104-462: Standing Bear ( c. 1829 –1908) ( Ponca official orthography: Maⁿchú-Naⁿzhíⁿ /Macunajin; other spellings: Ma-chú-nu-zhe , Ma-chú-na-zhe or Mantcunanjin pronounced [mãtʃuꜜnãʒĩꜜ] ) was a Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in 1879 in Omaha that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" and have
208-401: A burial tree or scaffold for one year before a ground burial. A platform to rest the body was put up on trees or, alternately, placed on four upright poles to elevate the body from the ground. The bodies were securely wrapped in blankets and cloths, along with many of the deceased personal belongings and were always placed with their head pointed towards the south. Mourning individuals spoke to
312-419: A common belief amongst Siouan communities that the spirit of the deceased travels to an afterlife . In traditional beliefs, this spiritual journey was believed to start once funeral proceedings were complete and spanned over a course of four days. Mourning family and friends took part in that four-day wake in order to accompany the spirit to its resting place. In the past, bodies were not embalmed and put up on
416-522: A cow, and in the process sparked a battle in which Chief Conquering Bear was killed. Though intertribal fighting had existed before the arrival of white settlers, some of the post-treaty intertribal fighting can be attributed to mass killings of bison by white settlers and government agents. The U.S. Army did not enforce treaty regulations and allowed hunters onto Native land to slaughter buffalo, providing protection and sometimes ammunition. One hundred thousand buffalo were killed each year until they were on
520-568: A document allowing removal to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma ). White Eagle and other Ponca leaders later claimed that because of a mistranslation, he had understood that they were to move to the Omaha Reservation , not to the Indian Territory. In February 1877, ten Ponca chiefs, including Standing Bear, accompanied Inspector Edward C. Kemble to Indian Territory to view several tracts of land. After viewing lands on
624-732: A flood of European-American settlers, and the United States government pressured the Nebraska tribes to sell their land. At the same time, they were suffering raids from the North by the Brulé and Oglala. Because tribal land claims overlapped, the Omaha treaty of 1854 included a cession of a 70-mile-mile-wide strip (110 km) of land between Aowa Creek and the Niobrara, which was also claimed by
728-404: A good relative. No Dakota who participated in that life will dispute that… every other consideration was secondary—property, personal ambition, glory, good times, life itself. Without that aim and constant struggle to attain it, the people would no longer be Dakotas in truth. They would no longer even be human. To be a good Dakota, then, was to be humanized, civilized. And to be civilized was to keep
832-412: A leader appointed by an elder council and were nicknamed after a prominent member or memorable event associated with the band. Dakota ethnographer Ella Cara Deloria noted the kinship ties were all-important, they dictated and demanded all phrases of traditional life: "I can safely say that the ultimate aim of Dakota life, stripped of accessories, was quite simple: one must obey kinship rules; one must be
936-681: A number of creation stories within the tribes. One widely noted creation story for Dakota people is at Bdóte , the area where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet. Lakota people relate to Wind Cave in South Dakota as their site of emergence. The ancestral Sioux most likely lived in the Central Mississippi Valley region and later in Minnesota for at least two or three thousand years. The ancestors of
1040-563: A number of the others. The treaty was broken almost immediately after its inception by the Lakota and Cheyenne attacking the Crow over the next two years. In 1858, the failure of the United States to prevent the mass immigration of miners and settlers into Colorado during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush , also did not help matters. They took over Indian lands in order to mine them, "against the protests of
1144-821: A significant portion of southern Minnesota. In the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $ 1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an acre. However, the American government kept more than 80% of the funds with only the interest (5% for 50 years) being paid to the Dakota. The U.S. set aside two reservations for the Sioux along the Minnesota River , each about 20 miles (30 km) wide and 70 miles (110 km) long. Later
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#17327835340401248-503: A spiritual belief of how human beings should ideally act and relate to other humans, the natural world, the spiritual world, and to the cosmos. The thiyóšpaye represents the political and economic structure of traditional society. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the different Očhéthi Šakówiŋ villages (oyáte, "tribe/nation") consisted of many thiyóšpaye ("camp circles"), which were large extended families united by kinship (thiwáhe, "immediate family"). Thiyóšpaye varied in size, were led by
1352-686: A standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, which never came. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne for the Black Hills , who had earlier taken the region from the Kiowa . The Cheyenne then moved west to the Powder River country , and the Lakota made the Black Hills their home. As their territory expanded, so did
1456-548: A verb * -a·towe· meaning "to speak a foreign language". The current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is Bwaanag (singular Bwaan ), meaning "roasters". Presumably, this refers to the style of cooking the Sioux used in the past. In recent times, some of the tribes have formally or informally reclaimed traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is also known as the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte, and
1560-530: Is Ptesáŋwiŋ, White Buffalo Calf Woman , who came as an intermediary between Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka and humankind to teach them how to be good relatives by introducing the Seven Sacred Rites and the čhaŋnúŋpa ( sacred pipe ). The seven ceremonies are Inípi (purification lodge), Haŋbléčheyapi ( crying for vision ), Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi ( Sun Dance ), Huŋkalowaŋpi (making of relatives), Išnáthi Awíčhalowaŋpi (female puberty ceremony), Tȟápa Waŋkáyeyapi (throwing of
1664-572: Is a "person" under the law and entitled to its rights and protection. "The right of expatriation is a natural, inherent and inalienable right and extends to the Indian as well as to the more fortunate white race," the judge concluded. Years later, blind and in failing health, the attorney Poppleton reflected on his final court plea for Standing Bear: "I cannot recall any two hours' work of my life with which I feel better satisfied." The army immediately freed Standing Bear and his followers. The case gained
1768-479: Is called United States ex rel. Standing Bear v. Crook . General Crook was named as the formal defendant because he was holding the Ponca under color of law . As the trial drew to a close, the judge announced that Chief Standing Bear would be allowed to make a speech in his own behalf. Raising his right hand, Standing Bear proceeded to speak. Among his words were, "That hand is not the color of yours, but if I prick it,
1872-737: The Omaha Daily Herald , publicized the Poncas' story widely. The attorney John L. Webster offered his services pro bono and was joined by Andrew J. Poppleton , chief attorney of the Union Pacific Railroad . They aided Standing Bear, who in April 1879 sued for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in Omaha, Nebraska . Acting as interpreter for Standing Bear was Susette LaFlesche , an accomplished and educated bilingual Omaha of mixed-race background. The case
1976-472: The Cheyenne , Sioux, Arapaho , Crow , Assiniboine , Mandan , Hidatsa , and Arikara Nations. The treaty was an agreement between nine more or less independent parties. The treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes as among themselves. The United States acknowledged that all the land covered by the treaty was Indian territory and did not claim any part of it. The boundaries agreed to in
2080-637: The Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions : the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translation: "friend" or "ally" referring to the alliances between the bands). Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or "Seven Council Fires". The term "Sioux", an exonym from a French transcription (" Nadouessioux ") of the Ojibwe term Nadowessi , can refer to any ethnic group within
2184-639: The Loup in Nebraska, killing many and burning half of the earth lodges, and 30 years later, the Lakota again inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee during the Massacre Canyon battle near Republican River. By the 1850s, the Lakota were known as the most powerful tribe on the Plains. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851, between U.S. treaty commissioners and representatives of
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#17327835340402288-737: The Missouri River . With the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) , however, the government illegally gave the new Ponca reservation to the Santee Dakota as part of its negotiation to end Red Cloud's War . The government soon began to seek to remove the Ponca to Indian Territory . Prior to the 1877 removal, Standing Bear had married Zazette, Primeau (Primoux), and had become a leader in the tribe. He and his wife Zazette had several children, including Prairie Flower and Bear Shield, both of whom died during 'Removal' (1877) or right after (1879). In
2392-484: The Oglala Sioux Tribe 's Burial Assistance Program, funeral practices of communities today are often a mix of traditions and contemporary Christian practices. While tree burials and scaffold burials are not practiced anymore, it is also now rare to see families observe a four-day wake period. Instead, the families opt for one- or two-day wake periods which include a funeral feast for all the community. Added to
2496-616: The Omaha Reservation in Nebraska, they were welcomed as relatives. Word of their arrival in Nebraska soon reached the government. Under orders from the Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz , who also directed the Bureau of Indian Affairs , Brigadier General George Crook had the Ponca arrested for having left the reservation in Indian Territory. The army took Standing Bear and the others to Fort Omaha , where they were detained. Although
2600-687: The Osage Reservation and the Kaw Reservation , the chiefs were unhappy with what they were shown, and asked to return home without looking at the Quapaw Reservation. Angry at what he called the Ponca chiefs' "insubordination", Kemble refused to take them home until they had viewed all the land. Instead, eight of the chiefs decided to return home on foot. Kemble visited the Quapaw Reservation and selected it as
2704-588: The Ponca , they had villages along the Niobrara River near its mouth, and ranged as far east as present-day Ponca, Nebraska , at the mouth of Aowa Creek. A smallpox epidemic had reduced their numbers from approximately 800 to 100 at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1807. When Standing Bear was born circa 1829, the Ponca traditionally raised maize, vegetables, and fruit trees in these sites during
2808-728: The Smithsonian Institution , accompanied Standing Bear on the speaking tour. The LaFlesche siblings took turns acting as his translator. Tibbles also was part of the party. During his lecture tour, Standing Bear won the support of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and other prominent Americans. After returning from the East, Standing Bear resided at his old home on the Niobrara. He farmed near 170 other Ponca who had been allowed to resettle there. In 1893 Standing Bear worked for Buffalo Bill 's Wild West show in Chicago and visited
2912-554: The Sun Dance . The seven divisions selected four leaders known as Wičháša Yatápika from among the leaders of each division. 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. The historical political organization
3016-407: The Sun Dance . These gatherings afforded leaders to meet to make political decisions, plan movements, arbitrate disputes, and organize and launch raiding expeditions or war parties. In the fall, people split into smaller bands to facilitate hunting to procure meat for the long winter. Between the fall hunt and the onset of winter was a time when Lakota warriors could undertake raiding and warfare. With
3120-563: The Wakíŋyaŋ (thunder beings) is believed to involuntarily make someone a Heyókȟa , a sacred clown. Black Elk , a famous Heyókȟa said: "Only those who have had visions of the thunder beings of the west can act as heyokas. They have sacred power and they share some of this with all the people, but they do it through funny actions". Historical leadership organization The thiyóšpaye of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ assembled each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, and participate in
3224-571: The World's Columbian Exposition where he rode the Ferris Wheel in full ceremonial headdress. He died in 1908 of oral cancer and was buried on a hill overlooking the site of his birth. Today the federal government recognizes two tribes of the people: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma . Omaha-Ponca language Too Many Requests If you report this error to
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3328-741: The 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants. 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 . The Ojibwe , Potawatomi and Ottawa bands were among the first to trade with the French as they migrated into the Great Lakes region. Upon their arrival, Dakota were in an economic alliance with them until
3432-821: The 1900 Census, Standing Bear resided in Raymond Township, Knox County, Nebraska with his family listed (all born in Nebraska): Standing Bear age 71 (born May 1828); Zazette Bear age 63, wife (born March 1836) (mother of 0 children, 0 living); Lali [Laura, nee Premeaux] Bear age 31, second wife (born 1868) (mother of 7 children, 5 living); Fanny Bear age 15, daughter (born 1884); Lucy Bear age 14, daughter (born 1889); Fisher Bear age 11, son (born 1888); Jennie Bear age 6, son (born Feb 1894); Henry Bear age 4, son (born Aug 1895). The Ponca paramount chief White Goose, Standing Bear, and other Ponca leaders met with U.S. Indian Agent A. J. Carrier and signed
3536-661: The 20th and 21st centuries, the Dakota and Lakota continued to fight for their treaty rights , including the Wounded Knee incident , Dakota Access Pipeline protests , and the 1980 Supreme Court case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians , in which the court ruled that the US government had illegally taken tribal lands covered by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and that the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018, this amounted to more than $ 1 billion;
3640-533: The American government signed the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien with the Dakota, Ojibwe, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa tribes. In the 1830 Treaty of Prairie de Chien , the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) ceded their lands along the Des Moines river to the American government. Living in what is now southeastern South Dakota, the leaders of the Western Dakota signed
3744-429: The Dakota people began to return to Minnesota, creating the present-day reservations in the state. The Yankton and Yanktonai Dakota ( Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna ; "Village-at-the-end" and "Little village-at-the-end"), collectively also called by the endonym Wičhíyena , lived near the Minnesota River before ceding their land and moving to South Dakota in 1858. Despite ceding their lands, their treaty with
3848-573: The Dakota wanted a new source of trading. An American military post was not established at the confluence of the St. Croix with the Mississippi, but Fort Snelling was established in 1819 along the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. In return, Dakota were promised the ability to "pass and repass, hunt, or make other uses of the said districts as they have formerly done". In an attempt to stop intertribal warfare and to better able to negotiate with tribes,
3952-453: The Dakota were able to trade directly for European goods with the French. The first recorded encounter between the Sioux and the French occurred when Radisson and Groseilliers reached what is now Wisconsin during the winter of 1659–60. Later visiting French traders and missionaries included Claude-Jean Allouez , Daniel Greysolon Duluth , and Pierre-Charles Le Sueur who wintered with Dakota bands in early 1700. The Dakota began to resent
4056-491: The Dakota were put in a weakened position to defend the eastern border: new diseases (smallpox and malaria) and increased intertribal warfare (between the migration of tribes fleeing the Iroquois into their territory of present-day Wisconsin) put a strain on their ability to maintain their territory. As a result, their population in the Mississippi valley is believed to have declined by one-third between 1680 and 1805. Late in
4160-585: The Dakota west into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) and Lakota (Teton) lived. In the 19th century, the Dakota signed land cession treaties with the United States for much of their Minnesota lands. The United States' failure to make treaty payments or provide rations on time led to starvation and the Dakota War of 1862 , which resulted in the Dakota's exile from Minnesota. They were forced onto reservations in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and some fled to Canada. After 1870,
4264-621: The Dalles of the St. Croix. According to William Whipple Warren , a Métis historian, the fighting began when the Meskwaki (Fox) engaged the Ojibwe (their hereditary enemies) around St. Croix Falls . The Sioux were the former enemies of the Meskwaki and were enlisted to make a joint attack against the Ojibwe. The Meskwaki were first to engage with the large Ojibwe war party led by Waubojeeg :
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4368-563: The Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 were used to settle a number of claims cases in the 20th century. The tribes guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail and allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories in return for promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The treaty should also "make an effective and lasting peace" among the eight tribes, each of them often at odds with
4472-410: The French plural suffix " oux " to form " Nadowessioux ", which was later shortened to " Sioux ". The Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa , meaning "Northern Iroquoian", has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake ( massasauga , Sistrurus ). An alternative explanation is derivation from an (Algonquian) exonym na·towe·ssiw (plural na·towe·ssiwak ), from
4576-542: The Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects. Before the 17th century, the Santee Dakota ( Isáŋyathi : "Knife", also known as the Eastern Dakota) lived around Lake Superior with territories in present-day northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They gathered wild rice , hunted woodland animals, and used canoes to fish. Wars with the Ojibwe throughout the 18th century pushed
4680-600: The Great Sioux Nation) as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (meaning "Seven Council Fires"). Each fire symbolises an oyate (people or nation). Today the seven nations that comprise the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ are: They are also referred to as the Lakota or Dakota based on dialect differences. In any of the dialects, Lakota or Dakota translates to mean "friend" or "ally" referring to the alliances between the bands. The name "Sioux"
4784-557: The Indians," and founded towns, started farms, and improved roads. Such immigrants competed with the tribes for game and water, straining limited resources and resulting in conflicts with the emigrants. The U.S. government did not enforce the treaty to keep out the immigrants. The situation escalated with the Grattan affair in 1854 when a detachment of U.S. soldiers illegally entered a Sioux encampment to arrest those accused of stealing
4888-573: The Lakota was noted as being located east of the Red River, and living on the fringes of the prairies and woods of the prairies of southern Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas by at least 1680. According to Baptiste Good's winter count , the Lakota had horses by 1700. While the Dakota continued a subsistence cycle of corn, wild rice and hunting woodland animals, the Lakota increasing became reliant on bison for meat and its by-products (housing, clothing, tools) as they expanded their territory westward with
4992-543: The Mdewakanton band led a group that attacked the Lower Sioux Agency (or Redwood Agency) and trading post located there. Later, settlers found Myrick among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass. Many of the upper Dakota (Sisseton and Wahpeton) wanted no part in the attacks with the majority of the 4,000 members of the Sisseton and Wahpeton opposed to the war. Thus their bands did not participate in
5096-433: The Meskwaki allegedly boasted to the Dakota to hold back as they would quickly destroy their enemies. When the Dakota joined the battle, they had the upper hand until Sandy Lake Ojibwe reinforcements arrived. The Dakota were driven back and Warren states: "Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling floods below, there to find a watery grave. Others, in attempting to jump into their narrow wooden canoes, were capsized into
5200-409: The Oglala often use the name Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte, rather than the formal Oglala Sioux Tribe or OST. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered incorrect. The traditional social structure of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ strongly relied on kinship ties that extend beyond human interaction and includes the natural and supernatural worlds. Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ ("all are related") represents
5304-402: The Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the James River valley. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River , followed 10 years later by the Oglála and Brulé (Sičháŋǧu). By 1750, they had crossed the Missouri River and encountered Lewis and Clark in 1804. Initial United States contact with the Lakota during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 was marked by
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#17327835340405408-479: The Ojibwe trading with the hereditary enemies of the Sioux, the Cree and Assiniboine . Tensions rose in the 1720s into a prolonged war in 1736. The Dakota lost their traditional lands around Leech Lake and Mille Lacs as they were forced south along the Mississippi River and St. Croix River Valley as a result of the battles. These intertribal conflicts also made it dangerous for European fur traders: whichever side they traded with, they were viewed as enemies from
5512-537: The Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, social bonds had to be created. The most successful fur traders married into the kinship society, which also raised the status of the family of the woman through access to European goods. Outsiders are also adopted into the kinship through the religious Huŋkalowaŋpi ceremony. Early European explorers and missionaries who lived among the Dakota were sometimes adopted into the thiyóšpaye (known as "huŋka relatives"), such as Louis Hennepin who noted, "this help'd me to gain credit among these people". During
5616-410: The Ponca moved proved unsuitable; poor farming conditions led to persistent famine . They were still subject to raids by hostile tribes. The Ponca spent years attempting to hunt and raise crops and horses near their old village of Húbthaⁿ and the town of Niobrara. The government failed to provide the mills, personnel, schools, and protection that it had promised by the 1858 treaty. It did not keep up with
5720-481: The Ponca. By 1862, white settlers were quickly moving in and building the town of Niobrara where the Ponca summer corn fields had been. The Brulé raids from the north cut off the winter hunting grounds and forced the Ponca to abandon Húbthaⁿ. In 1858, under this pressure, the Ponca ceded much of their lands to the United States. They reserved the land between Ponca Creek and the Niobrara, approximately between present-day Butte and Lynch, Nebraska . The land to which
5824-445: The Powder River country in Montana, in which they fought with the Crow. Their victories over these tribes during this time period were aided by the fact those tribes were decimated by European diseases. Most of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara were killed by smallpox and almost half the population of the Crow were killed due to smallpox, cholera and other diseases. In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coat's village near
5928-402: The Sioux arrived in the northwoods of central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin from the Central Mississippi River shortly before 800 AD. Archaeologists refer to them as the Woodland Blackduck-Kathio-Clam River Continuum. Around 1300 AD, they adopted the characteristics of a northern tribal society and became known as the Seven Council Fires. The Dakota are first recorded to have resided at
6032-416: The Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the return of the Black Hills . Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments across several reservations and communities in North Dakota , South Dakota , Nebraska , Minnesota , and Montana in the United States and reserves in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada. The Sioux people refer to their whole nation of people (sometimes called
6136-451: The Treaty of April 19, 1858, which created the Yankton Sioux Reservation . Pressured by the ongoing arrival of Europeans, Yankton chief Struck by the Ree told his people, "The white men are coming in like maggots. It is useless to resist them. They are many more than we are. We could not hope to stop them. Many of our brave warriors would be killed, our women and children left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them. We must accept it, get
6240-417: The U.S. government allowed them to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the Pipestone Quarry , a cultural center for Sioux people. Considered the Western Dakota, they have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota . Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana . The Lakota , also called Teton ( Thítȟuŋwaŋ ; possibly "dwellers on
6344-490: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 943356418 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:45:34 GMT Sioux#Modern geographic divisions The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( / s uː / SOO ; Dakota / Lakota : Očhéthi Šakówiŋ [oˈtʃʰeːtʰi ʃaˈkoːwĩ] ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from
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#17327835340406448-419: The arrival of the horse. After their adoption of horse culture , Lakota society centered on the buffalo hunt on horseback. By the 19th century, the typical year of the Lakota was a communal buffalo hunt as early in spring as their horses had recovered from the rigors of the winter. In June and July, the scattered bands of the tribes gathered together into large encampments, which included ceremonies such as
6552-502: The attention of the Hayes administration, which provided authority for Standing Bear and some of the tribe to return permanently to the Niobrara valley in Nebraska. Between October 1879 and 1883, Standing Bear traveled in the eastern United States speaking about Indian rights in forums sponsored by Indian advocate and former abolitionist , Wendell Phillips . Susette (Bright Eyes) LaFlesche , later married to Henry Tibbles, and her brother Francis , who later became an ethnologist with
6656-431: The ball) and Wanáǧi Yuhápi (soul keeping). Each part of the čhaŋnúŋpa (stem, bowl, tobacco, breath, and smoke) is symbolic of the relationships of the natural world, the elements, humans and the spiritual beings that maintain the cycle of the universe. Dreams can also be a means of establishing relationships with spirits and are important to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. One can gain supernatural powers through dreams. Dreaming of
6760-511: The best terms we can get and try to adopt their ways." Despite ceding their lands, the treaty allowed the Western Dakota to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the Pipestone Quarry , which is the cultural center of the Sioux people. With the creation of Minnesota Territory by the U.S. in 1849, the Eastern Dakota (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton, and Wahpekute) people were pressured to cede more of their land. The reservation period for them began in 1851 with
6864-418: The blood will flow, and I shall feel pain," said Standing Bear. "The blood is of the same color as yours. God made me, and I am a Man." On May 12, 1879, Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled that "an Indian is a person" within the meaning of habeas corpus . He stated that the federal government had failed to show a basis under law for the Poncas' arrest and captivity. It was a landmark case, recognizing that an Indian
6968-502: The body and offer food as if it were still alive. This practice, along with the Ghost Dance helped individuals mourn and connect the spirits of the deceased with those who were alive. The only time a body was buried in the ground right after their death was if the individual was murdered: the deceased were placed in the ground with their heads towards the south, while faced down along with a piece of fat in their mouth. Contemporary Funeral Practices According to Pat Janis, director of
7072-433: The coming of winter snows, the Lakota settled into winter camps, where activities of the season, ceremonies and dances as well as trying to ensure adequate winter feed for their horses. They began to dominate the prairies east of the Missouri river by the 1720s. At the same time, the Lakota branch split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the Lake Traverse area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, and
7176-419: The concept that everything in the universe is intertwined. The creation stories of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ describe how the various spirits were formed from Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka. Black Elk describes the relationships with Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka as: "We should understand well that all things are the works of the Great Spirit. We should know that He is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and all
7280-403: The contemporary funeral practices, it is common to see prayers conducted by a medicine man along with traditional songs often sung with a drum. One member of the family is also required to be present next to the body at all times until the burial. Gifts are placed within the casket to aid with the journey into the afterworld, which is still believed to take up to four days after death. There are
7384-455: The deal. In 1878 they moved 150 miles (240 km) west to the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River , south of present-day Ponca City, Oklahoma . By spring, nearly a third of the tribe had died due to starvation , malaria , and related causes. Standing Bear's eldest son, Bear Shield, was among the dead. Standing Bear had promised to bury him in the Niobrara River valley homeland, so he left to travel north with about 30 followers. When they reached
7488-520: The death sentences of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the hanging of 38 Santee men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota . It was the largest mass-execution in U.S. history, on U.S. soil. The men remanded by order of President Lincoln were sent to a prison in Iowa , where more than half died. Afterwards, the U.S. Congress annulled all treaty agreements with the eastern Dakota and expelled
7592-607: The early killings. Historian Mary Wingerd has stated that it is "a complete myth that all the Dakota people went to war against the United States" and that it was rather "a faction that went on the offensive". Most of Little Crow's men surrendered shortly after the Battle of Wood Lake at Camp Release on September 26, 1862. Little Crow was forced to retreat sometime in September 1862. He stayed briefly in Canada but soon returned to
7696-921: The east bank of the Missouri River . There were as few as 50 eastern Dakota left in Minnesota by 1867. Many had fled to the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska (created 1863), the Flandreau Reservation (created 1869 from members who left the Santee Reservation), the Lake Traverse and Spirit Lake Reservations (both created 1867). Those who fled to Canada throughout the 1870s now have descendants residing on nine small Dakota Reserves, five of which are located in Manitoba ( Sioux Valley , Dakota Plain , Dakota Tipi , Birdtail Creek , and Canupawakpa Dakota ) and
7800-563: The eastern Dakota with the Forfeiture Act of February 16, 1863, meaning all lands held by the eastern Dakota, and all annuities due to them, were forfeited to the U.S. government. During and after the hostilities, the majority of eastern Dakota fled Minnesota for the Dakota territory or Canada . Some settled in the James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to Crow Creek Reservation on
7904-604: The four-legged animals, and the winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that He is also above all these things and peoples. When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as He intends". Prayer is believed to invoke relationships with one's ancestors or spiritual world. The Lakota word for prayer , wočhékiye , means "to call on for aid," "to pray," and "to claim relationship with". Their primary cultural prophet
8008-698: The government declared these were intended to be temporary, in an effort to force the Sioux out of Minnesota. The Upper Sioux Agency for the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands was established near Granite Falls, Minnesota , while the Lower Sioux Agency for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands was established about thirty miles downstream near what developed as Redwood Falls, Minnesota . The Upper Sioux were not satisfied with their reservation because of low food supplies, but as it included several of their old villages, they agreed to stay. The Lower Sioux were displaced from their traditional woodlands and were dissatisfied with their new territory of mostly prairie. The U.S. intended
8112-400: The house. However, even with these roles, both men and women held power in decision-making tasks and sexual preferences were flexible and allowed. The term wíŋtke refers to men who partook in traditional feminine duties while the term witkówiŋ ("crazy woman") was used for women who rejected their roles as either mother or wife to be a prostitute. Traditional Funeral Practices It is
8216-419: The increasing Ponca tribal enrollment in distribution of annuities and goods. Relatives sought annuity payments, people lost resources to sickness and starvation, and raids from hostile tribes were frequent. In 1865 a new treaty allowed the Ponca to return to their traditional farming and burial grounds, in the much more fertile and secure area between the Niobrara and Ponca Creek east of the 1858 lands and up to
8320-454: The later reservation era , districts were often settled by clusters of families from the same thiyóšpaye. The traditional social system extended beyond human interaction into the supernatural realms. It is believed that Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka ("Great Spirit/Great Mystery") created the universe and embodies everything in the universe as one. The preeminent symbol of Sioux religion is the Čhaŋgléska Wakȟaŋ ("sacred hoop"), which visually represents
8424-513: The much lower than expected payments from the federal government caused economic suffering and increased social tensions within the tribes. By 1862, many Dakota were starving and tensions erupted in the Dakota War of 1862 . By 1862, shortly after a failed crop the year before and a winter starvation, the federal payment was late. The local traders refused to issue any credit to the Dakota. One trader, Andrew Myrick , went so far as to say, "If they're hungry, let them eat grass." On August 16, 1862,
8528-416: The neighboring Plains tribes , creating new cultural patterns based on the horse and fur trade. Meanwhile, the Dakota retained many of their Woodlands features. By 1803, the three divisions of the Sioux (Western/Eastern Dakota and Lakota) were established in their different environments and had developed their own distinctive lifeways. However, due to the prevalent cultural concept of thiyóšpaye (community),
8632-587: The number of rival groups they encountered. They secured an alliance with the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho by the 1820s as intertribal warfare on the plains increased amongst the tribes for access to the dwindling population of buffalo. The alliance fought the Mandan , Hidatsa and Arikara for control of the Missouri River in North Dakota. By the 1840s, their territory expanded to
8736-418: The official orders were to return them immediately to Indian Territory, Crook was sympathetic to the Ponca and appalled to learn of the conditions they had left. He delayed their return so the Ponca could rest, regain their health, and seek legal redress. Crook told the Ponca story to Thomas Tibbles , an outspoken advocate of Native American rights (who had once served under John Brown ). Tibbles, an editor of
8840-548: The other. For example, in 1736 a group of Sioux killed Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and twenty other men on an island in Lake of the Woods for such reasons. However, trade with the French continued until the French gave up North America in 1763. Europeans repeatedly tried to make truce between the warring tribes in order to protect their interests. One of the larger battles between the Dakota and Ojibwe took place in 1770 fought at
8944-632: The prairie"), are the westernmost Sioux, known for their Plains Indians hunting and warrior culture . With the arrival of the horse in the 18th century, the Lakota become a powerful tribe on the Northern Plains by the 1850s. They fought the U.S. Army in the Sioux Wars and defeated the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Big Horn . The armed conflicts with the U.S. ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre . Throughout
9048-565: The rapids". While Dakota and Ojibwe suffered heavy losses, the Meskwaki were left with the most dead and forced to join their relatives, the Sauk people . The victory for the Ojibwe secured control of the Upper St. Croix and created an informal boundary between the Dakota and Ojibwe around the mouth of the Snake River. As the Lakota entered the prairies, they adopted many of the customs of
9152-709: The remaining four ( Standing Buffalo , White Cap , Round Plain [wahpeton] , and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan . A few Dakota joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military, later settling on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. Prior to the 1650s, the Thítȟuŋwaŋ division of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ known as
9256-466: The removal destination. In April, Kemble headed south to the Quapaw Reservation near present-day Peoria, Oklahoma , with those Ponca willing to leave. In May, the remainder of the tribe was forced to move, including Standing Bear and his family. The Ponca arrived in Oklahoma too late to plant crops that year, and the government failed to provide them with the farming equipment it had promised as part of
9360-405: The right of habeas corpus , thus becoming the first Native American judicially granted civil rights under American law. His first wife Zazette Primeau ( Primo ), daughter of Lone Chief (also known as Antoine Primeau), mother of Prairie Flower and Bear Shield, was also a signatory on the 1879 writ that initiated the famous court case. By 1789, when Juan Baptiste Munier acquired trading rights with
9464-401: The rules imposed by kinship for achieving civility, good manners, and a sense of responsibility toward every individual dealt with". During the fur trade era , the thiyóšpaye refused to trade only for economic reasons. Instead the production and trade of goods was regulated by rules of kinship bonds. Personal relationships were pivotal for success: in order for European-Americans to trade with
9568-452: The signing of the Treaty of Mendota and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux . The Treaty of Mendota was signed near Pilot Knob on the south bank of the Minnesota River and within sight of Fort Snelling . The treaty stipulated that the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands were to receive US$ 1,410,000 in return for relocating to the Lower Sioux Agency on the Minnesota River near present-day Morton, Minnesota along with giving up their rights to
9672-598: The source of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes during the seventeenth century. They were dispersed west in 1659 due to warfare with the Iroquois . During the 1600s, the Lakota began their expansion westward into the Plains, taking with them the bulk of people of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. By 1700 the Dakota were living in Wisconsin and Minnesota . As the Sioux nation began expanding with access to horses,
9776-488: The summer. They ranged westward for the winter bison hunt. The hunts brought them into frequent contact with their traditional enemies, the Brulé and Oglala Lakota. Sometimes the Ponca allied with their enemies to raid Pawnee and Omaha villages, but they also suffered raids by them. In Standing Bear's childhood, Brulé raids forced the Ponca to rely more on agriculture and less on the winter bison hunt. In his adolescence,
9880-517: The three divisions maintained strong ties throughout the changing times to present day. In 1805, the Dakota signed their first treaty with the American government. Zebulon Pike negotiated for 100,000 acres of land at the confluence of the St. Croix River about what now is Hastings, Minnesota and the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River about what now is St. Paul, Minnesota . The Americans wanted to establish military outposts and
9984-486: The treaties to encourage the Sioux to convert from their nomadic hunting lifestyle into more European-American settled farming, offering them compensation in the transition. By 1858, the Dakota only had a small strip of land along the Minnesota River, with no access to their traditional hunting grounds. They had to rely on treaty payments for their survival, which were often late. The forced change in lifestyle and
10088-462: The treaty payments to the eastern Dakota arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota , and were brought to Fort Ridgely the next day. However, they arrived too late to prevent the war. 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 . On August 18, 1862, Little Crow of
10192-510: The tribe split into two villages: Húbthaⁿ (Fish Smell, pronounced [huːꜜblᶞã] ), near the mouth of Ponca Creek ; and Wáiⁿ-Xúde (Grey Blanket, pronounced [waꜜĩ xuꜜde] ), on the northwest bank of the Niobrara. Standing Bear learned the ways of the men, how to hunt and fish, and prepared to take his place in the tribe. In 1859, when Standing Bear was a young man, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had encouraged
10296-496: The trophies until 1971 when it returned the remains to Little Crow's grandson. For killing Little Crow the state increased the bounty to $ 500 when it paid Lamson. On November 5, 1862, a military tribunal found 303 mostly Mdewakanton tribesmen guilty of rape , murder and atrocities of hundreds of Minnesota settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. The men had no attorneys or defense witnesses, and many were convicted in less than five minutes. President Abraham Lincoln commuted
10400-513: The verge of extinction, which threatened the tribes' subsistence. These mass killings affected all tribes thus the tribes were forced onto each other's hunting grounds, where fighting broke out. On July 20, 1867, an act of Congress created the Indian Peace Commission "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes". The Indian Peace Commission was generally seen as a failure, and violence had reignited even before it
10504-494: The western Minnesota. He was killed on July 3, 1863, near Hutchinson, Minnesota while gathering raspberries with his teenage son. The pair had wandered onto the land of a settler Nathan Lamson, who shot at them to collect bounties. Once it was discovered that the body was of Little Crow, his skull and scalp were put on display by the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota. The State held
10608-570: Was adopted in English by the 1760s from French . It is abbreviated from the French Nadouessioux , first attested by Jean Nicolet in 1640. The name is sometimes said to be derived from " Nadowessi " (plural " Nadowessiwag "), an Ojibwe exonym for the Sioux meaning "little snakes" or enemy (compare nadowe "big snakes", used for the Iroquois ). The French pluralized the Ojibwe singular " Nadowessi " by adding
10712-502: 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. Within the Sioux tribes, there were defined gender roles. The men in the village were tasked as the hunters, traveling outside the village. The women within the village were in charge of making clothing and similar articles while also taking care of, and owning,
10816-564: Was disbanded in October 1868. Two official reports were submitted to the federal government, ultimately recommending that the U.S. cease recognizing tribes as sovereign nations, refrain from making treaties with them, employ military force against those who refused to relocate to reservations, and move the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the Department of the Interior to the Department of War . The system of treaties eventually deteriorated to
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