The Sioux are a group Native American peoples who traditionally spoke similar languages. The group includes three main divisions: the Dakota (also called Santee), the Nakota (also called Yankton), and the Lakota (also called Teton). The name Sioux comes from Nadouessioux, meaning “snake.” The name was given to them by their traditional enemies, the Ojibwa.

Society and culture

Originally the Sioux lived in the area around Lake Superior. There they hunted, fished, grew corn (maize), and gathered wild rice and beans. However, by the mid-17th century the Ojibwa, armed with guns given to them by French traders, had driven the Sioux from their homeland. The Dakota established themselves in a new territory in present-day Minnesota. The Lakota and the Nakota moved farther west. The Nakota settled on the prairies east of the Missouri River, while the Lakota came to live on the northern plains in present-day North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

The Dakota largely continued their old way of life. Like them, the Nakota also still lived in settled villages and grew corn. But in their new location they also started hunting buffalo (bison). The Lakota gave up farming altogether, embracing the ways of other Plains Indians whose lives were devoted to following the herds of buffalo.

The Lakota obtained everything they needed to live from the buffalo. Buffalo meat was their most important food. Buffalo hides were used to make clothing and covers for their portable cone-shaped houses, known as tepees. Tools were made from buffalo bones. Men belonging to military societies oversaw the buffalo hunts. In addition, they led the Lakota in wars against enemy tribes to protect their vast hunting grounds. The Lakota also performed many ceremonies to ensure their success on the hunt and in battle. One of the most important was the annual Sun Dance, during which young men made great displays of bravery.

History

By the mid-19th century white settlers were moving into much of Sioux territory. To keep the Lakota and other Plains tribes from attacking the settlers, the United States negotiated the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851. The treaty assigned specific territories to the various tribes, but the peace it established did not last long.

By 1862 the Dakota had been pushed off their best lands, leaving them unable to feed themselves. Starving and angry, warriors led by Little Crow attacked white settlements and killed hundreds of people. United States troops quickly put down what became known as the Minnesota Uprising. Thirty-three Dakota warriors were hanged, and the rest were confined to a small reservation. Little Crow escaped but was shot the following year.

In the mid-1860s Lakota men under Red Cloud began attacking settlers traveling along the Bozeman Trail, which ran through the Lakota's hunting grounds. The United States Army was unable to defeat Red Cloud. To end the attacks, in 1868 the United States met Red Cloud's demand that it abandon all Army forts along the trail.

Despite this victory, the territory of the Lakota was again threatened in 1874. In that year gold was discovered in the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Lakota. The Lakota refused to be pushed off the land, choosing instead to go to war with the United States Army. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other chiefs at first won victories, including the battle of Little Bighorn in which George Armstrong Custer's troops were wiped out. This great victory, in June 1876, was to be the last. Months later the warriors were defeated.

Most Lakota settled on reservations, but some still refused to do so. Sioux resistance to reservation life did not end until 1890, when United States troops slaughtered hundreds of Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek. In 1973 an activist group called the American Indian Movement protested the United States government's treatment of Native Americans by occupying the site of the Wounded Knee massacre for 71 days. (See also Wounded Knee.)

At the end of the 20th century about 108,000 Sioux lived in the United States. About three-fourths lived on reservations in Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. About 10,000 more Sioux lived in Canada.