Horse-mounted Indians, wearing long eagle-feathered warbonnets and fringed leather clothing with colorful beadwork, ride across the grasslands of the Great Plains. They hunt buffalo. They fight the cavalry. They sit in council inside painted tipis, wearing buffalo robes and smoking long-stemmed peace pipes. These images of Indians have been shown to us again and again, in books, movies and television shows about the West. These images, more likely than not, depict the Sioux, more properly referred to by the Native name Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota.
Two of the most famous incidents in Indian and American
history—Custer’s Last Stand (also called the Battle of
Little Bighorn) and Wounded Knee—involved the Sioux.
The numerous Sioux fought many other battles against the
U.S. army on the northern plains. Some of the most
famous Indian fighters in history, such as Red Cloud, Sitting
Bull, and Crazy Horse, were Sioux. And one of the
most famous incidents in recent Indian history occurred
on a Sioux reservation, again at Wounded Knee.
Branches of Sioux
The Sioux are really made up of different groups with
varying histories and customs. In studying the Sioux, the
first challenge is to learn the various names and locations
of the different bands.
Siouan was a widespread Indian language family.
Tribes in many parts of North America spoke Siouan
dialects. The tribal name Sioux, pronounced SUE, is
applied only to a specific division of Siouan-speaking
people, however. The name is derived from the French
version of a CHIPPEWA (OJIBWAY) word in the Algonquian
language. The Chippewa tribe called their enemies
Nadouessioux for “adders,” a kind of snake. The
Sioux also are known collectively (especially in Canada)
as the Dakota (pronounced da-KO-tah), from which has
come the names of two U.S. states, North and South
Dakota. In the Siouan language, Dakota (or Lakota or
Nakota) means “allies.”
There were four ancestral branches of Sioux, with different
bands in each. The largest branch was the Teton
(or Titonwan), with the following bands: (1) Oglala; (2)
Brulé (Sicangu); (3) Hunkpapa; (4)Miniconjou; (5)
Oohenonpa (Two Kettle); (6) Itazipco (Sans Arcs); and
(7) Sihasapa.
A second branch was the Santee, with the following
bands: (1) Sisseton; (2) Wahpeton: (3) Wahpekute; and (4)
Mdewakanton. (The term Santee used historically more
accurately applies to just the Wahpekute and Mdewakan-ton groups, not Sisseton and Wahpeton as well. In any
case, all four are considered distinct dialect groups.)
A third branch was the Yankton (or Ihanktonwan),
with only one band, the Yankton.
A fourth branch was the Yanktonai (or Ihanktonwanna),
with the following bands: (1) Yanktonai; (2)
Hunkpatina; and (3) Assiniboine. The ASSINIBOINE separated
from their relatives and are discussed under their
own entry.
The Teton use the Lakota version of the tribal name;
the Santee say Dakota; and the Yankton and Yanktonai
use Nakota.
The Teton, Yankton, Yanktonai, and four Santee
groups also called themselves the Oceti Sakowin, or“Seven Council Fixes.”
The Sioux originally lived as Woodland Indians along
the upper Mississippi River. It is known from early records
of Jesuit explorers of the 1600s that the Sioux once dominated
territory that now comprises the southern two-thirds
of Minnesota, as well as nearby parts of Wisconsin, Iowa,
North Dakota, and South Dakota. By the mid-1700s,
some Sioux were migrating westward toward and across the
Missouri River. The reason: Their traditional enemies, the
Chippewa, were now armed with French guns, making
warfare with them much more dangerous. Moreover, with
the European demand for furs, game in the Sioux’s prairie
country was becoming scarcer.
The Teton Lakota migrated the farthest west to the
Black Hills region of what is now western South Dakota,
eastern Wyoming, and eastern Montana. They sometimes
also are called the Western Sioux. The Yankton
Nakota settled along the Missouri River in what is now
southeastern South Dakota, as well as in southwestern
Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. The Yanktonai
Nakota settled to their north along the Missouri in what
is now eastern North and South Dakota. The Yankton
and Yanktonai are sometimes referred to together as the
Middle Sioux. The Santee Dakota stayed along the Minnesota
River in what is now Minnesota. They therefore
are referred to as the Eastern Sioux.
Lifeways
The Sioux as a whole are classified as PLAINS INDIANS,
part of the Great Plains Culture Area. But because of
their different locations, the lifeways of the four
branches varied. The Teton acquired horses, followed the
great buffalo herds, and lived in tipis.
The way of life of the Yankton and Yanktonai became
like that of other Missouri River tribes, such as the MANDAN
and HIDATSA, other Siouan-speaking peoples. TheYankton and Yanktonai began using horses in the 1700s
and also hunted buffalo like the Teton, but they lived most
of the time in permanent villages of earth lodges. They also
continued to cultivate crops. As a result, the Yankton and
Yanktonai can also be described as PRAIRIE INDIANS.
The Santee retained many of the cultural traits of the
western Great Lakes Indians. Their culture was something
like that of the WINNEBAGO (HO-CHUNK),
another Siouan-speaking people. They lived in wooded
river valleys and made bark-covered houses. They hunted
buffalo in the tall grassland country of the Mississippi
River. They eventually began to use the horse, but they
did not keep as many mounts as their more westerly relatives
did. The Santee can be thought of as a cross
between Woodland and Prairie peoples.
It should be remembered that the typical way of life
on the Great Plains did not evolve until long after contact
with non-Indians, when Native Americans acquired
the horse. Although most tribes on the plains became
equestrian nomads who lived in tipis year-round, not all
the tribes gave up their villages, their farming, and their
pottery after having acquired horses.
As indicated, of the branches of Sioux, the Teton are
the closest to the Native Americans so prevalent in the
popular imagination. Teton lifeways—tipis, warbonnets,
buffalo robes, medicine bundles, sacred shields, horsemanship,
horse gear, military societies, buffalo-hunting,
sign language, coup-counting, Sun Dances, and Vision
Quests—are summarized under the entry PLAINS INDIANS.
See also PRAIRIE INDIANS to help understand themore sedentary way of life of the Yankton, Yanktonai,
and Santee branches of the Sioux people.
The Sioux Wars
The Sioux, because of their stubborn resistance to non-
Indian expansion, were the most famous of Plains warriors.
The various conflicts involving the Sioux have been given
names by historians (sometimes more than one name).
Nevertheless, the conflicts did not always have distinct
beginnings and endings, but were part of an ongoing pattern
of raids and counterraids lasting from about 1850 to
1890 and collectively known as the Sioux Wars.
The different phases of the Sioux Wars are: the Grattan
Affair in 1854–55; the Minnesota Uprising (or Little
Crow’s War) in 1862–64; the War for the Bozeman Trail
(or Red Cloud’s War) in 1866–68; the War for the Black
Hills (or Sitting Bull’s and Crazy Horse’s War) in
1876–77; and the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.
The Grattan Affair
In 1851, U.S. officials negotiated a treaty at Fort
Laramie in Wyoming with the Sioux and their allies, the
northern branches of CHEYENNE and ARAPAHO, in order
to assure safe passage for travelers along the Oregon
Trail, running from Missouri to Oregon. It only took
three years after the signing of the treaty for violence to
erupt, however.
A party of Mormons traveling west lost one of their
cows, which wandered into a camp of the Brulé band of
Teton Lakota. The Mormons reported to troops at Fort
Laramie that Indians had stolen the cow. In the meantime,a Sioux named High Forehead killed the cow for
food.
Although the Brulé offered to pay for the cow, an overeager
lieutenant from the fort, named John Grattan,
insisted on the arrest of High Forehead and rode to the
Indian camp with a force of about 30 men. When High
Forehead refused to turn himself in, Grattan ordered an
attack. A Brulé chief named Conquering Bear was killed in
the first volley. The Indians counterattacked and wiped out
the detachment. The army sent in more troops. In 1855, at
Blue Water in Nebraska, a force under General William
Harney attacked another Brulé camp and killed 85.
War had been brought to the Sioux. They would not
forget this treatment at the hands of the whites. In fact,
a young warrior of the Oglala band of Teton Lakota—
Crazy Horse—personally witnessed the killing of Conquering
Bear. He would later become one of the most
effective guerrilla fighters in history.
The Minnesota Uprising
Another outbreak of violence involving the Sioux occurred
far to the east, in Minnesota, among the Santee Dakota
bands. The central issue that caused the Minnesota Uprising
(or Little Crow’s War) was land, as more and more
non-Indians settled along the rich farmlands of the Minnesota
River. Some of the young Santee braves wanted war
against the people who were appropriating their land. The
Santee chief Little Crow argued for peace. But young militants
forced the issue by killing five settlers. Little Crow
then helped the other Santee chiefs organize a rebellion.
In August 1862, Santee war parties carried out surprise
raids on settlements and trading posts, killing as
many as 400 people. Little Crow himself led assaults on
Fort Ridgely. The fort’s cannon repelled the Indians,
killing many. Another group of Santee stormed the village
of New Ulm. The settlers drove the attackers away,
but then evacuated the village.
General Henry Sibley led a large force into the field.
At Birch Coulee in September, the warriors attacked an
army burial party, killing 23. But Sibley engaged the
Santee at Wood Lake later that month and routed them
with heavy artillery. Many warriors fled northwestward
into the wilderness, Little Crow among them. Many
others surrendered, claiming innocence in the slaying of
the settlers.
Of those who stayed behind, 303 were sentenced to
be hanged. President Abraham Lincoln took time out
from his concerns with the Civil War to review the trial
records, and he pardoned the large majority. Still, 33
Santee, proclaiming their innocence to the end, werehanged the day after Christmas in 1862, the largest mass
execution in American history.
Of those Santee Dakota that fled, many settled
among Teton Lakota and Yanktonai Nakota in Dakota
Territory (the northern part that was soon to become
North Dakota). General Henry Sibley and General
Alfred Sully engaged Sioux from various bands at Big
Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, and Stoney Lake in 1863,
and at Whitestone Hill and Killdeer Mountain in 1864.
The Santee and the other Sioux who helped them paid a
high price in suffering for their Minnesota Uprising. Little
Crow himself died in 1863 on a horse-stealing expedition
out of Canada into Minnesota. Settlers shot him
and turned in his scalp for the bounty.
The War for the Bozeman Trail
The War for the Bozeman Trail (or Red Cloud’s War) began soon after the Minnesota Uprising ended. Land was again the central issue of this conflict, but it was the mining fever that brought increased traffic to the lands of the Teton Lakota in what is now Montana and Wyoming.
In 1862, after having traveled to Montana’s goldfields,
the explorer John Bozeman followed a direct route
through Teton lands back to the Oregon Trail in
Wyoming rather than travel a longer way around to the
east or west. Other migrants and miners followed along
this new route. The various Teton bands—the Oglala
under Red Cloud, the Hunkpapa under Sitting Bull, and
the Brulé under Spotted Tail—resented the trespassing.So did their allies, the Northern Cheyenne under Dull
Knife and the Northern Arapaho under Black Bear.
In 1865, the Indians began attacking military patrols
and wagon trains as well as other travelers along both the
Bozeman and the Oregon Trails. General Patrick Connor
sent in three different columns that year to punish
the militant bands. Their only success against the elusive
warriors, who attacked swiftly and then disappeared into
the wilderness, was the destruction of a camp of Northern
Arapaho under Black Bear.
Some of the chiefs rode into Fort Laramie in 1866 to
sign a treaty. Red Cloud insisted that no forts be built
along the Bozeman, however. When the army refused to
comply, the chief rode off with his warriors to make
preparations for war.
Troops under Colonel Henry Carrington reinforced
Fort Reno and built two new posts in northern
Wyoming and southern Montana to keep the Bozeman
Trail open. The Indian guerrillas used hit-and-run tactics
to harass the soldiers. Crazy Horse, the young Oglala,
began establishing his reputation as a fearless fighter and
master strategist at this time. In 1866, he used a decoy
tactic to trap an entire cavalry outfit. He had several warriors
attack a woodcutting party and flee. When Captain
William Fetterman led an 80-man cavalry unit after
them, 1,500 concealed warriors attacked them, wiping
them out.
After the Fetterman Fight, the army sent in fresh
troops with new breech-loading rifles. In two battles in
1866, the Hayfield Fight and the Wagon Box Fight, the
Teton lost many warriors to these modern weapons, but
they succeeded in driving the soldiers back to their posts.
The insurgents kept up their raids. The federal government,
realizing the high cost of maintaining the Bozeman
forts, yielded to Red Cloud’s demands. In the Fort Laramie
Treaty of 1868, the government agreed to abandon the
posts if the Indians would cease their raids. When the army
evacuated the region, the Indians celebrated by burning
down the Bozeman forts. The Sioux and their allies had
won this round of warfare on the Great Plains. But the
whites would keep entering their domain. In the meantime,
the southern and central Plains tribes—the
COMANCHE, KIOWA, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern
Arapaho—had forced concessions out of the whites in the
Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867.
The War for the Black Hills
The discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Wyoming
and South Dakota in the year 1874 led to the next phase
of the Sioux Wars: the War for the Black Hills (or SittingCloud and Spotted Tail had settled on reservations. Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse now led the allied hunting
bands that refused to give up the traditional nomadic
way of life. Opposing them were two generals who had
become famous as Union commanders in the Civil War,
General William Tecumseh Sherman, overall commander
of the army, and General Philip Henry Sheridan,
commander of the Division of the Missouri. In the field,
the generals had various officers, including General
George Crook, who had previously fought APACHE and
PAIUTE, and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong
Custer, who had earlier campaigned against the
Cheyenne.
War broke out when the military ordered the hunting
bands onto the reservation. When the bands failed to
report, the army went after them in the winter of 1876.
During that year, some of the most famous battles on the
Great Plains took place. The first three were great Indian
victories. The final five were victories for the army and
brought the resistance of the Sioux, Northern Cheyenne,
and Northern Arapaho to a virtual close.
At Powder River in Montana in March 1876,
Oglala and Northern Cheyenne warriors under Crazy
Horse repelled a cavalry attack led by Colonel Joseph
Reynolds. At Rosebud Creek in June, Crazy Horse’s
warriors routed General George Crook’s huge force of
soldiers and their CROW and SHOSHONE allies. Then
also in June, along the Little Bighorn River, Oglala
under Crazy Horse and Hunkpapa under Sitting Bull
and Gall, plus their Cheyenne allies, wiped out
Custer’s Seventh Cavalry.
The Battle of Little Bighorn is the most famous battle
in all the Indian wars. It is also called Custer’s Last
Stand or the Battle of Greasy Grass. George Armstrong
Custer was a vain, ambitious, and impulsive young
cavalry officer, called “Long Hair” by the Indians
because of his long blond locks. He was trying to use
the Indian wars as a means to further his own career.
Although he had had success as a Union officer in the
Civil War, his only victory to date in the Indian wars
had been against Black Kettle’s peaceful band of
Southern Cheyenne in the Indian Territory (presentday
Oklahoma) in 1868. He brashly underestimated
his opponents.
When his scouts spotted the Indian camp along the
Little Bighorn, rather than wait for reinforcements
under General Alfred Terry and Colonel John Gibbon,
Custer divided his men into four groups and ordered an
attack. In a series of separate actions against the divided
force, the Indians managed to kill at least 250 soldiers,including Custer’s entire detachment and the lieutenant
colonel himself.
This was the last great Indian victory on the Plains.
The following battles proved disastrous for the Sioux and
their allies. In July 1876, at War Bonnet Creek in
Nebraska, a force under Colonel Wesley Merritt intercepted
and defeated about 1,000 Northern Cheyenne,
who were on their way to join up with Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse. In September 1876, at Slim Buttes in
South Dakota, General Crook’s advance guard captured
American Horse’s combined Oglala and Miniconjou
band. In November 1876, in the Battle of Dull Knife in
Wyoming, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie’s troops routed
Dull Knife’s band of Northern Cheyenne. In January
1877, at Wolf Mountain in Montana, General Nelson
Miles’s soldiers defeated Crazy Horse’s warriors. Then in
May 1877, in the Battle of Lame Deer, General Miles’s
men defeated Lame Deer’s Miniconjou band.
Crazy Horse died in 1877, stabbed with a bayonet
while trying to escape from prison. Although photographs
exist of other Native American from this period
of history, there are none of Crazy Horse. He refused to
pose for photographers, saying, “Why would you wish to
shorten my life by taking my shadow from me.” Sitting
Bull and some of his followers hid out in Canada until
1881, when he returned to the United States to surren-der. He went on to play a role in events leading up to the
famous Wounded Knee incident.
The power of the northern plains tribes had been broken.
The southern and central Plains Indians—the
Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern
Arapaho—had previously yielded. Other Indian tribes to
the west of the Rocky Mountains—such as the Apache,
NEZ PERCE, UTE, and BANNOCK—would continue their
resistance for some years, but the Indian wars were winding
down. The final Apache rebellion, under Geronimo,
ended in 1886.
Wounded Knee
One more incident shook the plains as late as 1890.
Because it was so unnecessary, the Wounded Knee Massacre
has come to symbolize the many massacres of Indians
throughout American history.
The events of Wounded Knee sprung out of a new
religion, started among the PAIUTE. In 1888, a Northern
Paiute named Wovoka started the Ghost Dance Religion.
He claimed that the world would soon end, then
come to be again. All Native Americans, including the
dead from past ages, would inherit the new earth, whichwould be filled with lush prairie grasses and huge herds
of buffalo. To earn this new life, Indians had to live in
harmony and avoid the ways of whites, especially alcohol.
Rituals in what became known as the Ghost Dance
Religion included meditation, prayers, chanting, and
especially dancing. While dancing the Ghost Dance,
participants could supposedly catch a glimpse of this
world-to-be.
Many western Indians began practicing the Ghost
Dance. Its teachings offered hope to once free and proud
peoples now living in poverty and depression on reservations
in the midst of their conquerors. But Sioux medicine
men—Kicking Bear and Short Bull of the
Miniconjou band of Teton Lakota—gave the religion
their own interpretation. They claimed that special
Ghost Shirts could stop the white man’s bullets.
U.S. officials became alarmed at the size of Indian
gatherings and the renewed Indian militancy. As a
result, they banned the Ghost Dance on Sioux reservations.
But the Indians continued to hold the forbidden
ceremonies. Troops rode into the Pine Ridge and Rosebud
Reservations in South Dakota to enforce the new
rule. In defiance, Ghost Dancers planned a huge gathering
on a cliff in the northwest corner of the Pine
Ridge Reservation known as the Stronghold. They even sent word to Sitting Bull, now on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, to join them. The general in charge, Nelson Miles, who feared Sitting Bull’s influence, ordered the chief ’s arrest. In the fight that resulted, Sitting Bull and seven of his warriors were slain, similar to the way that Crazy Horse had lost his life 13 years before.
General Miles also ordered the arrest of a Miniconjou
chief named Big Foot who had formerly advocated the
Ghost Dance. But Big Foot, ill with pneumonia, only
wanted peace now. He supported Red Cloud and other
proponents of peace. He led his band of about 350—
230 of them women and children—to Pine Ridge to
join up with Red Cloud, not with the Ghost Dancers
Kicking Bear and Short Bull. Nevertheless, a detachment
of the army under Major S. M. Whitside intercepted Big
Foot’s band and ordered them to set up camp at
Wounded Knee Creek. Then Colonel James Forsyth
arrived to take command of the prisoners. He ordered
his men to place four Hotchkiss cannon in position
around the camp.
The next morning, Forsyth sent in troops to collect all
Indian firearms. A medicine man named Yellow Bird
called for resistance, saying that the Ghost Shirts would
protect the warriors. Big Foot advocated peace. When
the soldiers tried to disarm a deaf Indian named Black
Coyote, his rifle reportedly discharging in the air. The
soldiers shot back in response. At first the fighting was at
close quarters. But then the heavy artillery opened fire,
cutting down men, women, and children alike. Others
were killed as they tried to flee.
At least 150—possibly as many as 300—Indians died
at Wounded Knee, with others injured. Once again the
spirit of the Sioux had been crushed. The Ghost Dancers
soon gave up their dancing. Wounded Knee marked the
end of the Indian wars. That same year, 1890, the Census
Bureau of the federal government announced that
there was no longer a line of frontier on the census maps.
That is to say, other than scattered Indian reservations,
no large Indian wilderness area remained free of white
settlements.
Sioux in the Twentieth and Twenty-first
Centuries
Starting in 1927, the federal government sponsored the
14-year carving of four of the presidents’ faces on Mount
Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which
insulted the Sioux. To the Indians, the act was like carving
up a church, since the hills were sacred in their religion.
In 1998, 15 miles away from Mt. Rushmore, near
Crazy Horse, South Dakota, another carving in the
Black Hills was unveiled. Begun in 1939, the one head
covers an area greater than the four heads of Mt. Rushmore.
The image is of Crazy Horse. Various Sioux bands
have sought to have a greater voice in the use of the
Black Hills and, in 2003, organized the Black Hills
Inter-Tribal Advisory Committee to the National Forest
Service regarding the protection and preservation of
sacred lands.
During the 20th century, the Sioux have rebuilt their
lives. Many Native American writers and philosophers
have been Sioux. A Sioux writer, educator, and physician
by the name of Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) helped found
the Boy Scouts of America. The shaman Black Elk
helped communicate Sioux religious beliefs in Black Elk
Speaks: The Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.
Vine Deloria, Jr., wrote Custer Died for Your Sins and
many other books. Philip Deloria, his son, is a professor
of history and a writer.
Some Sioux have devoted themselves to pan-Indian
causes, joining organizations such as AIM, the American
Indian Movement, formed in 1968. In honor of
their ancestors and in protest of the treaties broken by
the federal government and the lack of opportunity for
Native Americans, members of AIM staged an occupation
at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation
in South Dakota in 1973. The incident ended in violence
with two Indians, Frank Clearwater, a CHEROKEE,
and Buddy Lamont, a Sioux, killed by federal
agents.
Today, there are Sioux reservations in many different
states: South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota,
Nebraska, and Montana. In Wyoming, some of which
also was part of the vast Sioux homeland, no lands are
held in trust for the tribe. There also are Sioux bands in
Canada with reserves in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba. Leasing of lands to outside interests provides
income for some tribes. Others, especially those groups
in Minnesota, have turned to gaming, with newly built
casinos, for revenue. Many Sioux now live in urban
areas, such as Minneapolis–St. Paul and Denver. Many
Sioux Indians practice traditional ceremonies and traditional
arts and crafts.
There is a concerted effort among many of the tribes
to encourage traditional values among Sioux youths. In
1999, the Billy Mills Youth Center opened in Eagle
Butte, South Dakota, in conjunction with the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe. Billy Mills was a Lakota who in 1964
won the Gold Medal in the 10,000-meter run at the
Olympic Games in Tokyo.
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Here are some links to keep you busy while I populate the blog.
Participation is key.
http://www.sioux.org/
http://www.native-languages.org/dakota.htm
http://language.nativeweb.org/
http://www.lakotadictionary.org/nldo.php
http://southdakotamagazine.com/lakota-saving-their-language