THE SIOUX are perhaps the most famous tribe of North American Indians. Their western branch, the Teton division, were probably the most powerful and numerous of the so-called Plains Indian peoples. The Plains Indians, who were dependent upon the horse for mobility and the bison for food, were a mix of older cultural traditions reformed by recent migration to the Plains ecological area. Woodland Algonkians, followed later by other northern forest relatives, occupied the northern Plains (Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho), whilst the partly horticultural Siouan-speaking tribes already occupied the Missouri valley, adding to the Caddoan people (Pawnee), who were long-time horticultural occupants of the area.
It would seem that by 1700 AD some Sioux had moved west from their traditional homes on the Mississippi River to the Lake Traverse region of present-day South Dakota; by 1780 they were ranging on the west side of the Missouri River and had penetrated as far west as the Black Hills. Other peoples moved to the High Plains from the west (Comanche) and north (Plains Apache), and there were some whose ancestors had probably eked out an existence on the margins of the area. The mobility now granted by the acquisition of the horse had transformed Indian life. Horses were introduced to the south-western tribes in the 17th century by the Spanish colonists, and had spread north via intertribal trade, ultimately forming vast herds of hardy wild ponies. Tribal groups travelled widely following the herds of bison which now provided basic food, supplemented by deer, pronghorn antelope and wild foods. A few still raised vegetables from small gardens. Some tribes remained horticulturists (Mandan, Hidatsa), others quickly adopted a completely nomadic High Plains culture (Crow).
Flying Pipe (Canupa Kinyan), Yankton Sioux, wearing a shirt with porcupine quilled strips and hair fringes. He holds an iron pipe-tomahawk and an eagle wing fan. (Photograph William Henry Jackson, c1872)
The Sioux have a tradition that at one time the whole people resided within the present state of Minnesota, originally at Mille Lacs and later near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers for several generations. They were first reported by the French explorer Jean Nicolet in 1640, although the first actual meeting between Europeans and the Sioux probably occurred some 20 years later when the explorers Radisson and Groseilliers spent a winter of near-starvation – probably in eastern Minnesota – when visited by some Sioux. As a result of pressure from the Ojibwa (Chippewa), who were armed by the French fur traders, the Sioux began a movement westward. Coincidentally horses were obtained in trade and war by their western bands, which hastened the transfer from a mixed horticultural and hunting Prairie economy to a truly nomadic High Plains culture. Whilst the change was ultimately complete for the numerous western branch of the Sioux – the Teton Sioux – other branches remained largely marginal.
There were seven branches of the people called Sioux, a name derived from a French corruption of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) term nadowe-is-iw-ug meaning ‘small adder’ or ‘enemy’- a derogatory term applied by their traditional enemies. Sometimes the tribe as a whole are termed Dakota or the slight variations of that word in the three varying dialects of the language spoken by the tribe – Dakota, Nakota and Lakota. In the English language (and despite its origin) the name ‘Sioux’ is the more correct term to describe the whole or any component part of the people, except when referring to their linguistic divisions. (However, see note on nomenclature opposite).
Teton Sioux woman and Assiniboine child painted by Karl Bodmer in 1833. The woman wears a buffalo robe with painted designs, and her moccasins appear to be the soft-sole type which preceded the common form with separate, hard soles widely used from the 1850s onwards. Her dress may be the rare side-fold construction, unknown in later years. (Print, author’s collection)
The term Dakota is said to mean ‘allies’, and correctly refers to the language spoken by the seven sub-tribes, a member of the so-called Siouan linguistic family widely spoken by several tribes in the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys (and a divergent branch in the Carolinas). The Dakota language is divided into three dialects. The eastern or Dakota proper was spoken by the four sub-tribes who remained within the present boundaries of Minnesota – the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton and Wahpeton. The Nakota dialect was spoken by the middle division – two sub-tribes, the Yankton and Yanktonai. The western or Lakota dialect was spoken by a single sub-tribe, the Teton. The terms Dakota, Nakota and Lakota were once employed by the speakers of the three dialects to identify both their own dialect and the language of the entire Sioux tribe.
The original seven sub-tribes, when living in their traditional eastern location, were also sometimes called the ‘Seven Council Fires’. All seven were further divided into bands. The Teton branch – the largest division of the Sioux, outnumbering the other six together – was divided into seven large bands each sometimes large enough to be considered a sub-tribe itself. As far as can be determined, the Sioux as a whole probably always numbered between 35,000 and 50,000 people of which two-thirds were Teton or Western Sioux. Today perhaps 80,000 descendants are enrolled at various reservations, about half resident. However, the numbers of full-bloods are rapidly decreasing, and probably stand at less than 25% of that total today.
The term Sioux first recorded by Nicolet in 1640 became a substitute for Oceti Sakowin, ‘seven fireplaces’ i.e. Seven Council Fires. Sioux, like Cree and Ojibwa, became the English names for whole tribes through common usage, despite the huge area of geographical distribution and numerous branches and dialectic variations which came to be recognised for each. Lakota, Nakota and Dakota are native terms in the three dialects for the Sioux as a whole; despite their constant misuse, they are not separate tribal names. The careless use of the suffix ‘-Sioux’ to describe constituent parts of the tribe, e.g. Teton Sioux or Oglala Sioux is incorrect; these would suggest a parallel status within the tribe, when the Oglala are a sub-group of the Teton.
Despite its use in the title of this book, I have also generally avoided in the text the term ‘nation’, which strictly speaking suggests a united society and a political state involving coercion rather than cohesion. I am, however, fully conscious of the fact that in recent times reservation tribal communities under various influences, internal and external, have used the term in order to meet the perceived requirements of the ‘Predominant Society’.
The geographical terms ‘Eastern Sioux’ and ‘Western Sioux’ would seem adequate, while such terms as Dakota Sioux, Lakota Sioux, Teton Lakota, Oglala Lakota Nation etc. are strictly wrong and confusing designations. The most cogent examination of this problem is that by Powers (1975 – see Bibliography); he suggests that Teton and Oglala are perfectly adequate designations in themselves; the Indians after all knew who they were, and we should at least attempt an understanding of their tribal structure.
In very recent times Western Sioux, particularly those living in South Dakota, have adopted ‘Lakota’ – their dialectic name – as a tribal name, since they view ‘Sioux’ as a Euro-American and derogatory term. Nevertheless, for the sake of consistency I have retained in this text ‘Sioux’ as the historic English language name for the tribe.
Big Head, Upper Yanktonai Sioux, c1872. He holds a pipe and an eagle feather fan, and wears a fur turban, fur-wrapped braids and beaded blanket strip. (Photograph, author’s collection)
The seven branches of the Sioux people are as follows, divided into their three dialectic divisions A, B & C. NB: For details of present-day reservation populations, see Table B on page 9.
(Also known as Santee, from Isanyati – ‘dwellers at a knife shaped lake’, an ancient village at Mille Lacs – although some historians believe this term should only apply to the first two sub-tribes.)
‘Spirit Lake Dwellers’, said to have taken their name from their former homes at Mille Lacs in present eastern Minnesota, and along the Rum River, as far south as Red Wing on the Mississippi River. The Mdewakanton, with the Wahpekute, were sometimes referred to as the ‘Lower Council’. They had several village bands, the Kiyuksa and Kapozha the most prominent. By treaties with the USA in 1837 and 1851 they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi for a reservation along the Minnesota River. However, following shabby treatment by both settlers and government they were the principal participants in the Minnesota uprising of 1862-63, after which they moved west of the Missouri River or fled to Canada, although a few re-established themselves in Minnesota. Their descendants have largely merged with other Santees but they probably predominate on the old Santee-Niobrara Reservation, Nebraska, and in four small settlements in Minnesota. A few may have been incorporated with other Santees at Sioux Valley and Birdtail in Manitoba, Canada. They probably numbered 2,000 in around 1780; today they have about 5,000 descendants mixed with Wahpekute, mostly mixed-blood.
‘Leaf Shooters’, a branch of the Eastern Sioux who once lived on the Cannon and Blue Earth Rivers in southern Minnesota, particularly around Faribault’s Trading Post. In early 1857 a few Wahpekutes under Chief Inkpaduta killed a number of white settlers in the Spirit Lake region of north-western Iowa. The Wahpekutes had been split by dissension since about 1840, and some had not taken part in the treaties of 1851 when required to move to the Lower Agency of their reservation along the Minnesota River. They were sometimes known as the ‘Lower Council Sioux’, together with the Mdewakanton. After the uprising of 1862-63 the Wahpekutes mainly joined the various Mdewakanton bands, mostly at Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota, and moved later to Niobrara, Nebraska, but never again reported as a separate tribe. Their descendants have combined with their relatives on the Santee-Niobrara Reservation, Nebraska, at Sioux Valley and Oak Lake, Manitoba, and a few at Round Plain, Saskatchewan, Fort Peck, Montana, and in all communities with Mdewakantons. They were estimated at 800 in 1824; today they have merged with the Mdewakanton, the largest group being 750 at Santee, Nebraska, but mostly mixed-blood. A colony of this group established themselves at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Chief Struck-by-the-Ree, (Palaneapape), Yankton Sioux. Born while explorers Lewis and Clark were in council with his people in 1804, he steadfastly adhered to the provisions of the 1858 treaty with his people until his death in 1888. At the time of the 1862 Minnesota uprising his warnings saved many white lives. (Photograph by A.Zeno Shindler, Washington, 1867; author’s collection)
‘Dwellers among the Leaves’. The traditional home of the Wahpetons was on the Minnesota River above Traverse des Sioux, but after 1851 they removed to the Lac-qui-Parle and Big Stone Lake districts above the Upper Agency of the reservation established on the Minnesota River for all Santee Sioux. They were, together with the Sissetons, sometimes called ‘Upper Council Sioux’. They took part in the uprising of 1862-63, as a result of which they were widely scattered. The largest group ultimately joined the Sisseton on the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota, with smaller groups at Devil’s Lake, North Dakota; Birdtail, Long Plain and Oak Lake, Manitoba; and Standing Buffalo and Round Plain, Saskatchewan. They originally numbered about 1,500; today there are perhaps 15,000 Wahpeton-Sisseton descendants, including about 8,000, mainly mixed-blood, at Lake Traverse and Devil’s Lake.
‘Ridges of Fish Offal Dwellers’. The principal location of the Sisseton before 1851 was near Traverse des Sioux and at the junctions of the Cottonwood and Blue Earth rivers with the Minnesota River around present-day New Ulm and Mankato, Minnesota. However, by the 1840s some had already moved to the Lake Traverse and James River country. Others settled with the Wahpeton about Upper Agency on the Minnesota River after the treaty of 1851, known as ‘Upper Council Sioux’. The reservation was reduced in area in 1858, beginning the events which led to the uprising of August 1862 under the Mdewakanton Chief Little Crow, and the defeat and dispersal of the Santee which followed. The Sissetons’ descendants are largely combined with the Wahpetons at Lake Traverse, South Dakota, with smaller groups at Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, and in Canada at Moose Woods and Standing Buffalo, Saskatchewan, with a few intermixed on the other reserves. They numbered about 2,500 in 1830.
Big Soldier, Teton Sioux, at Fort Pierre, c1833. He wears the hair-fringed shirt of the Wicasas (chiefs’ societies), together with a peace medal presented by emissaries of the United States. Portrait by Karl Bodmer. (Print, author’s collection)
‘End Village’. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition found the Yankton Sioux in the vicinity of the Big Sioux and James rivers above their junction with the Missouri; but they and their close relatives the Yanktonai were first noted by early French traders in the Mille Lacs area and later in the vicinity of modern Sioux City, Iowa. In 1858 they ceded all their lands excepting a reservation on the north bank of the Missouri near the present town of Wagner, South Dakota. They were divided into seven bands, and later an eighth, the ‘half-breed band’, was added. The Yanktons have long been residents of their South Dakota reservation, but the so-called ‘Yankton’ at Fort Peck, Montana, are for the most part actually Yanktonai. The Yankton probably numbered 4,500 in c1804, a figure halved during the 19th century; today about 3,400 descendants live on their old reservation near Wagner.
‘Little End Village’. The northern branch of the middle or Nakota division of the Sioux, living on both sides of the James River in the eastern parts of present South and North Dakota. They were further divided into the Upper Yanktonai, who included a sub-group Pabaska ‘Cut Heads’, and the Lower Yanktonai or Hunkpatina ‘Campers at the Horn’. Culturally they were similar to the ‘Upper Sioux’ of the Santee, the Sisseton and Wahpeton, and heavily intermarried with them. A band of Kiyuksas, probably of Mdewakanton origin, were also associated with them at one time. They were probably in the Mille Lacs vicinity during the 17th century when a division within the tribe saw a portion move to Canada, becoming known as Assiniboine, Nakoda, or ‘Stone Sioux’ (Stoney), who thenceforth have been regarded as a separate people. The Yanktonai chief Wanata (Wanatan) joined his father Chief Red Thunder and the British trader Robert Dickson to fight the Americans in 1812; he became the most important chieftain during their early association with the Missouri traders. After 1820 he supported the American traders and extended his influence to some of the Teton bands of Saones (northern Tetons). The presence of the traders on the middle Missouri saw the growing dependence of the Teton Sioux and the redundance of the old Sioux trade fair system originally in Yanktonai territory. In 1865 both Yanktonai branches made treaties of peace with the US and gathered on reservations. The Upper Yanktonai gradually located on the northern half of the Standing Rock Reservation and at Devil’s Lake in North Dakota, these being mostly Pabaska; the Lower Yanktonai moved to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota and Fort Peck, Montana. All groups are heavily intermarried with Sisseton and Wahpeton, and a few accompanied them to Canada. Today they have about 12,000 descendants.
‘Dwellers-on-the-Plains’, the largest sub-division of the Sioux, who no doubt resided at one time within the boundaries of Minnesota, but who had crossed the Missouri by 1750 to become the most numerous and formidable of the nomadic equestrian High Plains peoples. When the US government sent Lewis and Clark to explore parts of the lands newly acquired by the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, they found them in four separate sub-tribes on both sides of the Missouri River: the Brulé between the White and Bad rivers, the Oglala (at this period also known by their Santee name, Okandada) between the Bad and Cheyenne rivers, the Minneconjou below the Moreau River, and the Saone on the Grand River northwards. There can be little doubt that the subsequent increase in population was in part due to the adoption of eastern groups. For instance, the Oglala incorporated several immigrant groups after 1805 including the Kiyuksas, originally a band of Mdewakanton who had first joined, then left, the Yanktonai, and the Wazhazhe band of Brulé who intermarried with Ponca and Osage.
At the time Lewis and Clark were on the upper Missouri, of the Saones (northern Tetons) only the Minneconjou had assumed the status of a separate people; and by the time of the Atkinson-O’Fallon Treaty of 1825, which asserted friendship between the United States and the Missouri River tribes, the commissioners lumped the Minneconjous with the sub-tribes now known as Sans Arcs and Two Kettles. It is evident that at this time a main Teton trading post before the establishment of Laramie was Fort Tecumseh (later Fort Pierre), and the place where they met the Atkinson-O’Fallon Commission was at the mouth of the Bad River. The commission’s report states that the Saones were divided into two groups: one the Minneconjous, Sans Arcs and Two Kettles west of the Missouri, the other the ‘Fire Hearts Band’ (Blackfoot Sioux) on the east bank. The seven large bands of the Teton, recognised as independent before the establishment of The Great Sioux Reservation in 1868, were:
a. Oglala, ‘They-Scatter-Their-Own’
b. Brulé or Sicangu, ‘Burnt-Thighs’
c. Minneconjou, ‘Planters-Beside-the-Water’
d. Two Kettle or Oohenonpa
e. Hunkpapa, ‘Campers-at-the-Horn’ (or end of the camp circle)
f. Sans Arc or Itazipco, ‘Those-Without-Bows’
g. Blackfoot or Sihasapa (not to be confused with the Blackfoot tribe of Montana and Alberta).
After the break-up of The Great Sioux Reservation into smaller reservations following the surrender of many groups after the Indian Wars, the Oglala were assigned to the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, with a few in the Milk’s Camp Community on the Rosebud Reservation. The Brulé went to the Rosebud (Upper Brulé) and Lower Brulé reservations, South Dakota; the Minneconjou, Sans Arc and Two Kettle to Cheyenne River, South Dakota; the Blackfoot to Cheyenne River and Standing Rock, North and South Dakota; and the Hunkpapa to Standing Rock, Fort Peck, Montana, and Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan.
During the early 19th century the Teton population probably exceeded 30,000, which reduced somewhat during the early reservation period. Today there are perhaps 50,000 or more descendants, of which about half live on reservations – about 35% full-blood, Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations having the largest numbers. A large number are also to be found in several cities.
Rain-in-the-Face, Hunkpapa Sioux, c.1902. He was born in c1835, and so named after a fight with a Cheyenne who spattered his face with blood. Many times on the warpath, he was one of the party which killed Capt Fetterman and his command near Fort Phil Kearney in December 1866, and fought at Fort Totten in 1868. He joined Sittting Bull in 1874; wounded at the Little Bighorn, he fled to Canada until 1880, surrendering at Fort Keogh, Montana, and finally settling at the Standing Rock Agency. He died in September 1905. He is seen here holding a shield with bison, thunderbird and bear symbolism. Photograph by F.B.Fiske.
Note: Most, if not all sub-tribes were divided into seven bands (only those for the Teton are shown here in detail, e.g. Oglala, etc). From c1840 to 1879 these were divided into seven smaller units or tiyospaye (e.g. Pushed Aside, etc – only the ‘gloss’ terms for the Oglala tiyospaye are shown). Some have suggested that the repeating sevenfold division is derived from the sacred number seven.
Table B: 20th Century Sioux Populations
| Country & Province or State | Reserve or Reservation | Division | Approx. resident population 1990 |
| Canada: | |||
| Manitoba | Sioux Village | Wahpeton | 300 |
| Long Plain (Portage La Prairie) |
Wahpeton, Sisseton | 800 | |
| Sioux Valley (Oak River) |
Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton |
1,000 | |
| Birdtail (Birtle) | Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Yanktonai |
300 | |
| Oak Lake | Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Yanktonai |
350 | |
| Saskatchewan | Standing Buffalo (Fort Qu’Appelle) |
Sisseton, Wahpeton | 600 |
| Moose Woods (Dundurn) |
Sisseton | 200 | |
| Sioux Wahpeton (Round Plain) |
Wahpeton | 100 | |
| Wood Mountain | Hunkpapa | 100 | |
| USA: | |||
| Montana | Fort Peck* | Lower Yanktonai, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Wahpeton |
2,000 |
| North Dakota | Devil’s Lake (Fort Totten) |
Wahpeton, Sisseton, Upper Yanktonai |
3,000 |
| South Dakota | Standing Rock | Upper Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfoot |
4,000 |
| Lake Traverse | Sisseton, Wahpeton | 5,000 | |
| Flandreau | Wahpeton | 300 | |
| Cheyenne River | Minneconjou, Blackfoot, Two Kettle, Sans Arc |
3,000 | |
| Crow Creek | Lower Yanktonai | 2,000 | |
| Lower Brulé | Brulé | 1,000 | |
| Yankton | Yankton | 2,000 | |
| Pine Ridge | Oglala, few Brulé | 12,000 | |
| Rosebud | Brulé, few Oglala | 9,000 | |
| Minnesota | Upper Sioux | Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpeton |
200 |
| Lower Sioux | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute |
300 | |
| Prior Lake | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute |
200 | |
| Prairie Island | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute |
200 | |
| Nebraska | Santee | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute | 1,000 |
| Total Sioux population on, or adjacent to, reserves | 48,950 | ||
| Notes | |||
| *Fort Peck Reservation is shared with the Assiniboine. | |||
| These figures exclude a large number of Sioux descendants now resident in cities such as Denver | |||