S I O UX PEOPLES of NORTH AMERICA Introduction The people we know today as the Sioux once galloped horses over the vast expanse of North America’s Great Plains Winds bowed head-high grasses in the eastern part of this region while farther west the short grasses crunched underfoot The fragrant scent of sage drifted through the air Aside from the cottonwood trees that grew along the banks of the region’s wide shallow rivers the landscape was unbroken But it wasn’t empty Elk pronghorn deer bears coyotes rabbits and prairie dogs made their homes here The Plains most distinctive animal was the bison commonly known as buffalo in the past Huge herds tramped through the grasses filling the landscape to the horizon In many ways the bison defined the Sioux lifestyle as the Indians trav eled the Plains in pursuit of these mighty animals The name Sioux comes from a French interpretation of an Ojibwa word meaning little snakes But the Sioux did not call themselves by this name Instead they referred to themselves as Dakota Nakota Yankton or Lakota depending on the band to which they belonged These names meant friends or allies Although they lived in separate bands the Sioux shared a common culture and religion When their way of life was threatened by set tlers in the 1800s the Sioux resisted Eventually though they were resettled on reservations There they struggled to hold on to their old ways while adapting to a new life Today their traditional culture remains a vital part of life for many Sioux people whether they live on the reservation or off South Dakota’s Custer State Park is home to approximately 1,300 bison 6
S I O UX From Woodlands to the Plains P E O P L E S of N O R T H A M E R I C A A lthough today we think of the Sioux as the great warriors of the Plains they did not actually move onto the Great Plains until the late 1600s and early 1700s Scholars disagree over where the earliest Sioux ancestors came from Some say they migrated from the far north near the Arctic Circle Others contend that the Sioux originated in the southeastern part of North America Most scholars agree however that by about a d 800 the ancestors of the Sioux had moved into the woodlands of what are today the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota These Sioux ancestors may have lived in small family groups for a time before settling in larger permanent villages around 1300 There they likely lived in bark lodges and hunted deer rab bits and other small game harvested wild rice and planted small gardens A couple times a year they may have sent hunting parties west to hunt bison on the Plains By the mid-1600s the Sioux had split into three groups each speaking a different DIALECT of the Siouan language and living in a different territory The Dakota Sioux also called the Santee made up the easternmost group near the Great Lakes They spoke the Dakota dialect To the southwest of the Dakota were the Yankton who spoke the Nakota dialect The Lakota Sioux leaders such as Red Tomahawk fought to protect their ancestral homeland be fore finally making peace 9
