Mdewakantonwan (currently pronounced Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ^[1], also M'DAY-wah-kahn-tahn) are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota, which in the Dakota language was called mde wakan (mystic/spiritual lake). Together with the Wahpekute (Waȟpékhute - “Shooters Among the Trees”), they form the so-called Upper Council of the Dakota or Santee Sioux (Isáŋyáthi - “Knife Makers”).

History[link]

Their Siouan-speaking ancestors had migrated to the upper Midwest from the area of South Carolina in the present-day United States; colonists named the Santee River in present-day South Carolina after them.^{[citation needed]} Over the years they migrated up through Ohio and into Wisconsin. Facing competition from the Chippewa and other eastern American Indian peoples, the Santee moved further west into present-day Minnesota.

Originally the term Santee was applied only to the Mdewakanton and later the closely related and allied Wahpekute. (As it was a nomadic group, it was not identified by the suffixes of thuŋwaŋ - “settlers,” or towan - “village”).^[2] Soon European settlers applied the name to all the tribes of the Eastern Dakota.

In the fall of 1837, the Mdewakantonwan negotiated a lucrative deal with the US government under an "Indian Removal" treaty, whereby they were paid nearly one million dollars for the remainder of their lands in western Wisconsin. Because the Mdewakantonwan had earlier abandoned the lands because of intrusion by the Chippewa and various ecological reasons, and were effectively living in Minnesota, they effectively were paid for land they no longer occupied.^[3]

Seven Sioux tribes formed an alliance, which they called Oceti Sakowin or Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (“The Seven Council Fires”)^[4], consisting of the four tribes of the Dakota (Eastern Dakota), two tribes of the Nakota (Middle Dakota)^{[5] [6]} as well as the largest group, the Lakota (often referred to as Teton, derived from Thítȟuŋwaŋ - “Dwellers of the Plains”). Until the Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota, the Mdewakanton were the leading tribe of Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. As a consequence of their defeat and heavy losses in warriors in 1862, they lost their leading position within the Council Fires to the more numerous and powerful Oglala Lakota.

The Mdewakantonwan are no longer a single unified Tribe. Their descendants ensure their Mdewakanton components survive within their respective communities. In the United States, the Mdewakanton survive with peoples in the Santee, Flandreau, Lake Traverse, Upper Sioux, and Sioux Valley reservations as Dakota, and on the Mille Lacs Reservation as Ojibwe.

In Canada, the Mdewakanton survive as part of the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

Mdewakanton-only communities in the United States are the Lower Sioux, Shakopee-Mdewakanton and the Prairie Island Indian communities. The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community is not federally recognized, but they are seeking recognition from the US Department of the Interior.

Historic tribes of the Mdewakanton[link]

• Kiyuska (‘violators of custom’, ‘rule breakers’)^[7]
• Kaposia oder Kapozha
• Pinisha
• Reyata otonwa
• Matantonwan
• Kheyataotonwe
• Taoapa
• Wakpaatonwedan
  • Oyateshicha
  • Titonwan or Tintaotonwe
• Ohanhanska
  • Tacanhpisapa
  • Anoginajin
• Khemnichan
• Magayuteshni
• Mahpiyamaza
• Mahpiyawichasta
• Khemnichan

See also[link]

• Chief Tamaha
• Rum River
• Mille Lacs Lake
• Mille Lacs Indians

References[link]

1. ^ Ullrich, Jan (2008). New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton). Lakota Language Consortium. p. 6. ISBN 0-9761082-9-1. 
2. ^ Jessica Dawn Palmer, The Dakota Peoples: A History of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Through 1863, Mcfarland & Co Inc; ISBN 978-0-7864-6621-4
3. ^ James A. Clifton, "Wisconsin Death March: Explaining the Extremes in Old Northwest Indian Removal", in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 1987, 5:1-40, p. 3, accessed 3 Mar 2010
4. ^ History of the Council Fires
5. ^ it is now debatable whether the Yankton and Yanktonai are among the Nakota, and more recently, they have been referred to as Western Dakota
6. ^ Jan Ullrich: New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton), S. 2, Lakota Language Consortium 2008, ISBN 0-9761082-9-1
7. ^ only the first four bands survive as organized groups today

• Williamson, John P. An English-Dakota Dictionary (New York: American Tract Society, 1902)

External links[link]

• Sioux Valley First Nation
• Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation
• Prairie Island Indian Community
• Mendota Mdewakanton information
• "Mdewakanton Indian Chiefs and Leaders". http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/mdewakantonchiefs.htm#Napeshneeduta0. Retrieved 2012-01-14. 

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