Sioux


The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples. Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or. The term Sioux, an exonym from a French transcription of the Ojibwe term Nadowessi, can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
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 18th century pushed the Dakota west into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota and Lakota lived. In the 19th century, the Dakota signed land cession treaties with the United States for much of their Minnesota lands. The United States' failure to make treaty payments or provide rations on time led to starvation and the Dakota War of 1862, which resulted in the Dakota's exile from Minnesota. They were forced onto reservations in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and some fled to 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 called by the endonym Wičhíyena, lived near the Minnesota River before ceding their land and moving to South Dakota in 1858. Despite ceding their lands, their treaty with the US government allowed them to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the Pipestone Quarry, a cultural center for Sioux people. Considered the Western Dakota, they have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota. Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana.
The Lakota, also called Teton, are the westernmost Sioux, known for their Plains Indians hunting and warrior culture. With the arrival of the horse in the 18th century, the Lakota became a powerful tribe on the Northern Plains by the 1850s. They fought the US Army in the Sioux Wars and defeated the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Big Horn. The armed conflicts with the US ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Dakota and Lakota continued to fight for their treaty rights, including the Wounded Knee incident, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and the 1980 Supreme Court case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, in which the court ruled that the US government had illegally taken tribal lands covered by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and that 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 the Black Hills. Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments across several reservations and communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States and reserves in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.

Etymology

The Sioux people refer to their whole nation of people as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. Each fire symbolizes an oyate. Today the seven nations that comprise the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ are:
  • Thítȟuŋwaŋ
  • Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, and Sisíthuŋwaŋ
  • Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ and Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna.
They are also referred to as the Lakota or Dakota based on dialect differences. In any of the dialects, Lakota or Dakota translates as, referring to the alliances between the bands.
The name Sioux was adopted in English by the 1760s from French. It is abbreviated from the French Nadouessioux, first attested by Jean Nicolet in 1640. The name is sometimes said to be derived from Nadowessi, an Ojibwe-language exonym for the Sioux meaning or . 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 form *na·towe·wa, meaning, has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake. An alternative explanation is derivation from an exonym, na·towe·ssiw, from a verb *-a·towe· meaning. The current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is Bwaanag, meaning. 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 formal Oglala Sioux Tribe or OST. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered incorrect.

Culture

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 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.

(community) kinship

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the different Očhéthi Šakówiŋ villages consisted of many thiyóšpaye, which were large extended families united by kinship. 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 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 married 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, such as Louis Hennepin 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

The traditional social system extended beyond human interaction into the supernatural realms. It is believed that Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka created the universe and embodies everything in the universe as one. The preeminent symbol of Sioux religion is the Čhaŋgléska Wakȟaŋ or medicine wheel, 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 describes the relationships with Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka as:
Prayer is believed to invoke relationships with one's ancestors or spiritual world. The Lakota word for, wočhékiye, means. Their primary cultural prophet is Ptesáŋwiŋ, White Buffalo Calf Woman, who came as an intermediary between Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka Tȟáŋka and humankind to teach them how to be good relatives by introducing the Seven Sacred Rites and the čhaŋnúŋpa. The seven ceremonies are Inípi, Haŋbléčheyapi, Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi, Huŋkalowaŋpi, Išnáthi Awíčhalowaŋpi, Tȟápa Waŋkáyeyapi and Wanáǧi Yuhápi. Each part of the sacred pipe 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 important to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. One can gain supernatural powers through dreams. Dreaming of the Wakíŋyaŋ is believed to involuntarily make someone a Heyókȟa, a sacred clown. Black Elk, 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
The thiyóšpaye of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ assembled each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, and participate in the Sun Dance. The seven divisions selected 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; 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 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. Each Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ interpreted and enforced the decisions of the Načá.
  • The Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ elected 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 ranked below the "Shirt Wearers". The pipe-holders regulated peace ceremonies, selected camp locations, and supervised the Akíčhita societies during buffalo hunts.