Read complete books and articles on: Sioux Indians

Sioux - or Dakota, confederation of Native North American tribes, the dominant group of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock, which is divided into several separate branches (see Native American languages). The Sioux, or Dakota, consisted of seven tribes in three major divisions: Wahpekute, Mdewakantonwan, Wahpetonwan, Sisitonwan (who together formed the Santee or Eastern division, sometimes referred to as the Dakota), the Ihanktonwan, or Yankton, and the Ihanktonwana, or Yanktonai (who form the Middle division, sometimes referred to as the Nakota), and the Titonwan, or Teton (who form the Western division, sometimes referred to as the Lakota). The Tetons, originally a single band, divided into seven sub-bands after the move to the plains, these seven including the Hunkpapa, Sihasapa (or Blackfoot), and Oglala.

Migration toward the Southwest

The Sioux were first noted historically in the Jesuit Relation of 1640, when they were living in what is now Minnesota. Their traditions indicate that they had moved there some time before from the northeast. They were noted in 1678 by the French explorer Daniel Duluth and in 1680 by Father Louis Hennepin in the Mille Lacs region in Minnesota. Their migration had been in a southwesterly direction in the face of the hostile Ojibwa, who had been equipped with guns by Europeans.

In the mid-18th cent., having driven the Cheyenne and Kiowa out of the Black Hills, the Sioux inhabited the N Great Plains and the western prairies—mainly in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and up into the bordering provinces of Canada. They then numbered at least 30,000. The Tetons, numbering some 15,000, were the most populous of the seven tribes, and the Oglala Sioux, the largest group of the Teton, numbered some 3,000. The Sioux had a typical Plains-area culture, including buffalo hunting and the sun dance.

Relations with White Settlers

In relations with the white settlers all the divisions of the Sioux have a similar history. The Sioux became friendly with the British after the fall of the French power and supported the British against the United States in the American Revolution and (with the exception of one chief, Tohami, also known as Rising Moose) in the War of 1812. The United States concluded treaties with the Sioux in 1815, 1825, and 1851. A portion of the Sioux under Little Crow rose in 1862 and massacred more than 800 settlers and soldiers in Minnesota; this revolt was suppressed but unrest continued.

In 1867 a treaty was concluded by which the Sioux gave up a large section of territory and agreed to retire to a reservation in SW Dakota before 1876. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the subsequent rush of prospectors brought resistance under the leadership of such chiefs as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Rain-in-the-Face, Crazy Horse, American Horse, and Gall. In this revolt occurred the famous last stand by Gen. George Armstrong Custer. The last major conflict fought by the Sioux was the battle of Wounded Knee, Dec. 29, 1890, which resulted in the massacre of more than 200 members of the tribe.

The Sioux Today

In Feb., 1973, about 200 supporters, mostly Sioux, of the American Indian Movement seized control of the hamlet of Wounded Knee, S.Dak., demanding U.S. Senate investigations of Native American conditions. The occupation lasted 70 days, during which about 300 persons were arrested by federal agents. In 1979 the Sioux were awarded $105 million for the taking of their lands, resolving a legal action begun in 1923. Today they constitute one of the largest Native American groups, living mainly on reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana; the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is the second largest in the United States. Many are engaged in farming and ranching, including the raising of bison. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux have a large casino on their reservation in Minnesota, but Oglala efforts to establish one at impoverished Pine Ridge have met with only partial success. Indian Country Today, a successful Native American newspaper, was started at Pine Ridge in 1981; it is now based in Rapid City, S.Dak. In 1990 there were more than 100,000 Sioux in the United States and more than 10,000 in Canada.

Bibliography

See R. H. Ruby, The Oglala Sioux (1955); G. E. Hyde, A Sioux Chronicle (1956); C. M. Oehler, The Great Sioux Uprising (1959); K. Carley, The Sioux Uprising of 1862 (1961); R. M. Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1963); R. Hassrick, The Sioux (1964); E. Nurge, ed., The Modern Sioux (1970); R. Burnette, The Tortured Americans (1971); E. T. Denig, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri (1975).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Sioux Indians

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

History of the Santee Sioux: United States Indian Policy on Trial » Read Now
by Roy W. Meyer. 472 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

"This is a lucid and detailed account of the tragic effects of frontier expansion upon the native inhabitants of Minnesota. It depicts the condition of the eastern Sioux in the era of fur trading, considers the treaties that exchanged land for annuities, interprets the uprising of 1862, and traces...
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"This is a lucid and detailed account of the tragic effects of frontier expansion upon the native inhabitants of Minnesota. It depicts the condition of the eastern Sioux in the era of fur trading, considers the treaties that exchanged land for annuities, interprets the uprising of 1862, and traces Santee history."-Midcontinent American Studies Journal"A remarkably conprehensive study. . . . [Meyer] makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of American Indian policy. . . . The documentation is exceptionally full. . . . The tone throughout is judicious and moderate, yet the author's deep sympathy for his subject is evident."-Francis Paul Prucha, Minnesota History."This volume adds immeasurably to our historical knowledge about the fate of the Mdewakatons, Wahpekutes, Wahpetons, and Sissetons, the bands or divisions that constitute the Santee Sioux. . . . Meyer joins the few historians. . .who continue their studies beyond the military subjugation of the American Indian."-Donald J. Berthrong, Historical Society of Southern California."One of the most substantial additions to our knowledge of the Dakota to appear."-Ethnohistory."The book adds insight to the motivations of such famous individuals as Little Crow and Wabasha as well as the influential white men such as Taliaferro, Galbraith, and Bishop Whipple. . . . [It] not only brings the story of the Santee to its immediacy but offers the opportunity for this nation to learn something from history and profit from it."-Royal B. Hassrick, Colorado Magazine."The first real effort to deal with the history of this eastern division of the Sioux Nation. . . . it is all well written and rings true."-Choice.Since its original publication by the University of Nebraska Press in 1967, History of the Santee Sioux has become known as the definitive work on its subject. Now, in a revised edition, Roy W. Meyer brings the story of the Santees up to date.Roy W. Meyer is a professor emeritus of English at Mankato State University. His works include The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri: The Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras, also published by the University of Nebraska Press.
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2.

The Dust Rose Like Smoke: The Subjugation of the Zulu and the Sioux » Read Now
by James O. Gump. 178 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

In 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors annihilated Custer's Seventh Cavalry on the Little Bighorn. Three years later and half a world away, a British force was wiped out by Zulu warriors at Isandhlwana in South Africa. In both cases the total defeat of regular army troops by forces regarded as...
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In 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors annihilated Custer's Seventh Cavalry on the Little Bighorn. Three years later and half a world away, a British force was wiped out by Zulu warriors at Isandhlwana in South Africa. In both cases the total defeat of regular army troops by forces regarded as undisciplined barbarian tribesmen stunned an imperial nation. The similarities between the two frontier encounters have long been noted, but James O. Gump is the first to scrutinize them in a comparative context. "This study issues a challenge to American exceptionalism", he writes. Viewing both episodes as part of a global pattern of intensified conflict in the latter 1800s resulting from Western dominion over a vast portion of the globe, he persuasively traces the comparisons in their origins and aftermath.
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3.

Before the Great Spirit: The Many Faces of Sioux Spirituality » Read Now
by Julian Rice. 178 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

...shall be hung and the Indians will bury me as a...Utley266 Other Sioux people have turned...truly understand the Indians respect for Mother...efforts to assist Sioux...
4.

The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 » Read Now
by James Mooney. 486 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

Responding to the rapid spread of the Ghost Dance among tribes of the western United States in the early 1890s, James Mooney set out to describe and understand the phenomenon. He visited Wovoka, the Ghost Dance prophet, at his home in Nevada and traced the progress of the Ghost Dance from place to...
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Responding to the rapid spread of the Ghost Dance among tribes of the western United States in the early 1890s, James Mooney set out to describe and understand the phenomenon. He visited Wovoka, the Ghost Dance prophet, at his home in Nevada and traced the progress of the Ghost Dance from place to place, describing the ritual and recording the distinctive song lyrics of seven separate tribes.
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5.

Warpath: The True Story of the Fighting Sioux Told in a Biography of Chief White Bull » Read Now
by Stanley Vestal. 292 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...dealing with the wars of Sioux Indians within living memory...stolen. Afterward the Sioux learned, from the Crow Indians at a peace council...1862, the Hunkpapa Sioux were...
6.

My People, the Sioux » Read Now
by Luther Standing Bear, E. A. Brininstool. 296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

When it was first published in 1928, Luther Standing Bear's autobiographical account of his tribe and tribesmen was hailed by Van Wyck Brooks as 'one of the most engaging and veracious we have ever had.' It remains a landmark in Indian literature, among the first books about Indians written from the Indian point of view by an Indian.
7.

Myths and Legends of the Sioux » Read Now
by Marie L. McLaughlin. 200 pgs.

Collections: History, Literature, Entire Library

...Medawakanton Band of the Sioux Tribe of Indians. My father, Joseph...relations with the Indians of that agency...take charge of the Sioux who had then but...very near to...
8.

Wigwam Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold » Read Now
by Charles A. Eastman, Elaine Goodale Eastman. 260 pgs.

Collections: History, Literature, Entire Library
9.

Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877 » Read Now
by Jerome A. Greene. 336 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

'Perhaps some prefer myth to reality, but those who wish to know what it was really like on campaign in the West in the 1870s would scarcely do better than to read this riveting account.'--Washington Times
10.

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux » Read Now
by John G. Neihardt. 298 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library
11.

Teton Sioux Music and Culture » Read Now
by Frances Densmore. 674 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
12.

Frontier Regulars the United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 (Chap. Fourteen "Sitting Bull, 1870-76" and Chap. Fifteen "The Conquest of the Sioux, 1876-81") » Read Now
by Robert M. Utley. 462 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...they settled, the Indians found no welcome...happening to the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes...Plains they were the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho...these "hostile" Indians engaged...
13.

The Medicine Men: Oglala Sioux Ceremony and Healing » Read Now
by Thomas H. Lewis. 232 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

For the residents of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, mainstream medical care is often supplemented or replaced by a host of traditional practices: the Sun Dance, the yuwipi sing, the heyok'a ceremony, herbalism, the Sioux Religion, the peyotism of the Native American Church, and other...
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For the residents of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, mainstream medical care is often supplemented or replaced by a host of traditional practices: the Sun Dance, the yuwipi sing, the heyok'a ceremony, herbalism, the Sioux Religion, the peyotism of the Native American Church, and other medicines, or sources of healing. Thomas H. Lewis, a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist, describes those practices as he encountered them in the late 1960s and early 1970s.During many months he studied with leading practitioners. He describes the healers-their techniques, personal histories and qualities, the problems addressed and results obtained-and examines past as well as present practices. The result is an engrossing account that may profoundly affect the way readers view the dynamics of therapy for mind and body.Retired from the National Naval Medical Center, where he served as chief of psychiatry, and from Georgetown University School of Medicine, Thomas H. Lewis now lives in Montana.
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14.

Stories of the Sioux » Read Now
by Luther Standing Bear. 86 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...even the brave Sioux were amazed. Since that time both Indians and white men have...several bands of Sioux had come together...were thousands of Indians in the...