Sioux
Očhéthi Šakówiŋ

Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man, circa 1885.
Total population
150,000+[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
United States (SD, MN, NE, MT, ND), Canada (MB, SK, AB)
Languages
Sioux, English, French
Religion
Christianity (incl. syncretistic forms), Midewiwin
Related ethnic groups
Assiniboine, Stoney (Nakoda), and other Siouan peoples

The Sioux ( /ˈsuː/) are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on Siouan dialect and subculture:

• Isáŋyathi or Isáŋathi ("Knife," originating from the name of a lake in present-day Minnesota): residing in the extreme east of the Dakotas, Minnesota and northern Iowa, and are often referred to as the Santee or Eastern Dakota.

• Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna ("Village-at-the-end" and "little village-at-the-end"): residing in the Minnesota River area, they are considered to be the middle Sioux, and are often referred to as the Yankton and the Yanktonai, or, collectively, as the Wičhíyena (endonym) or the Western Dakota (and have been erroneously classified as “Nakota”^[3]) .

• Thítȟuŋwaŋ or Teton (uncertain, perhaps "Dwellers on the Prairie"; this name is archaic among the natives, who prefer to call themselves Lakȟóta^[4]): the westernmost Sioux, known for their hunting and warrior culture, are often referred to as the Lakota.

Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States; and Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada.

Name origins[link]

The name "Sioux" is an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux borrowed into Canadian French from Nadoüessioüak from the early Odawa exonym: naadowesiwag "Sioux".^[5] Jean Nicolet recorded the use in 1640.^[6] The Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa, meaning "Northern Iroquoian", has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (massasauga, Sistrurus).^[7] This information was interpreted by some that the Odawa borrowing was an insult. However, this Proto-Algonquian term most likely was ultimately derived from a form *-a·towe·, meaning simply "to speak a foreign language".^[5] - which would make it similar to the etymology of the Greek "Barbarian". Later this was extended in meaning in some Algonquian languages to refer to the massasauga. Thus, contrary to many accounts, the old Odawa word naadowesiwag did not equate the Sioux with snakes. This is not confirmed though, since usage over the previous decades has led to this term having negative connotations to those tribes to which it refers. This would explain why many tribes have rejected this term as an exonym.

Some of the tribes have formally or informally adopted 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 English "Oglala Sioux Tribe" or OST. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered improper.^[6].

Očhéthi Šakówiŋ[link]

The historical Sioux referred to the Great Sioux Nation as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (pronounced [oˈtʃʰetʰi ʃaˈkowĩ]), meaning "Seven Council Fires". Each fire was a symbol of an oyate (people or nation). The seven nations that comprise the Sioux are: Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ (Mdewakanton), Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ (Wahpeton), Waȟpékhute (Wahpekute), Sisíthuŋwaŋ (Sisseton), the Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ (Yankton), Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (Yanktonai), and the Thítȟuŋwaŋ (Teton or Lakota).^[6] The Seven Council Fires would assemble each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, and participate in the Sun Dance.^[8] The seven divisions would select four leaders known as Wičháša Yatápika from among the leaders of each division.^[8] 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.^[8]

Today the Teton, Santee, and Ihantowan/Ihanktowana are usually known, respectively, as the Lakota, Eastern Dakota, or Western Dakota.^[4][6] In any of the three main dialects, "Lakota" or "Dakota" translate to mean "friend," or more properly, "ally." Usage of Lakota or Dakota may then refer to the alliance that once bound the Great Sioux Nation.

History[link]

First contacts with Europeans[link]

The Dakota are first recorded to have resided at the source of the Mississippi River during the seventeenth century.^[9] By 1700 some had migrated to present-day South Dakota.^[10] Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants.^[11] The French were trying to gain advantage in the struggle for the North American fur trade against the English, who had recently established the Hudson's Bay Company.

Relationship with French Traders[link]

The Sioux and French first met when the French were trying to get more tribes on their side against the British Forces. This was the first contact between these particular Sioux tribes and White traders. The Sioux and the French traded many things in peace, until the French started trading with the Sioux's rival tribes. This sparked a lot of unrest and the trading ceased. The first recorded meeting between these two was 1640. Eventually the Sioux were forced down to Mississippi at one point during the war with the French who were much stronger as a whole army.^{[citation needed]}

Dakota War of 1862[link]

Siege of New Ulm, August 19, 1862.

Drawing of the mass hanging of Dakota in Mankato, Minnesota

By 1862, shortly after a failed crop the year before and a winter starvation, the federal payment was late. The local traders would not issue any more credit to the Santee and one trader, Andrew Myrick, went so far as to say, "If they're hungry, let them eat grass."^[12] On August 17, 1862 the Dakota War began when a few Santee men murdered a white farmer and most of his family. They inspired further attacks on white settlements along the Minnesota River. The Santee attacked the trading post. Later settlers found Myrick among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass.^[13]

On November 5, 1862 in Minnesota, in courts-martial, 303 Santee Sioux were found guilty of rape and murder of hundreds of American settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. No attorneys or witness were allowed as a defense for the accused, and many were convicted in less than five minutes of court time with the judge.^[14] President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentence of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the execution of 38 Santee men by hanging on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. It was the largest mass-execution in U.S. history.^[15]

Afterwards, the US suspended treaty annuities to the Dakota for four years and awarded the money to the white victims and their families. The men remanded by order of President Lincoln were sent to a prison in Iowa, where more than half died.^[14]

During and after the revolt, many Santee and their kin fled Minnesota and Eastern Dakota to Canada, or settled in the James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to Crow Creek Reservation on the east bank of the Missouri.^[14] A few joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military.^[14]

Others were able to remain in Minnesota and the east, in small reservations existing into the 21st century, including Sisseton-Wahpeton, Flandreau, and Devils Lake (Spirit Lake or Fort Totten) Reservations in the Dakotas. Some ended up in Nebraska, where the Santee Sioux Tribe today has a reservation on the south bank of the Missouri.

Those who fled to Canada now have descendants residing on nine small Dakota Reserves, five of which are located in Manitoba (Sioux Valley, Long Plain, Dakota Tipi, Birdtail Creek, and Oak Lake [Pipestone]) and the remaining four (Standing Buffalo, Moose Woods [White Cap], Round Plain [Wahpeton], and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan.

Red Cloud's War[link]

Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War) was an armed conflict between the Lakota and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central Wyoming.

The war is named after Red Cloud, a prominent Sioux chief who led the war against the United States following encroachment into the area by the U.S. military. The war ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The Sioux victory in the war led to their temporarily preserving their control of the Powder River country.^[16]

Great Sioux War of 1876-77[link]

The Great Sioux War comprised a series of battles between the Lakota and allied tribes such as the Cheyenne against the United States military. The earliest engagement was the Battle of Powder River, and the final battle was the Wolf Mountain. Included are the Battle of the Rosebud, Battle of the Little Bighorn, Battle of Warbonnet Creek, Battle of Slim Buttes, Battle of Cedar Creek, and the Dull Knife Fight. The Great Sioux War of 1876-77 was also known as the Black Hills War, and was centered around the Lakota tribes of the Sioux, although several Native Americans believe that the primary target of the United States military was the Northern Cheyenne tribe. The series of battles occurred in Montana territory, Dakota territory, and Wyoming territory, and resulted in a victory for the United States military.

Wounded Knee Massacre[link]

Mass grave for the dead Lakota after massacre of Wounded Knee.

The massacre at Wounded Knee Creek was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota and the United States. It was described as a "massacre" by General Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.^[17]

On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, supported by four Hotchkiss guns (a lightweight artillery piece capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of the Lakota bands of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa ^[18] with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to Omaha, Nebraska.

By the time it was over, 25 troopers and more than 150 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children. The first shot (that started this Massacre) between the Sioux and the US was shot, but no one really knows who shot it, and how it was shot; accident or on purpose.Some of the soldiers are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" because the shooting took place at point-blank range in chaotic conditions.^[19] Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, many of whom may have died from hypothermia.^{[citation needed]}

Culture[link]

Marriage[link]

In the Sioux community, people usually marry between 12-15 years old. Before you get married, you are not allowed to be alone with your bride. The couple would meet in front of the woman's parents's teepee, where a blanket would be put over the two and there, you could talk in private (when in public.)Woman and men are perceived to have equal power and decision making. The men are usually chiefs of politics, war leaders or warriors. The woman are in charge food, the house and other items. The older woman were actually very respected in the community.^[20]

Reserves and First Nations[link]

Traditional location of Sioux tribes prior to 1770 (dark green) and their current reservations (orange)

Later in the 19th century, the railroads hired hunters to exterminate the buffalo herds, the Indians' primary food supply. The Santee and Lakota were forced to accept white-defined reservations in exchange for the rest of their lands, and domestic cattle and corn in exchange for buffalo. They became dependent upon annual federal payments guaranteed by treaty.

In Minnesota, the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 left the Sioux with a reservation twenty miles (32 km) wide on each side of the Minnesota River. Today, one half of all enrolled Sioux in the United States live off the reservation. Enrolled members in any of the Sioux tribes in the United States are required to have ancestry that is at least 1/4 degree Sioux (the equivalent to one grandparent).^[21]

In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as First Nations. The land holdings of the these First Nations are called Indian Reserves.

Modern reservations, reserves, and communities of the Sioux[link]

^[6]

* Reserves shared with other First Nations

20th century activism[link]

Wounded Knee incident[link]

Main article: Wounded Knee incident

Beginning in the late 1960s, young Native Americans began to agitate for improved conditions, respect for their civil rights, and better programs in education and economic development. Dramatic protests were conceived, such as the occupation of Alcatraz Island in California.

The Wounded Knee incident began February 27, 1973 when the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota was seized by followers of the American Indian Movement. The occupiers controlled the town for 71 days while various state and federal law enforcement agencies such as the F.B.I. and the United States Marshals Service laid siege. Two members of A.I.M. were killed by gunfire during the incident.

Republic of Lakotah[link]

The Lakotah Freedom Delegation, a group of controversial Native American activists, declared on December 19, 2007 the Lakotah were withdrawing from all treaties signed with the United States to regain sovereignty over their nation. One of the activists, Russell Means, claims that the action is legal and cites Natural, International and U.S. law.^[22] The group considers Lakotah to be a sovereign nation, although as yet the state is generally unrecognized. The proposed borders reclaim thousands of square kilometres of North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana.^[23]

Political organization[link]

Ogalala Lakota Tipi

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.^[8]

• 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.^[24]

• 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.^[8] There were two types of societies: Akíčhita, for the younger men, and Načá, for elders and former leaders.^[8]

• Akíčhita (Warrior) societies existed to train warriors, hunters, and to police the community.^[24] There were many smaller Akíčhita societies, including the Kit-Fox, Strong Heart, Elk, and so on.^[24]

• 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 ("chief man"). Each Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ interpreted and enforced the decisions of the Načá.^[24]

• The Wičháša Itȟáŋčhaŋ would elect two to four Shirt Wearers, who were the voice of the society. They settled quarrels among families and also foreign nations.^[8] Shirt Wearers were often young men from families with hereditary claims of leadership. However, men with obscure parents who displayed outstanding leaderships skills and had earned the respect of the community might also be elected. Crazy Horse is an example of a common-born "Shirt Wearer".^[8]

• A Wakíčhuŋza ("Pipe Holder") ranked below the "Shirt Wearers". The Pipe Holders regulated peace ceremonies, selected camp locations, and supervised the Akíčhita societies during buffalo hunts.^[24]

Linguistics[link]

Chief Bone Necklace an Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (1899)

The Sioux comprise three closely related language groups:

1. Eastern Dakota (a.k.a. Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta)
   • Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute)
   • Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ)
2. Western Dakota (a.k.a. Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta)
   • Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ)
   • Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna)
3. Lakota (a.k.a. Lakȟóta, Teton, Teton Sioux)

The earlier linguistic three-way division of the Sioux language identified Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota as dialects of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee-Sisseton and Nakota = Yankton-Yanktonai.^[7] However, the latest studies ^[4][25] show that Yankton-Yanktonai never used the autonym Nakhóta, but pronounced their name roughly the same as the Santee (i.e. Dakȟóta).

These later studies identify Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages, with Sioux being the third language. Sioux has three similar dialects: Lakota, Western Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai) and Eastern Dakota (Santee-Sisseton). Assiniboine and Stoney speakers refer to themselves as Nakhóta or Nakhóda^[4] (cf. Nakota).

The term Dakota has also been applied by anthropologists and governmental departments to refer to all Sioux groups, resulting in names such as Teton Dakota, Santee Dakota, etc. This was mainly because of the misrepresented translation of the Ottawa word from which Sioux is derived.^[8] they usually lived in ti-pis such as shown in the picture, that they would all set up together as a tribe.

Modern geographic divisions[link]

Funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief (Karl Bodmer)

The Sioux 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 and Alberta in Canada.

The earliest known European record of the Sioux identified them in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.^[7] 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.^[24]

Santee (Isáŋyathi or Eastern Dakota)[link]

The Santee migrated north and westward from the Southeast United States, first into Ohio, then to Minnesota. Some came up from the Santee River and Lake Marion, area of South Carolina. The Santee River was named after them, and some of their ancestors' ancient earthwork mounds have survived along the portion of the dammed-up river that forms Lake Marion. In the past, they were a Woodland people who thrived on hunting, fishing and subsistence farming.

Migrations of Anishinaabe/Chippewa (Ojibwe) people from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, 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.^[7]

Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (Yankton-Yanktonai or Western Dakota)[link]

The Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, also known by the anglicized spelling Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ: "End village") and Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna: "Little end village") 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 (Hunkpatina).^[7]

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 Minnesota.^[26]

Lakota (Teton or Thítȟuŋwaŋ)[link]

The Sioux likely obtained horses sometime during the seventeenth century (although some historians date the arrival of horses in South Dakota to 1720, and credit the Cheyenne with introducing horse culture to the Lakota). The Teton (Lakota) division of the Sioux emerged as a result of this introduction. Dominating the northern Great Plains with their light cavalry, the western Sioux quickly expanded their territory further to the Rocky Mountains (which they call Heska, "white mountains"). The Lakota once subsisted on the buffalo hunt, and on corn. They acquired corn mostly through trade with the eastern Sioux and their linguistic cousins, the Mandan and Hidatsa along the Missouri.^[7]

Ethnic divisions[link]

Dakota, Nakota and Lakota historic distribution

Womendress of the Sioux

Baby sling of the Sioux

The Sioux are divided into three ethnic groups, the larger of which are divided into sub-groups, and further branched into bands.

• The Santee live on reservations, reserves, and communities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada.

• Most of the Yanktons live on the Yankton Reservation in southeastern South Dakota. Some Yankton live on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation and Crow Creek Reservation. The Yanktonai are divided into Lower Yanktonai, who occupy the Crow Creek Reservation; and Upper Yanktonai, who live in the northern part of Standing Rock Reservation, on the Spirit Lake Reservation in central North Dakota, and in the eastern half of the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. In addition, they reside at several Canadian reserves, including Birdtail, Oak Lake, and Moose Woods.^[4]

• The Lakota are the westernmost of the three groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota.

Today, many Sioux also live outside their reservations.

• Santee division (Eastern Dakota) (Isáŋyathi)^[4]
  • Mdewakantonwan (Bdewékhaŋthuŋwaŋ "Spirit Lake Village")^[4]

    notable persons: Taoyateduta

  • Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, perhaps meaning "Fishing Grounds Village")
  • Wahpekute (Waȟpékhute, "Leaf Archers")^[4]

    notable persons: Inkpaduta

  • Wahpetonwan (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, "Leaf Village")^[4]

• Yankton-Yanktonai division (Western Dakota) (Wičhíyena)
  • Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ, "End Village")^[4]
  • Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, "Little End Village")^[4]
    • Upper Yanktonai
    • Unkpatina^[27] or Lower Yanktonai

    notable persons: Wanata, Chief War Eagle

• Teton division (Lakota) (Thítȟuŋwaŋ,^[4] perhaps meaning "Dwellers on the Prairie"):
  • Oglála (perhaps meaning "Those Who Scatter Their Own")

    notable persons: Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk and Billy Mills (Olympian)

  • Hunkpapa (Húŋkpapȟa,^[4] meaning "Those who Camp by the Door" or "Wanderers")

    notable persons: Sitting Bull

  • Sihasapa (Sihásapa, "Blackfoot Sioux,"^[4] not to be confused with the Algonquian-speaking Blackfeet)
  • Minniconjou (Mnikȟówožu, "Those who Plant by Water")^[4]

    notable persons: Lone Horn, Touch the Clouds

  • Brulé (French translation of Sičháŋǧu, "Burned Thigh")^[4]
  • Sans Arcs (French translation of Itázipčho, "Those Without Bows")^[4]
  • Two Kettles (Oóhenupa, "Two Boilings")^[4]

In popular media[link]

Video clip of a dance performed by a Sioux tribe from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. This is part of a group of films constituting the first appearance of Native Americans in motion pictures

• The Richard Harris film A Man Called Horse and its two sequels depicts Sioux customs and histories.
• The HBO movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee depicts the relocation and reservations of the people from the Sioux perspective, based on the book by Dee Brown.
• The films Dances with Wolves and Thunderheart contain depictions of the Sioux People.
• "Elegy to the Sioux," a poem by Norman Dubie
• The mini-series Into the West depicts the Sioux, specifically the Lakota, during some of first ventures of the "white men" into the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains.
• The novel A Death for Beauty depicts the Lakota Sioux and their battles with the U.S. Cavalry during the Civil War.
• The Film Hidalgo depicts the events of Frank Hopkins, a rider for the United States Army, who was at the Wounded Knee Massacre as he wrestles with his Sioux heritage.
• Aaron Huey's TED presentation "America's Native Prisoners of War." - Sept. 2010^[28]

• Diane Sawyer Takes an In-Depth look at the Young Dreamers and Survivors of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Fighting Against Decades of Neglect Airing Friday, October 14, 2011 on ABC

Famous Sioux[link]

Historical[link]

Chiefs Red Cloud and American Horse (1891)

• Siŋté Gleśká (Spotted Tail) — Brulé chief who resisted joining Red Cloud's War
• Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow) — Chief famous for role in the Dakota War of 1862
• Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull) — Chief famous for role in the Battle of Little Bighorn
• Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse) — Famous for leadership and courage in battle
• Maȟpíya Ičáȟtagye (Touch the Clouds) - Famous for his legendary strength and size, a great warrior
• Maȟpíya Lúta (Red Cloud) — Chief famous for role in Red Cloud's War
• Tȟašúŋke Kȟokípȟapi (Young Man Afraid Of His Horses) — Oglala chief who participated in Red Cloud's War
• Ištáȟba (Sleepy Eye) — Chief of the Sisseton band in the mid-19th century; signed four treaties^[29]
• Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) — Lakota holy man, source of Black Elk Speaks and other books
• Tȟáȟča Hušté (Lame Deer) — Lakota holy man, carried traditional knowledge into modern era
• Ohíyes’a (Charles Eastman) — Author, physician and reformer
• Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington — World War II Fighter Ace and Medal of Honor recipient; 1/4 Sioux
• Waŋbdí Tháŋka (Big Eagle) - Mdewakanton Dakota chief who narrated his account of the Dakota War of 1862
• Tamaha (One Eye) - Mdewekanton Dakota chief who supported the United States in the War of 1812.
• Iŋkpáduta (Scarlet Point) - Waȟpékhute Dakota chief famous for his indomitable opposition to US forces (he took part in all the Sioux Wars from the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre to the Battle of Little Bighorn, and fought until he died)
• Xunka Kuciyedano (Low Dog), Oglala chief who fought with Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn
• Charging Thunder (1877-1929), Blackfoot Sioux chief who was one of the first Pony Express riders and part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1903, but remained in England when the show left for America.

Contemporary[link]

Woodrow Keeble, Medal of Honor recipient.

• Robert "Tree" Cody, Native American flutist (Dakota)
• Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, activist, academic, and writer
• Mary Crow Dog, writer and activist
• Vine Deloria, Jr., activist and essayist
• Indigenous, blues band (Nakota)
• Illinois Jacquet, jazz saxophonist (half Sioux and half African American)
• Eddie Little Sky, actor (Oglala)
• Russell Means, activist (Oglala)
• Ed McGaa, author, (Oglala) CPT US Marine Corp F-4 Phantom Fighter Pilot
• Billy Mills, only American ever to win the 10,000 meters at the Olympics (1964) – Oglala
• Eddie Spears, actor (Lakota Sioux Lower Brule)
• Michael Spears, actor (Lakota Sioux Lower Brule)
• Terry Ree, comedian
• John Trudell, activist, poet, actor (Dakota)
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman, singer and actor (Dakota)
• Kim Winona (1930–1978), actress
• Leonard Peltier, activist, imprisoned for allegedly killing two FBI agents in 1975
• Woodrow Keeble, (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) first Sioux Medal of Honor recipient for his valor during the Korean War
• Luther Standing Bear, Sioux author, actor, and rights activist
• J. Medicine Hat, Comedian, and hypnotist.
• Chaske Spencer, actor
• Waziyatawin (a.k.a. Angela Wilson), author, professor, and activist (from the Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi)

Legacy[link]

A Manitoba Historical Plaque was erected at the Spruce Woods Provincial Park by the province to commemorate Assiniboin (Nakota) First Nation's role in Manitoba's heritage.^[30]

Gallery[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sioux

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Sioux.

• Myths And Legends Of The Sioux
• Native American Heritage Association NAHA - Native American Heritage Association Charity Organization
• A compressed History of the Sioux TED talk by photographer Aaron Huey

Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull in 1882
Tribe	Hunkpapa Lakota
Born	c. 1831[1] Grand River, South Dakota
Died	December 15, 1890(1890-12-15) (aged 58-59) Grand River, South Dakota, Standing Rock Indian Reservation
Native name	Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka (born Hoka Psice)
Known for	Battle of Little Big Horn, resistance to USA
Cause of death	Shot by Indian Police
Resting place	South Dakota
Religious beliefs	Lakota, Roman Catholic (later in life)
Spouse(s)	Light Hair Four Robes Snow-on-Her Seen-by-her-Nation Scarlet Woman
Children	One Bull (adopted son) Crow Foot (son) Many Horses (daughter) Walks Looking (daughter) (adopted daughter)
Parents	Jumping Bull (father) Her-Holy-Door (mother)
Relatives	Big Foot (half brother) White Bull (nephew)
Signature

Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake in Standard Lakota Orthography,^[2] also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. Born near the Grand River in Dakota Territory, he was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

He had a premonition of defeating the cavalry, which motivated his Native American people to a major victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry on June 25, 1876. Months after the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the United States to Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, where he remained until 1881, at which time he surrendered to U.S. forces. A small remnant of his band under Chief Waŋblí Ǧí decided to stay at Wood Mountain. After his return to the United States, he briefly toured as a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, earning $50 a week.

After working as a performer, Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that he would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin at Fort Yates ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by Standing Rock policemen Lieutenant Bull Head (Tatankapah) and Red Tomahawk (Marcelus Chankpidutah) after the police were fired upon by Sitting Bull's supporters. His body was taken to nearby Fort Yates for burial, but in 1953, his remains were possibly exhumed and reburied near Mobridge, South Dakota, by his Lakota family, who wanted his body to be nearer to his birthplace.

Early life[link]

Sitting Bull

By many accounts, Sitting Bull was born in a teepee and was raised to be a warrior near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Dakota Territory. His great-grandson Ernie LaPointe contends that family tradition says he was born at the Yellowstone River near present-day Miles City, Montana.^[3] He was named Jumping Badger at birth.^[4] In traditional Lakota fashion, he was later given one of his father's names, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka, translated as "Sitting Bull", due to a leadership role in a battle between the Lakota and Crow people.

In the Dakota War of 1862, several bands of the Sioux killed 600 settlers and soldiers in south-central Minnesota in response to poor treatment by the government and in an effort to drive the whites away. Despite being embroiled in the American Civil War, the United States Army retaliated in 1863 and 1864, even against bands which had not been involved in the hostilities.^[5] In 1864, two brigades of about 2200 soldiers under Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village. The defenders were led by Sitting Bull, Gall and Inkpaduta.^[5] The Sioux were driven out, but skirmishing continued into August.

In September, Sitting Bull and about 100 Hunkpapa Sioux came across a small party near what is now Marmarth, North Dakota. They had been left behind by a wagon train commanded by Captain James L. Fisk to effect some repairs to an overturned wagon. When he led an attack, Sitting Bull was shot in the left hip by a soldier.^[5] The bullet exited out through the small of his back, and the wound was not too serious.^[6]

Red Cloud's War[link]

Sitting Bull led numerous war parties against Fort Berthold, Fort Stevenson, and Fort Buford and their environs from 1865 through 1868.^[7] Although Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Sioux, his leadership and attacks against forts in the Powder River Country of Montana were supported by Sitting Bull's guerrilla attacks on emigrant parties and smaller forts throughout the upper Missouri River region.

By early 1868, the U.S. government desired a peaceful settlement to Red Cloud's War. It agreed to Red Cloud's demands that Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith be abandoned. Chief Gall of the Hunkpapas (among other representatives of the Hunkpapas, Blackfeet, and Yankton Sioux) signed a form of the Treaty of Fort Laramie on July 2, 1868 at Fort Rice (near Bismarck, North Dakota).^[8] Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty. He continued his hit-and-run attacks on forts in the upper Missouri area throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s.^[9]

The events of 1867–1868 mark a historically debated period of Sitting Bull's life. According to historian Stanley Vestal, who conducted interviews with surviving Hunkpapa in 1930, Sitting Bull was made "Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation" at this time. Later historians and ethnologists have refuted this concept of authority, as the Lakota society was highly decentralised. Lakota bands and their chiefs made individual decisions.

The Great Sioux War of 1876[link]

Sitting Bull's band of Hunkpapa continued to attack migrating parties and forts in the late 1860s. When in 1871 the Northern Pacific Railway conducted a survey for a route across the northern plains directly through Hunkpapa lands, it encountered stiff Sioux resistance.^[10] The same railway people returned the following year accompanied by federal troops. Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa attacked the survey party, which was forced to turn back.^[11] In 1873, the military accompaniment for the surveyors was increased again, but Sitting Bull's forces resisted the survey "most vigorously."^[12]

The Panic of 1873 forced the Northern Pacific Railway's backers (such as Jay Cooke) into bankruptcy. This halted construction of the railroad through Sioux territory. After the discovery and new wealth from gold in California, other men became interested in the potential for gold mining in the Black Hills. In 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, to explore the Black Hills for gold and to determine a suitable location for a military fort in the Hills.^[13] Custer's announcement of gold in the Black Hills triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush. Tensions increased between the Sioux and European Americans' seeking to move into the Black Hills.^[14]

Although Sitting Bull did not attack Custer's expedition in 1874, the US government was increasingly pressured to open the Black Hills to mining and settlement. It was alarmed at reports of Sioux depredations (encouraged by Sitting Bull). In November 1875, the government ordered all Sioux bands outside the Great Sioux Reservation to move onto the reservation, knowing full well that not all would comply. As of February 1, 1876, the Interior Department certified as "hostile" those bands who continued to live off the reservation.^[15] This certification allowed the military to pursue Sitting Bull and Lakota bands as "hostiles".

According to the historian Margot Liberty, many Lakota bands allied with the Cheyenne during the Plains Wars because they thought the other nation was under attack by the US. Given this connection, she suggests the major war should have been called "The Great Cheyenne War". Since 1860, the Northern Cheyenne had led several battles among the Plains Indians. Before 1876, the US Army had destroyed seven Cheyenne camps, more than those of any other nation.^[16]

However, other historians such as Robert Utley^[17] and Jerome Greene^[18][19] also use Lakota oral testimony as the basis for their conclusions that the Lakota coalition, of which Sitting Bull was the ostensible head, was the primary target of the federal government's pacification campaign.

Battle of the Little Bighorn[link]

Little Bighorn battlefield

During the period 1868–1876, Sitting Bull developed into the most important of Native American chiefs. After the Laramie Treaty of 1868 and the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, many traditional Sioux warriors, such as Red Cloud of the Oglala and Spotted Tail of the Brulé, moved to reside permanently on the reservations. They were largely dependent for subsistence on the US Indian agencies. Many other chiefs, including members of Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa band such as Gall, at times lived temporarily at the agencies. They needed the supplies at a time when white encroachment and the depletion of buffalo herds reduced their resources and challenged Native American independence.

In 1875, the Northern Cheyenne, Hunkpapa, Oglala, Sans Arc, and Minneconjou camped together for a Sun Dance, with both the Cheyenne medicine man White Bull or Ice and Sitting Bull in association. This ceremonial alliance preceded their fighting together in 1876.^[16] Sitting Bull had a major revelation.

At the climactic moment, "Sitting Bull intoned, 'The Great Spirit has given our enemies to us. We are to destroy them. We do not know who they are. They may be soldiers.' Ice too observed, 'No one then knew who the enemy were – of what tribe.'...They were soon to find out."(Utley 1992: 122–24)

Sitting Bull's refusal to adopt any dependence on the white man meant that at times he and his small band of warriors lived isolated on the Plains. When Native Americans were threatened by the United States, numerous members from various Sioux bands and other tribes, such as the North Cheyenne, came to Sitting Bull's camp. His reputation for "strong medicine" developed as he continued to evade the European Americans.

After the January 1st ultimatum of 1876, when the US Army began to track down Sioux and others living off the reservation as hostiles, Native Americans gathered at Sitting Bull's camp. The chief took an active role in encouraging this "unity camp". He sent scouts to the reservations to recruit warriors, and told the Hunkpapa to share supplies with those Native Americans who joined them. An example of his generosity was Sitting Bull's taking care of Wooden Leg's Northern Cheyenne tribe. They had been impoverished by Captain Reynold's March 17, 1876 attack and fled to Sitting Bull's camp for safety.^[16]

The Hunkpapa chief provided resources to sustain the new recruits. Over the course of the first half of 1876, Sitting Bull's camp continually expanded, as natives joined him for safety in numbers. His leadership had attracted the warriors and families of an extensive village, estimated at more than 10,000 people. General Custer came across this large camp on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull did not take a direct military role in the ensuing battle; as a head chief, he was charged with defensive responsibilities.

Custer’s 7th Cavalry advance party of General Alfred Howe Terry’s column attacked Cheyenne and Lakota tribes at their camp on the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 1876. The U.S. Army did not realize how large the camp was. More than 2,000 Native Americans had left their reservations to follow Sitting Bull. Inspired by a vision of Sitting Bull’s, in which he saw U.S. soldiers being killed as they entered the tribe’s camp, the Cheyenne and Lakota fought back. Custer's badly outnumbered troops lost ground quickly and were forced to retreat. The tribes led a counter-attack against the soldiers on a nearby ridge, ultimately annihilating most of them.

The Native Americans' victory celebrations were short-lived. Public shock and outrage at Custer's death and defeat, and the government's knowledge about the remaining Sioux, led them to assign thousands more soldiers to the area. Over the next year, the new American military forces pursued the Lakota, forcing many of the Native Americans to surrender. Sitting Bull refused to surrender and in May 1877 led his band across the border into Saskatchewan, Canada. He remained in exile for many years near Wood Mountain, refusing a pardon and the chance to return.^[20]

Surrender[link]

Hunger and cold eventually forced Sitting Bull, his family, and nearly 200 other Sioux in his band to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford. He told the soldiers that he wished to regard them and the white race as friends. Two weeks later, the Army transferred Sitting Bull and his band to Fort Yates, the military post located adjacent to the Standing Rock Agency, which straddles the present-day boundary of North and South Dakota.

Sitting Bull and his band of 185 people were kept separate from the other Hunkpapa gathered at the agency. Army officials were concerned that the famed chief would stir up trouble among the recently surrendered northern bands. On August 26, 1881, he was visited by the census taker William T. Selwyn, who counted twelve people in the Hunkpapa leader's immediate family. Forty-one families, totaling 195 people, were recorded in Sitting Bull's band.^[21]

The military decided to transfer him and his band to Fort Randall, to be held as prisoners of war. Loaded onto a steamboat, the band of 172 people was sent down the Missouri River to Fort Randall (near present-day Pickstown, South Dakota on the southern border of the state). There they spent the next 20 months. They were allowed to return north to the Standing Rock Agency in May 1883.

Wild West Show participation[link]

In 1884, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation to join Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show as a Show Indian. He earned about $50 a week for riding once around the arena, where he was a popular attraction. Although it is rumored that he cursed his audiences in his native tongue during the show, the historian Utley contends that he did not.^[22] Historians have reported that Sitting Bull gave speeches about his desire for education for the young, and reconciling relations between the Sioux and whites.^[23] The historian Edward Lazarus wrote that Sitting Bull reportedly cursed his audience in Lakota in 1884, during an opening address celebrating the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway.^[24]

Sitting Bull stayed with the show for four months before returning home. During that time, audiences began to consider him a celebrity and a romanticized warrior. He earned a small fortune by charging for his autograph and picture, although he often gave his money away to the homeless and beggars.^[25] In 1883, Sitting Bull embraced the Roman Catholic faith and was baptized by a French-speaking Jesuit priest.^[26][27]

Death and burial[link]

"Wild scene", "Squaws death chant heard in every direction"

Monument at Sitting Bull's grave, Mobridge, South Dakota, 2003

Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency after working in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1890, James McLaughlin, the U.S. Indian Agent at Fort Yates on Standing Rock Agency, feared that the Lakota leader was about to flee the reservation with the Ghost Dancers, so he ordered the police to arrest him.^[28] On 14 December 1890, McLaughlin drafted a letter to Lt. Bullhead that included instructions and a plan to capture the chief. The plan called for the arrest to take place at dawn on December 15, and advised the use of a light spring wagon to facilitate the chief's removal before his followers could rally. Bullhead decided against using the wagon. He intended to have the police officers force Sitting Bull to mount a horse immediately after the arrest.^[29]

Around 5:30 a.m. on December 15, 39 police officers and four volunteers approached Sitting Bull's house. They surrounded the house, knocked and entered. Bullhead told Sitting Bull that he was under arrest and led him outside.^[30] The camp awakened and men converged at the house of their chief. As Bullhead ordered Sitting Bull to mount a horse, he explained that the Indian Affairs agent needed to see him and then he could return to his house. Sitting Bull refused to comply and the police used force on him. The Sioux in the village were enraged. A Sioux known as Catch-the-Bear shouldered his rifle and shot Bullhead who, in return, fired his revolver into the chest of Sitting Bull.^[31] Another police officer, Red Tomahawk, shot Sitting Bull in the head, and the chief dropped to the ground. He died between 12 and 1 p.m.

A close-quarters fight erupted, and within minutes several men were dead. Six policemen were killed immediately and two more died shortly after the fight. Sitting Bull and seven of his supporters lay dead, along with two horses.^[32]

Sitting Bull's body was taken to Fort Yates to be placed in a coffin (made by the Army carpenter)^[33] and for burial. In 1953 Lakota family members exhumed what they believed to be his remains, to be reinterred near Mobridge, South Dakota, his birthplace.^[34][35]

Legacy[link]

Sitting Bull, 1882

Following Sitting Bull's death, his cabin on the Grand River was taken to Chicago to become part of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The cabin was exhibited along with Native American dances.^[36]

Sitting Bull was the subject of, or a featured character in, many Hollywood motion pictures and documentaries. Among them are:

• Sitting Bull: The Hostile Sioux Indian Chief (1914),
• Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre (1927),
• Sitting Bull (1954),
• Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), and
• Into the West (2005)
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007).

As time passed, Sitting Bull became a symbol and archetype of Native American resistance movements as well as a figure celebrated by his former enemies:

• On September 14, 1989, the United States Postal Service released a Great Americans series 28¢ postage stamp featuring a likeness of Sitting Bull.^[37]
• On March 6, 1996, Standing Rock College was renamed Sitting Bull College in his honor. Sitting Bull College serves as an institution of higher education on Sitting Bull's home of Standing Rock in North Dakota and South Dakota.
• The American historian Gary Clayton Anderson of the University of Oklahoma published Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood a revisionist examination of the Lakota medicine man. Anderson stresses the Little Big Horn not so much as a mishap by Custer but in light of past succeses the Lakota Nation and the merits of Sitting Bull himself.^[38]
• Legoland Billund, the first Legoland park, contains a Lego sculpture of Sitting Bull, the largest sculpture in the park.
• Sitting Bull is featured as the leader for the Native American Civilization in the computer game Civilization IV.^[39]
• Sitting Bull is lionized as one of 13 great Americans in President Barack Obama's children's book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.^[40]
• In August 2011, a research team led by Eske Willerslev, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Copenhagen, announced their intention to sequence the genome of Sitting Bull, with the approval of his descendents using a hair sample obtained during his lifetime.^[41]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Sitting Bull's grave at Fort Yates, ca. 1906

• 

  Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill in 1885

• 

  Sitting Bull in Pierre, South Dakota on his way to Standing Rock Agency from Fort Randall

• 

  Sitting Bull (Tatonka-I-Yatanka), a Hunkpapa Sioux, 1885

See also[link]

• Black Elk
• Henry Mabb
• Catherine Weldon

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sitting Bull

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sitting Bull

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Sitting Bull.

• Sitting Bull's ledger drawings, Smithsonian Institution
• American Public Media Speaking of Faith interview of Ernie LaPointe entitled "Tatanaka Iyotake: Reimagining Sitting Bull"
• PBS The West article on Sitting Bull
• The Sitting Bull Monument Foundation in Mobridge, South Dakota
• "Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart", feature length documentary film on the life of Sitting Bull
• Historica’s Heritage Minute video docudrama about Sitting Bull. (Adobe Flash Player)
• Kuzriel Meir (Jan 01, 2001). "Sitting Bull". Sioux Indian Leader. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=955. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 
•  "Sitting Bull". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.