From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sioux
Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man, circa 1885
Total population
150,000+ [1][2]
Regions with significant populations
United States of America (SD, MN, NE, MT, ND), Canada (MB, SK, AB)
Language(s)
English, Sioux
Religion(s)
Christianity (incl. syncretistic forms), Midewiwin
Related ethnic groups
Assiniboine, Stoney (Nakoda), and other Siouan peoples

The Sioux (pronounced /ˈsuː/) are a Native American and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on dialect and subculture:

• Isanti ("Knife," originating from the name of a lake in present-day Minnesota): residing in the extreme east of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and northern Iowa, and are often referred to as the Santee or Dakota.

• Ihanktowan-Ihanktowana ("Village-at-the-end" and "little village-at-the-end"): residing in the Minnesota River area, they are considered to be the middle Sioux, and are often referred to as the Yankton or Nakota.

• Teton or Tetonwan (uncertain, perhaps "Dwellers on the Prairie"): the westernmost Sioux, known for their hunting and warrior culture, and are often referred to as the Lakota.

Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and also in Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada.

The historical Sioux referred to the Great Sioux Nation as the Oceti Sakowin (Očhéti Šakówį [oˈtʃʰetʰi ʃaˈkʰowĩ]), meaning "Seven Council Fires". Each fire was symbolic of an oyate (people or nation). The seven nations that comprise the Sioux are: Mdewakanton, Wahpetowan (Wahpeton), Wahpekute, Sissetowan (Sisseton), the Ihantowan (Yankton), Ihanktowana (Yanktonai), and the Teton (Lakota).^[3] The Seven Council Fires would assemble each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, and participate in the Sun Dance.^[4] The seven divisions would select four leaders known as Wicasa Yatapicka from among the leaders of each division.^[4] Being one of the four leaders was considered the highest honor for a leader; however, the once-a-year 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.^[4]

Today the Teton, Isanti, or Ihantowan/Ihanktowana are usually known as either the Lakota, Dakota, or Nakota respectively.^[3] In any of the three main dialects, "Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota" all translate to mean "friend," or more properly, "ally." Usage of Lakota, Dakota, or Nakota may then refer to the alliance that once bound the Great Sioux Nation together.

The historical political organization was based on the participation of individuals and the cooperation of many to sustain the tribe’s way of life. Leaders were chosen based upon noble birth and demonstrations of bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom.^[4]

Political leaders were members of the Naca Ominicia society and decided matters of tribal hunts, camp movements, whether to make war or peace with their neighbors, or any other community action.^[5] Societies were similar to fraternities; men joined to raise their position in the tribe. Societies were composed of smaller clans and varied in number among the seven divisions.^[4] There were two types of societies: Akicita, for the younger men, and Naca, for elders and former leaders.^[4]

Akicita ("warrior") societies existed to train warriors, hunters, and to police the community.^[5] There were many smaller Akicita societies, including the Kit-Fox, Strong Heart, Elk, and so on.^[5]

Leaders in the Naca societies, per Naca Ominicia, were the tribal elders and leaders, who would elect seven to ten men, depending on the division, each referred to as Wicasa Itancan ("chief man"). Each Wicasa Itancan interpreted and enforced the decisions of the Naca.^[5]

The Wicasa Itancan would elect two to four Shirt Wearers who were the voice of the society. They settled quarrels among families and also foreign nations.^[4] Shirt Wearers were often young men from families with hereditary claims of leadership. However, men with obscure parents who displayed outstanding leaderships skills and had earned the respect of the community might also be elected. Crazy Horse is an example of a common-born "Shirt Wearer".^[4]

A Wakincuza ("Pipe Holder") ranked below the "Shirt Wearers". The Pipe Holders regulated peace ceremonies, selected camp locations, and supervised the Akicita societies during buffalo hunts.^[5]

Wahktageli ("Coward Warrior"), a Yankton Sioux chief (Karl Bodmer)

Funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief (Karl Bodmer)

Horse racing of the Sioux (Karl Bodmer)

The name "Sioux" is an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux borrowed into French Canadian from Nadoüessioüak from the early Odawa exonym: naadowesiwag "Sioux".^[6] It was first used by Jean Nicolet in 1640.^[3] The Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa, meaning "Northern Iroquoian", has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (massasauga, Sistrurus).^[7] This information was interpreted by some that the Ottawa borrowing was an insult. However, this Proto-Algonquian term most likely is ultimately was derived from a form *-a·towe·, meaning simply "speak foreign language",^[6] which was later extended in meaning in some Algonquian languages to refer to the massasauga. Thus, contrary to many accounts, the old Odawa word naadowesiwag never equated the Sioux with snakes. This is not confirmed though, as usage over the previous decades has led to this term having negative connotations to those tribes to which it refers. This would explain why many tribes have rejected this term when referring to themselves.

Some of the tribes have formally or informally adopted traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is also known as the Sicangu Oyate, and the Oglala often use the name Oglala Lakota Oyate, rather than the English "Oglala Sioux Tribe" or OST. (The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered improper).^[3]

Main articles: Siouan languages and Lakota language

The earlier linguistic 3-way division of the Dakotan branch of the Siouan family identified Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota as dialects of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee and Yankton, Nakota = Yanktonai & Assiniboine. This classification was based in large part on each group's particular pronunciation of the autonym Dakhóta-Lakhóta-Nakhóta, meaning the Yankton-Yanktonai, Santee, and Teton groups all spoke mutually intelligible varieties of a Sioux idiom.^[7] However, more recent study identifies Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages with Sioux being the third language that has three similar dialects: Teton, Santee-Sisseton, Yankton-Yanktonai. Furthermore, the Yankton-Yanktonai never referred to themselves using the pronunciation Nak^hóta but rather pronounced it the same as the Santee (i.e. Dak^hóta). (Assiniboine and Stoney speakers use the pronunciation Nak^hóta or Nak^hóda).

The term Dakota has also been applied by anthropologists and governmental departments to refer to all Sioux groups, resulting in names such as Teton Dakota, Santee Dakota, etc. This was due in large part to the misrepresented translation of the Ottawa word from which Sioux is derived (supposedly meaning "snake", see above).^[4]

The Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and communities in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and also in Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada.

The earliest known European record of the Sioux was in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.^[7] Furthermore, after the introduction of the horse, the Sioux dominated larger areas of land—from present day Canada to the Platte River, from Minnesota to the Yellowstone River, including the Black Hills and the Powder River country.^[5]

The Istanti people migrated north and westward from the south and east into Ohio then to Minnesota. In the past, they were a woodland people who thrived on hunting, fishing and subsistence farming. Migrations of Anishinaabe/Chippewa (Ojibwa) people 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, giving the name "Dakota Territory" to the northern expanse west of the Mississippi and up to its headwaters.^[7]

The Ihanktowan-Ihanktowana, or the Yankton ("campers at the end") and Yanktonai ("lesser campers at the end") 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).^[7]

Economically, they were involved in quarrying pipestone. The Yankton-Yanktonai moved into northern Minnesota. In the 1700s, they were recorded as living in the Mankato region of Minnesota.^[8]

Main article: Lakota people

The Sioux likely obtained horses sometime during the seventeenth century (although some historians date the arrival of horses in South Dakota to 1720). The Teton (Lakota) division of the Sioux emerged as a result of this introduction. Dominating the northern Great Plains with their light calvary, the western Sioux expanded their territory further west to the Rockies (or Heska, "white mountains"). The Lakota once subsided on the buffalo hunt and corn-trade with their linguistic cousins, the eastern Sioux, the Mandan and Hidatsa along the Missouri.^[7]

The Sioux are divided into three ethnic groups, the larger of which are divided into sub-groups, and further branched into bands. The Yankton-Yanktonai, the smallest division, reside on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota and the Northern portion of Standing Rock Reservation, while the Santee live mostly in Minnesota and Nebraska, but include bands in the Sisseton-Wahpeton, Flandreau, and Crow Creek Reservations in South Dakota. The Lakota are the westernmost of the three groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota.

• Santee division (Dakota)
  • Mdewakantonwan ("Spirit Lake Village")

    notable persons: Taoyateduta

  • Sisitonwan (Sisseton, uncertain, perhaps "Fishing Grounds Village")
  • Wahpekute ("Leaf Archers")

    notable persons: Inkpaduta

  • Wahpetonwan ("Leaf Village")

• Yankton-Yanktonai division (Nakota)
  • Ihanktonwan (Yankton, "End Village")
  • Ihanktonwana (Yanktonai, "Little End Village")

    notable persons: Wanata, Chief War Eagle

  • Stone sub-division (Nakoda)
    • Assiniboine
    • Stoney

• Titonwan/Teton division (Lakota) (Uncertain, perhaps "Dwellers on the Prairie"):
  • Oglala (Uncertain, perhaps "Those Who Scatter Their Own")

    notable persons: Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk and Billy Mills (Olympian)

  • Hunkpapa (meaning "Those who Camp by the Door" or "Wanderers")

    notable persons: Sitting Bull

  • Sihasapa (not to confuse with the Algonquian-speaking Blackfeet)
  • Minniconjou ("Those who Plant by the Stream")

    notable persons: Lone Horn, Touch the Clouds

  • Sićangu (French: Brulé) ("Burnt Thighs")
  • Itazipacola (French: Sans Arcs "Without Bows")
  • Oohenonpa ("Two Kettles" or "Two Boilings")

Today, one half of all enrolled Sioux in the United States live off the reservation. Also, to be an enrolled member in any of the Sioux tribes in the United States, 1/4 degree is require.^[9]

In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as "First Nations." The land-holdings of the these First Nations are called "Reserves".

^[3]

* Reserves shared with other First Nations

Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants,^[10] who 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 Dakota were thus lured into the European economic system and the bloody inter-aboriginal warfare that stemmed from it.

Main article: Dakota War of 1862

This drawing of the mass hanging in Mankato, Minnesota was long a familiar icon in Minnesota.

When 1862 arrived 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 Santee and one trader, Andrew Myrick, went so far as to tell them that they were 'free to eat grass or their own dung'. As a result, on August 17, 1862 the Dakota War of 1862 began when a few Santee men murdered a white farmer and most of his family, igniting further attacks on white settlements along the Minnesota River. The Santee then attacked the trading post, and Myrick was later found among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass.^[11]

On November 5, 1862 in Minnesota, in courts-martial, 303 Santee Sioux were found guilty of rape and murder of hundreds of American settlers and were sentenced to a hanging. No attorneys or witness were allowed as a defense for the accused, and many were convicted in less than five minutes of court time with the judge.^[12] President Abraham Lincoln remanded the death sentence of 284 of the warriors, signing off on the execution of 38 Santee men by hanging on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota, the largest mass-execution in US history.^[13]

Afterwards, annuities to the Dakota were suspended for four years and the monies were awarded to the white victims. The men who were pardoned by President Lincoln were sent to a prison in Iowa, where more than half died.^[12]

During and after the revolt, many Santee and their kin fled Minnesota and Eastern Dakota to Canada, or settled in the James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to Crow Creek Reservation on the east bank of the Missouri.^[12] A few joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military.^[12]

Others were able to remain in Minnesota and the east, in small reservations existing into the 21st century, including Sisseton-Wahpeton, Flandreau, and Devils Lake (Spirit Lake or Fort Totten) Reservations in the Dakotas. Some ended up eventually in Nebraska, where the Santee Sioux Tribe today has a reservation on the south bank of the Missouri. Those who fled to Canada now have descendants residing on eight small Dakota Reserves, four of which are located in Manitoba (Sioux Valley, Long Plain [Dakota Tipi], Birdtail Creek, and Oak Lake [Pipestone]) and the remaining four (Standing Buffalo, Moose Woods [White Cap], Round Plain [Wahpeton], and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan.

Main article: Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War) was an armed conflict between the Sioux and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central Wyoming, which lay along the Bozeman Trail, a primary access route to the Montana gold fields.

The war is named after Red Cloud, a prominent chief of Oglala Sioux who led the war against the United States following encroachment into the area by the U.S. military. The war, which ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie, resulted in a complete victory for the Sioux and the temporary preservation of their control of the Powder River country.^[14]

Main article: Black Hills War

Between 1876 and 1877, the Black Hills War took place. The Lakota and their allies fought against the United States military in a series of conflicts. The earliest being the Battle of Powder River, and the final battle being at Wolf Mountain. Included are the Battle of the Rosebud, Battle of the Little Bighorn, Battle of Warbonnet Creek, Battle of Slim Buttes, Battle of Cedar Creek, and the Dull Knife Fight.

Main article: Wounded Knee Massacre

Mass grave for the dead Lakota after massacre of Wounded Knee.

The Battle at Wounded Knee Creek was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota and the United States, subsequently described as a "massacre" by General Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.^[15]

On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, supported by four Hotchkiss guns (a lightweight artillery piece capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of the Lakota bands of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa ^[16] with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to Omaha, Nebraska.

By the time it was over, 25 troopers and more than 150 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children. Some of the soldiers are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" as the shooting took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions.^[17] Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, many of whom may have died from hypothermia.

Usage of the Ghost Dance reportedly instigated the massacre.

Later in the 19th century, as the railroads hired hunters to exterminate the buffalo herds, their primary food supply, in order to force all tribes into sedentary habitations,^{[citation needed]} the Santee and Lakota were forced to accept white-defined reservations in exchange for the rest of their lands, and domestic cattle and corn in exchange for buffalo, becoming dependent upon annual federal payments guaranteed by treaty. In Minnesota, the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 left the Sioux with a reservation twenty miles (32 km) wide on each side of the Minnesota River.

Russell Means, an Oglala Sioux activist, has declared on December 19, 2007 that the Dakota are seceding from the United States to form a new country. Means claims that the action is perfectly legal and sites Constitutional amendments, as well as treaty agreements. [1] He further states that anyone renouncing US citezenship can live tax free in the new state and apply for a passport and drivers license. It is, however, unknown whether or not Means has the authority to make such declarations, considering that he has not been elected president of the Sioux Nation, as he has sought unsuccessfully in the past.

The U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota are named for the Sioux. The name for Minnesota originated as the name of a river in the heart of Isanti territory: Mnisota (mni translates to "water" and sota means "hazy or smoky").

Several Midwestern municipalities utilize Sioux in their names, including Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux Center, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Midwestern rivers include the Little Sioux River in Iowa and Big Sioux River along the Iowa/South Dakota border.

Many smaller towns and geographic features in the Northern Plains retain their Sioux names (some are heavily Anglized) or English translations of those names. These are: Wasta (from "Waste" meaning "good"), Owanka, Oacoma, Rapid City (Mne luza: "cataract" or "rapids"), Sioux Falls/Minnehaha County (Mne haha: "waterfall"), Inyan Kara, Sisseton (derived from the orgiinal tribal name "Sissetowan"), Winona ("first daughter"), etc.

Frontwoman Siouxsie Sioux of the postpunk band Siouxsie and the Banshees also derived her stage name from the "Sioux."

The University of North Dakota's athletic team is known as the "Fighting Sioux." While there is a local desire to retain the historic name, numerous Sioux tribes have issued resolutions asking the University to abolish it.^[18][19]

The name Nebraska comes from the related Chiwere language of the Siouan language family. Furthermore, the names of the states Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri derive from the names of other tribes within the Siouan language family: Kansa, Iowa, and Missouri, respectively. The names of the cities of Omaha, Nebraska and Ponca City, Oklahoma also derive from the Omaha and Ponca tribes. The names vividly demonstrate the wide dispersion of the Siouan language family across the Midwest U.S. Though they are considered part of the Siouan language family, none of these tribes or their languages are considered Sioux.

• The HBO movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee depicts the relocations and reservations from the Sioux perspective.

• The films Dances with Wolves and Thunderheart contain depictions of the Sioux People.

• "Elegy to the Sioux," a poem by Norman Dubie

• The mini-series Into the West depicts the Sioux, specifically the Lakota, during some of first ventures of the "White Man" into the great plains and to the Rocky Mountains.

• Taoyateduta (Little Crow) — Chief famous for role in the Dakota War of 1862
• Tatanka Iyotanke (Sitting Bull) — Chief famous for role in the Battle of Little Bighorn
• Tasunka Witko (Crazy Horse) — Famous for leadership and courage in battle
• Makhpiya-luta (Red Cloud) — Chief famous for role in Red Cloud's War
• Tasunkakokipapi (Young Man Afraid Of His Horses) — Oglala chief who participated in Red Cloud's War
• Ishtakhaba (Sleepy Eye) — Chief of the Sisseton band in the mid 19th century; signed four treaties^[20]
• Hehaka Sapa (Black Elk) — Lakota holy man, source of Black Elk Speaks and other books
• Tahca Ushte (Lame Deer) — Lakota holy man, carried traditional knowledge into modern era
• Ohiyesa Charles Eastman — Author, physician and reformer
• Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington — World War II Fighter Ace and Medal of Honor recipient; 1/4 Sioux
• Wambditanka - Big Eagle - Mdewakanton Dakota chief - Narrated his account of the Dakota War of 1862

• Robert "Tree" Cody, Native American flautist (Dakota)
• Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, activist, academic, and writer
• Mary Crow Dog, writer and activist
• Vine Deloria, Jr., activist and essayist
• Indigenous, blues band (Nakota)
• Illinois Jacquet, jazz saxophonist (half Sioux and half African American)
• Russell Means, activist (Oglala)
• Ed McGaa, author, (Oglala) CPT US Marine Corp F-4 Phantom Fighter Pilot
• Eddie Spears, actor (Lakota Sioux Lower Brule)
• Michael Spears, actor (Lakota Sioux Lower Brule)
• John Trudell, actor
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman, singer and actor (Dakota)
• Leonard Peltier, imprisoned for allegedly killing two FBI agents in 1975

• Albers, Patricia C. (2001). Santee. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 761-776). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-050400-7.
• Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.
• Christafferson, Dennis M. (2001). Sioux, 1930-2000. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 821-839). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Cox, Hank H. (2005). Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House. ISBN 1-58182-457-2.
• DeMallie, Raymond J. (2001a). Sioux until 1850. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 718-760). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• DeMallie, Raymond J. (2001b). Teton. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 794-820). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• DeMallie, Raymond J. (2001c). Yankton and Yanktonai. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 777-793). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• DeMallie, Raymond J.; & Miller, David R. (2001). Assiniboine. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 572-595). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Getty, Ian A. L.; & Gooding, Erik D. (2001). Stoney. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 596-603). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Hein, David (Advent 2002). "Episcopalianism among the Lakota / Dakota Indians of South Dakota." The Historiographer, vol. 40, pp. 14-16. [The Historiographer is a publication of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists.]
• Hein, David (1997). "Christianity and Traditional Lakota / Dakota Spirituality: A Jamesian Interpretation." The McNeese Review, vol. 35, pp. 128-38.
• Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L. (2001). The Siouan languages. In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94-114). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Sullivan, Maurice S.: "Jedediah Smith, Trader and Trail Breaker", New York Press of the Pioneers (1936) contains 'politically incorrect' white man's terminology and stereotypical attitudes toward the 'Indians'.
• Robert M. Utley, "The Last Days of the Sioux Nation" (Yale University, 1963) ISBN 0-300-00245-9

• Great Sioux Nation A general term sometimes applied to a hypothetical state in the western and midwestern United States, which would occupy the following recognized Indian Reservations:

• Lakhota Sioux Heritage Language & Culture Site
• Dakota Blues: The History of The Great Sioux Nation
• The Yanktonai (Edward S. Curtis)
• Lakota Language Consortium
• Winter Counts a Smithsonian exhibit of the annual icon chosen to represent the major event of the past year
• Rosebud Indian Reservation Land of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate
• Dakota Language and Culture Encyclopedia