Dakota people

The Dakota 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 into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota.
The four bands of Eastern Dakota are the Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, and Sisíthuŋwaŋ and are sometimes referred to as the Santee, who reside in the eastern Dakotas, central Minnesota and northern Iowa. They have federally recognized tribes established in several places.
The Western Dakota are the Yankton, and the Yanktonai, who reside in the Upper Missouri River area. The Yankton-Yanktonai are collectively also referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena. They also have distinct federally recognized tribes. In the past the Western Dakota have been erroneously classified as Nakota, who are located in Montana and across the border in Canada, where they are known as Stoney.

Name

The word Dakota means "ally or friend" in the Dakota language, and their autonyms include Ikčé Wičhášta and Dakhóta Oyáte.

Ethnic groups

The Eastern and Western Dakota are two of the three groupings belonging to the Sioux nation, the third being the Lakota. The three groupings speak dialects that are still relatively mutually intelligible. This is referred to as a common language, Dakota-Lakota, or Sioux.
The Dakota include the following bands:

Santee division
* Mdewakanton
*:notable persons: Taoyateduta
*Sisseton
*Wahpekute
*:notable persons: Inkpaduta
*Wahpeton
Yankton-Yanktonai division
*Yankton
*Yanktonai
**Upper Yanktonai
**Húŋkpathina or Lower Yanktonai
Language

The Dakota language is a Mississippi Valley Siouan language, belonging to the greater Siouan-Catawban language family. It is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language, and both are also more distantly related to the Stoney and Assiniboine languages. Dakota is written in the Latin script and has a dictionary and grammar.

Eastern Dakota
* Santee
* Sisseton
Western Dakota
* Yankton
* Yanktonai
** Upper Yanktonai
History

Before the 17th century, the Santee Dakota lived around Lake Superior with territories in present-day northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They gathered wild rice, hunted woodland animals and used canoes to fish. Wars with the Ojibwe throughout the 1700s pushed the Dakota into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota and Teton 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, 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, collectively also referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena, 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, and have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota. The actual Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana.

Santee (Isáŋyathi or Eastern Dakota)

Migrations of Ojibwe people from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, who were armed 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 and up to its headwaters.
After the Dakota War of 1862, the federal government expelled the Santee from Minnesota. Many were sent to Crow Creek Indian Reservation east of the Missouri River in what is now South Dakota. In 1864 some from the Crow Creek Reservation were sent to St. Louis and then traveled by boat up the Missouri River, ultimately to the Santee Sioux Reservation.
In the 21st century, the majority of the Santee live on reservations and reserves, and many in small and larger cities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada. They went to cities for more work opportunities and improved living conditions.

Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (Yankton-Yanktonai or Western Dakota)

The Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, also known by the anglicized spelling Yankton and Yanktonai 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.
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 region of southwestern Minnesota along the Blue Earth River.
Most of the Yankton live on the Yankton Indian Reservation in southeastern South Dakota. Some Yankton live on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation and Crow Creek Reservation, which is also occupied by the Lower Yanktonai. The Upper Yanktonai live in the northern part of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and on the Spirit Lake Reservation, in areas within central North Dakota. Others live in the eastern half of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana. In addition, they reside at several Canadian reserves, including Birdtail, Oak Lake, and Whitecap.

Modern geographic divisions

The Dakota 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, southern Saskatchewan in Canada.
The earliest known European record of the Dakota 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, from Minnesota to the Yellowstone River, including the Powder River country.

Modern reservations, reserves, and communities of the Sioux

Reserve/Reservation	Community	Bands residing	Location
Fort Peck Indian Reservation	Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes	Hunkpapa, Upper Yanktonai, Sisseton, Wahpeton, and the Hudesabina, Wadopabina, Wadopahnatonwan, Sahiyaiyeskabi, Inyantonwanbina and Fat Horse Band of the Assiniboine	Montana, United States
Spirit Lake Reservation	Spirit Lake Tribe	Wahpeton, Sisseton, Upper Yanktonai	North Dakota, USA
Standing Rock Indian Reservation	Standing Rock Sioux Tribe	Lower Yanktonai, Sihasapa, Upper Yanktonai, Hunkpapa	North Dakota, South Dakota, USA
Lake Traverse Indian Reservation	Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate	Sisseton, Wahpeton	South Dakota, USA
Flandreau Indian Reservation	Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton	South Dakota, USA
Crow Creek Indian Reservation	Crow Creek Sioux Tribe	Lower Yanktonai, Mdewakanton	South Dakota, USA
Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation	Yankton Sioux Tribe	Yankton	South Dakota, USA
Upper Sioux Indian Reservation	Upper Sioux Community	Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpeton	Minnesota, USA
Lower Sioux Indian Reservation	Lower Sioux Indian Community	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute	Minnesota, USA
Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation	Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute	Minnesota, USA
Prairie Island Indian Community	Prairie Island Indian Community	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute	Minnesota, USA
Santee Indian Reservation	Santee Sioux Nation	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute	Nebraska, USA
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve*	Sioux Valley First Nation	Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute	Manitoba, Canada
Dakota Plains Indian Reserve 6A	Dakota Plains Wahpeton First Nation	Wahpeton, Sisseton	Manitoba, Canada
Dakota Tipi 1 Reserve	Dakota Tipi First Nation	Wahpeton	Manitoba, Canada
Birdtail Creek 57 Reserve, Birdtail Hay Lands 57A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve*	Birdtail Sioux First Nation	Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Yanktonai	Manitoba, Canada
Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation, Oak Lake 59A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve*	Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation	Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Yanktonai	Manitoba, Canada
Standing Buffalo 78	Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation	Sisseton, Wahpeton	Saskatchewan, Canada
Whitecap 94 Reserve	Whitecap Dakota First Nation	Wahpeton, Sisseton	Saskatchewan, Canada
Wahpaton 94A, Wahpaton 94B	Wahpeton Dakota Nation	Wahpeton	Saskatchewan, Canada
Wood Mountain 160 Reserve, Treaty Four Reserve Grounds Indian Reserve No. 77*	Wood Mountain	Hunkpapa	Saskatchewan, Canada