The Sioux of the Dakotas

Tribe: The Sioux includes the Lakota and the Dakota, but not the Nakota, who broke away from the Sioux Nation in 1640. The Sioux refer to the Great Sioux Nation as the "Ochethi Sakowin."  There are thirteen tribes combined into seven Sioux nations: the Teton, the Mdewakanton, the Wahpeton, the Wahpakhute, the Sisseton, the Yankton, and the Yanktonai.

Meaning of Name: The name "Sioux" is an abbreviated form of the French word "Nadouessioux," which is based on an Ojibwe or Chippewa word for "barbarian" or "little snake." "Lakota" and "Dakota" both mean  "ally" or "friend," which is why the Sioux prefer to refer to themselves as the "Lakota" and the "Dakota." Culturally, there is no difference between the Lakota and the Dakota. The actual difference is in the dialects used by the tribes.

Location: The original Sioux tribes lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. They now live in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada, so most of them still live on their old stomping grounds.

Original Language: Siouan.

Tribal Affiliations: The French and the Arikara, for purposes of trading. They also allied themselves with the Cheyenne for purposes of waging war

Traditional Enemies: the Nakota, the Kiowa, the Chippewa, the Pawnee, the Cheyenne and the Americans.

Traditional Style of Housing: Three-pole teepees, like most of the nomadic People of the Plains.  These teepees could be set up or taken down by the women who made, erected and owned them, in about an hour. They probably also had larger tents that served as meeting-places, and smaller ones that served as sweat-lodges and menstrual-lodges.

Traditional Attire: Like most of the People of the Plains, the women wore long decorated deerskin or elk-skin rectangular-shaped long dresses and the men wore breech-cloths, leggings and buckskin tunics. They usually wore their hair long or in braids. Many adopted European styles once they met white people, and decorated their shirts and dresses with long silk ribbons, cowrie shells, elk teeth, quills and beads.

Traditional Foods: The Santee and the Yankton-Yanktonai Sioux lived fairly settled lives and so had time to garden and work the land. At that time, the women grew or gathered wild rice, corn, potatoes, buffalo, elk, deer, chokeberries, rhubarb, asparagus, mushrooms, ramps, radishes, hazelnuts, hickory nuts and chestnuts. The Sioux men hunted or trapped pheasant, partridge, turkey, duck, turtle, bear, deer, elk, muskrat, trout, salmon, walleye and bison. Those Santee-Sioux who live in Minnesota still enjoy these foods. The Teton-Sioux were the buffalo-hunters and their diet was limited to corn (which they traded to obtain), buffalo, pemmican, parched corn, dried fruits, nuts and other easily-transported foods.

Position of Women: Women did the cooking, cleaning, childcare, hide preparation and sewing, and put up and took down the teepees, which were their property. This was a hunting and war-making culture, and the main power rested with the men.

Sioux Courtship: If a young Sioux man fell in love but was unsure if his love would be returned, he would purchase a love potion from a medicine man. If he drank it and did not get sick, this love potion was supposed to make him irresistible to the object of his affections.  If he could not stomach the idea of drinking elk urine or whatever was in the potion, he could try to wow her by playing a flute outside her teepee. If she came out, he knew she was interested. If not, she wasn't. Another way for a young Sioux man to meet the girl of his dreams was to waylay her on a path that he knew she commonly took. If she stopped, she was interested, and if she didn't, she wasn't. However, if after everything that he had done to show his interest, and she still didn't want to marry him, he had one trick left: He would present the parents of his love-interest with gifts of blankets, food, fine clothing or horses. If the father of his intended accepted the gift, the match was made and the indifferent bride had no voice in the matter at all. On the other hand, if a young Sioux maiden wanted a particular young man, she would stand outside her teepee wrapped in a blanket until he came by, at which time, she would open it to him. If he stepped inside her cocoon, the match was made, and all that he would have to do at that point would be to present her father with the offering of food, fine clothing, blankets, and anywhere from one to four horses.

Interesting Tidbits: The Sioux of the Yankton and Yanktonai tribes quarry pipestone, which is a soft stone used to make calumet, or peace pipes.... The Sioux have four all-male societies. The Akichita are the young warriors, hunters and police-men. The Naca are the old men who are the law-makers who choose seven to ten men, the Wichasa Ithanchan, to enforce them. The Wichasa Ithanchan, in turn, choose four "Shirt Wearers" to settle quarrels. Below them in rank are the Wakichunza, or "Pipe Holders" who organize events, regulate peace ceremonies and supervise the warriors and the hunters.

Traditional Religion: Wakan Tanka, Midewiwin, Christianity

The Sioux and Slavery: Like the Iroquois, the Sioux took prisoners in battle and were known to adopt them to take the place of the tribal member who had been killed. If they were kept as slaves, they were treated well as one would treat valued property, and were assigned the menial tasks, or were traded for goods and credit.

Current Population: There are more than 170,000 registered Sioux.

Current Sources of Tribal Income: Casinos and hotels, manufacturing, gas stations and smoke shops. Nonetheless, the poverty rate among the Sioux is very high, and suicides among young Sioux is at 20%.

Famous Sioux: Chief Sitting Bull, who defeated Custer at Little Big Horn. Also Crazy Horse, Black Elk, and Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a WWII hero.