assiniboine, Nakota, Lakota, ...
in northeastern Montana. In addition, they reside at several Canadian reserves, including Birdtail, Oak Lake, and Moose Woods.
They were involved in quarrying
pipestone. The Yankton-Yanktonai moved into northern Minnesota. In the 18th century, they were recorded as living in the
Mankato
Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Minnesota, and the 5th-largest outside of the Minnea ...
region of Minnesota.
* Yankton-Yanktonai division (Western Dakota) (''Wičhíyena'')
** Yankton (''Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ'', "End Village")
** Yanktonai (''Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna'', "Little End Village")
*** Upper Yanktonai
*** Unkpatina or Lower Yanktonai
**: notable persons:
Wanata
Wa-na-ta (Dakota: Wánataŋ which translates as ''One who charges'', or ''Charger'') or Waneta was a chief of the Yanktonai, a tribe of the Dakota. Chief Wa-na-ta, also known as Wanata and Wanataan I, was born around 1795. The Yanktonai were lo ...
,
War Eagle
War Eagle is a battle cry, yell, or motto of Auburn University and supporters of Auburn University sports teams, especially the Auburn Tigers football team. War Eagle is a greeting or salutation among the Auburn Family (e.g., students, alumni, f ...
Thítȟuŋwaŋ (Teton or Lakota)
Prior to obtaining horses in the seventeenth century, the Lakȟóta were located near present-day Minnesota. Dominating the northern Great Plains with their light cavalry, the western Sioux quickly expanded their territory to the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
(which they call ''Heska'', "white mountains") by the 1800s.
Their traditional diet includes
bison hunt, and corn. They traditionally acquired corn mostly through trade with the eastern Sioux and their linguistic cousins, the
Mandan
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...
and
Hidatsa
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent ...
along the
Missouri River prior to the reservation era.
The name Teton or Thítȟuŋwaŋ is archaic among the people, who prefer to call themselves Lakȟóta.
Today, the Lakota are the largest and westernmost of the three groups, occupying lands in both
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
.
* Teton division (
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
) (''Thítȟuŋwaŋ'',
perhaps meaning "Dwellers on the Prairie"):
**
Oglála (perhaps meaning "Those Who Scatter Their Own")
**: notable persons:
Crazy Horse,
Red Cloud
Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...
,
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and ...
,
Blue Horse,
Iron Tail
Iron Tail (Oglala Lakota: Siŋté Máza in Standard Lakota Orthography; 1842 – May 29, 1916) was an Oglala Lakota Chief and a star performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Iron Tail was one of the most famous Native American celebrities of the ...
,
Flying Hawk
Flying Hawk (Oglala Lakota: ''Čhetáŋ Kiŋyáŋ'' in Standard Lakota Orthography; also known as Moses Flying Hawk; March 1854 – December 24, 1931) was an Oglala Lakota warrior, historian, educator and philosopher. Flying Hawk's life chron ...
and
Billy Mills
Billy may refer to:
* Billy (name), a name (and list of people with the name)
Animals
* Billy (dog), a dog breed
* Billy (pigeon), awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945
* Billy (pygmy hippo), a pet of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge
* Billy, a young ...
(Olympian)
**
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...
(''Húŋkpapȟa'',
meaning "Those who Camp by the Door" or "Wanderers")
**: notable persons:
Sitting Bull
**
Sihasapa
The Sihásapa or Blackfoot Sioux are a division of the Lakota people, Titonwan, or Teton.
''Sihásapa'' is the Lakota word for "Blackfoot", whereas '' Siksiká'' has the same meaning in the Blackfoot language. As a result, the Sihásapa have ...
(''Sihásapa'', "Blackfoot Sioux,"
not to be confused with the
Algonquian-speaking
Piegan Blackfeet
The Piegan (Blackfoot: ''Piikáni'') are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They were the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai were the oth ...
)
**: notable persons:
John Grass
John Grass, Matȟó Watȟákpe or Charging Bear (1836–May 10, 1918) was a chief of the Sihasapa (Blackfeet) band of Lakota people during the 1870s through 1890s.Merkel, Diane and Dietmar Schulte-Möhring"John Grass."''American Tribes.'' 2009 ( ...
(Matȟó Watȟákpe)
**
Miniconjou
The Miniconjou (Lakota: Mnikowoju, Hokwoju – ‘Plants by the Water’) are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota people, who formerly inhabited an area in western present-day South Dakota from the Black Hills i ...
(''Mnikȟówožu'', "Those who Plant by Water")
**: notable persons:
Lone Horn
Lone Horn (Lakota: Hewáŋžiča, or in historical spelling "Heh-won-ge-chat" or "Ha-wón-je-tah"), also called One Horn (1790 –1877), born in present-day South Dakota, was chief of the Wakpokinyan (Flies Along the Stream) band of the Minne ...
,
Touch the Clouds
Touch the Clouds ( Lakota: Maȟpíya Ičáȟtagya or Maȟpíya Íyapat'o) (c. 1838 – September 5, 1905) was a chief of the '' Minneconjou'' Teton Lakota (also known as Sioux) known for his bravery and skill in battle, physical strength and ...
**
Brulé
The Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands (sometimes called "sub-tribes") of the Teton (Titonwan) Lakota American Indian people. They are known as Sičhą́ǧu Oyáte (in Lakȟóta) —Sicangu Oyate—, ''Sicangu Lakota, o''r "Burnt ...
(
French translation of ''Sičháŋǧu'', "Burned Thigh")
**: notable persons:
Spotted Tail
Spotted Tail (Siŋté Glešká pronounced ''gleh-shka''; birth name T'at'aŋka Napsíca "Jumping Buffalo"Ingham (2013) uses 'c' to represent 'č'. ); born c. 1823 – died August 5, 1881) was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warr ...
**
Sans Arc
The Sans Arc, or Itázipčho (''Itazipcola'', ''Hazipco'' - ‘Those who hunt without bows’) in Lakota, are a subdivision of the Lakota people. Sans Arc is the French translation of the Lakota name which means, "Without bows." The translator ...
(French translation of ''Itázipčho'', "Those Without Bows")
**: notable persons:
Black Hawk (Čhetáŋ Sápa')
**
Two Kettles
Two Kettles ("Two Boilings" or "Two Kettles") are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). They reside on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.
Together ...
(''Oóhenuŋpa'', "Two Boilings")
**: notable persons:
Eagle Woman That All Look At (Waŋblí Ayútepiwiŋ)
Reservations and reserves
![Sioux01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Sioux01.png)
In the late 19th century, railroads wanted to build tracks through Indian lands. The railroad companies hired hunters to exterminate the bison herds, the Plains Indians' primary food supply. The Dakota and Lakota were forced to accept US-defined reservations in exchange for the rest of their lands and farming and ranching of domestic cattle, as opposed to a nomadic, hunting economy. During the first years of the
Reservation Era, the Sioux people depended upon annual federal payments guaranteed by treaty for survival.
In Minnesota, the treaties of
Traverse des Sioux
Traverse des Sioux is a historic site in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Once part of a pre-industrial trade route, it is preserved to commemorate that route, a busy river crossing on it, and a nineteenth-century settlement, trading post, and missio ...
and
Mendota in 1851 left the Dakota with a reservation wide on each side of the Minnesota River.
Today, half of all enrolled Sioux in the United States live off
reservation. Enrolled members in any of the Sioux tribes in the United States are required to have ancestry that is at least
1/4 degree Sioux (the equivalent to one grandparent).
In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
. The land holdings of these First Nations are called
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty,
that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band."
In ...
s.
* Reserves shared with other First Nations
Notable Sioux
Historical
Contemporary
![MSgt Woodrow Wilson Keeble](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/MSgt_Woodrow_Wilson_Keeble.jpg)
Contemporary Sioux people are listed under the tribes to which they belong.
*
:Sioux people
*
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
:*
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...
:*
Oglala
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...
:*
Sicangu
*
Dakota people
:*
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation ( dak, Sisíthuŋwaŋ Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ oyáte), formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two subdivisions of the '' ...
of the
Lake Traverse Indian Reservation
The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is the homeland of the federally recognized Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. Most of the reservation covers parts of five counties in northeastern South Dakota ...
By individual tribe
*
*
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation
*
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation
*
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ( dak, Wakpa Ipakṡaƞ oyáte) are a federally recognized tribe of Santee Dakota people. Their reservation is the Flandreau Indian Reservation. The tribe are members of the Mdewakantonwan people, one of the sub-tr ...
*
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation
*
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation
*
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) (Dakota: ''Bdemayaṭo Oyate'') is a federally recognized, sovereign Indian tribe of Mdewakanton Dakota people, located southwest of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, within parts of the cities of Prior ...
*
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation ( dak, Sisíthuŋwaŋ Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ oyáte), formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two subdivisions of the '' ...
*
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota
*
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
*
Spirit Lake Dakota Tribe
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
In the Shadow of Wounded Knee August 2012
National Geographic (magazine) wit
Reservation map history
External links
Official
{{Authority control
Plains tribes
*
Native American tribes
First Nations
Native American history of Iowa
Native American history of Minnesota
Native American history of Montana
Native American history of Nebraska
Native American history of South Dakota
Native American history of North Dakota
Native American tribes in Iowa
Native American tribes in Minnesota
Native American tribes in Montana
Native American tribes in Nebraska
Native American tribes in South Dakota
Native American tribes in North Dakota
First Nations in Manitoba
First Nations in Saskatchewan
Native American tribes in Wyoming
Articles containing video clips