Sioux

• CULTURE AREA: Plains
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Siouan
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Manitoba, Saskatchewan
• POPULATION SIZE: 126,571 in the United States (US Census Bureau, 2020)

Sioux is the term popularly used to refer to a northern Plains alliance of Native American peoples most often considered in relation to their material culture—tipis, war bonnets, buffalo hunting, and an equestrian lifestyle. Among the Sioux, the people call themselves the Oceti Sokowin, which means "Seven Council Fires." Use of the term “Sioux” dates to the seventeenth century, when the Sioux were living in the Great Lakes area. Fur traders, explorers, and Jesuit missionaries learned the name from the Ojibwa (Chippewa) word nadouessioux, which means “adders” or "little snakes." This term, shortened and corrupted by French traders, resulted in the retention of the last syllable as Sioux. There are three major subgroups of Sioux—the Santee, Yankton, and Teton.

Origins and Westward Migrations

The term Sioux did not designate a single tribe or national entity, but a complex web of bands or tribes that were spread across forested regions of the upper Mississippi, across the prairies of Minnesota and Dakota Territory, and beyond the Missouri River on the high plains of Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and up into the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A common language was important in defining the Sioux as a nation. Those who spoke a dialect of Dakota considered themselves allies, while all who spoke any other language were considered enemies unless a peace was negotiated. The Sioux did not form a political unit that acted in concert to control tribal areas or enforce tribal laws, but they did share a common language and common philosophy that molded their national culture and shaped their political and social life. By the 1700s, while still located in the Great Lakes or Woodlands area, the Sioux formed a relatively loose alliance known as Oceti Sakowin, consisting of the Mdewakanton (Spirit Lake Village), Wahpekute (Leaf Shooters), Wahpetunwan (Leaf Village), Sisituwan (meaning unknown), Ihanktunwan (End Village), Ihanktunwanna (Little End Village), and Tintatuwan (Prairie Village). These subdivisions were not culturally distinct from one another in their Woodlands home but became more distinct as the people moved westward.

The first four were collectively called Isanti (knife) because these people once lived near a large body of water known to them as Knife Lake. The French later changed Isanti to Santee. The Santee are the easternmost Sioux and were the last to leave the lake region. They speak the Dakota dialect, in which there are no l’s and the d is used.

The Ihanktunwan and Ihanktunwanna have come to be called Yankton and Yanktonais in English, and as a group they are sometimes called the Wiciyela, or “middle people,” because they lived between the Santee and Teton. The Yankton were originally one tribe, but economic factors forced them to divide into two groups as they became more populous. They originally spoke the Nakota dialect, which uses the n in place of the d, although they most commonly speak the Dakota dialect today.

The Tintatuwan, or Teton, were the first to move westward onto the prairie. After the move, the Teton became so numerous that by the late eighteenth century, they in turn divided into seven tribes. This subdivision is also referred to as the "Seven Fireplaces" or the "Seven Council Fires" because the Teton’s social and political order replicated the national alliance. By the 1860s, the Teton were most commonly known by the seven tribal names: Sicangu (Burnt Thigh), also known by the French name Brule; Oglala (Scatters Their Own); Sihasapa (Blackfeet, not to be confused with the Algonquian-speaking Blackfeet of Montana and Alberta); Oohenunpa (Two Kettle); Itazipco (Without Bows), also known by the French name Sans Arc; Minneconjou (Planters by the Water); and Hunkpapa (Campers at the End of the Horn). These people collectively refer to themselves as the Lakota, using the l in place of the d.

In the Great Lakes setting, the Sioux were semi-sedentary and had a Woodlands economy based on fishing, hunting and gathering, and some cultivation of corn. By the mid-seventeenth century, the Sioux had been pushed westward by enemy tribes, principally the Ojibwa, who obtained guns through the French fur trade. The Teton and middle divisions moved westward to the Great Plains, where they acquired horses and a dependence on the buffalo for food and many material needs such as housing, clothing, and implements. The Middle Sioux settled along the Missouri River, while the Tetons pushed farther west into the Black Hills and beyond to the present-day states and provinces of Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Although they too were pushed westward, the Eastern or Santee Sioux remained essentially Woodland people in territory and culture, settling in the area of southwestern Minnesota and eastern North and South Dakota. By the early nineteenth century, political and cultural differences among the Sioux groups became pronounced, and true Eastern, Middle, and Teton (Western) divisions emerged.

Political and Social Organization

The core of traditional Sioux society was the smallest unit, the extended family, which was a group of relatives living together cooperatively. The next level of organization was the tiyospaye, or “lodge groups.” These were social units often referred to as bands, collections of lodges of related people who were usually guided by a respected elder known as itancan or headman. The itancan was recognized as a leader by fully living a spiritual existence and demonstrating the values of his people—bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom. The itancan’s was not a permanent position; he served at the will of the people and could be replaced. Groups composed of several tiyospaye, and usually interrelated, were called oyate, meaning “people”; this is commonly understood today as a “tribe.” The oyate corresponded to the “fireplaces” of the Seven Fireplaces.

The model of tiyospaye provided the mechanism for maintaining social and political order when the various oyate came together in the large summer encampments during the time of the Sun Dance and buffalo hunts. Councils of adult men represented the will of the people and met to deliberate on all matters pertaining to group welfare. The headmen acted as symbolic fathers to their various tiyospaye and helped provide direction and guidance to the council, composed of younger men. All decision-making was by consensus, ensuring that all the people had a voice. No formal voting took place, and those who disagreed with council decisions were free to move and begin their own tiyospaye. Council decisions and social order were enforced by the akicita, or “soldiers lodge,” which saw to it that all people cooperated for the common good. Membership in the akicita changed with each new encampment, so responsibility and authority for the people’s well-being eventually fell to each male.

This sociopolitical structure of headman, council, and soldier lodge was replicated in every Sioux camp and served to create and maintain social order and cohesion as a people. In this system, group well-being was dominant over individual needs, and at all levels, group harmony was ensured by a government run by consensus.

When European nations, and later the United States, needed to conduct business with Indigenous peoples, they looked for a single individual or a centralized government rather than dealing with the whole tribal group. Traditional tribal governments that operated by consensus incorporated guards against concentration of power to preserve values of freedom, respect, and harmony. Consensus building is a slow process and simply did not fit the White settlers’ needs or ways of conducting business. Since the time of initial contact, Europeans sought out or appointed one individual with whom to deal—a “chief.” As relations with the tribes changed over the years, both the United States and Canadian governments continued to look for ways to centralize Indigenous governments, and this tension between centralizing and maintaining tribalism still exists in relations between tribal groups and federal governments.

When Indigenous people were forced onto reservations in Canada and the United States, the federal governments of both countries attempted to dissolve the traditional governments and to extinguish the languages and spiritual beliefs and practices of the people. It was expected that the people would become Christian, start farms, and eventually assimilate into the general population. Still, many of the people continued conducting their business according to more traditional patterns.

Early in the reservation era, the various Sioux tribes banded together in councils to work on issues related to illegal seizure of lands and treaty violations. These councils followed traditional patterns; however, they had little success in dealing with the government agents who enforced assimilation policies. These early councils met to discuss matters of importance among the people, to plan social events, and to represent the concerns of their reservation to the federally appointed Indigenous agents. At all levels, council meetings were open, and input from the people was solicited.

Wars, Treaties, and Reservations

The Sioux in both Canada and the United States negotiated treaties and later agreements with the governments beginning in the early 1800s. Constant broken promises, unresolved issues, and encroachment on tribal lands brought various Sioux divisions into direct conflict with the United States between 1862 and 1877. These encounters, famous in American history, are known collectively as the Sioux Wars and include such events as the Minnesota Uprising (1862), the war for the Bozeman Trail (1866–68), the Wagon Box Fight (1867), and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876). The Sioux, especially the Teton, who placed greater emphasis on warfare than other Sioux, were the most active in opposing American expansion onto their lands. Eventually, the depletion of the buffalo herds, relentless attacks by the United States military, and growing numbers of settlers on their land caused many of the Sioux to seek refuge in Canada or settle on reservations in the Dakotas and Nebraska.

Most Sioux in the United States were settled on reservations, where conditions were very poor, by 1877. Prior to the 1870s, the Sioux had been living well on the basis of a buffalo hunting and trade economy, were rich in horses, had kept numerous tribal enemies in check, and lived in a vast territory. After confinement to the reservation, the Sioux were destitute, stripped of power, and forced to bend to the will of reservation authorities. Government policies were strict and sought to force assimilation by allotment of lands, encouragement in farming, Christianization, and establishment of educational institutions which sought to replace traditional values with mainstream White values; schools for Indigenous children often removed children from their homes. To hasten assimilation, laws were passed restricting the practice of traditional religious and social rituals. By 1889, the Sioux as a whole were in poor health, starving, and embittered over the loss of millions of acres of the Great Sioux Reservation. In this atmosphere, word of a revitalization movement known as the Ghost Dance passed among the people. Some Sioux participated in the movement. Although many did not, much government and military attention focused on Sioux involvement with the Ghost Dance. The resulting atmosphere of fear and mistrust culminated in the massacre at Wounded Knee (1890), where more than three hundred Sioux men, women, and children were killed by the Seventh Cavalry.

After Wounded Knee, government policies aimed at assimilation pressed relentlessly forward, and Sioux relations with the federal governments in both Canada and the United States were marked by tensions involving efforts to end the reservation system and terminate the special legal status of Indigenous people. The Sioux struggled to maintain their cultural identity, define their reservations as homelands, exercise their sovereignty, and regain illegally seized land, particularly the Black Hills, into the twenty-first century.

Politics in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

In 1920, the Canadian government passed legislation intended to end the reservation system as a way to force assimilation and bow to public demands to acquire Indigenous lands. Tribal governments were weakened, but some patterns of traditional governance remained and councils were active in opposing government policy.

In 1934, with the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), the US government sought to shift its relationship with tribes throughout the country. By 1934, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was directing much of the day-to-day business on the reservations, as well as influencing national policy in Indigenous affairs. The federal government sought to get out of micromanagement of reservation affairs by proposing that tribes establish constitutional forms of government and elect officials who would then govern their reservation and make some of the decisions that affected reservation residents on a local level. In actuality, the Bureau of Indian Affairs maintained a strong presence on the reservations. The IRA gave the tribes greater voice in stating opinions, but it did not give them much real power because the Bureau of Indian Affairs reserved the right to approve most tribal decisions, to certify elections, and so on.

The Sioux people living in both Canada and the United States sought to preserve their inherent tribal sovereignty and to preserve the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota heritage, doing things in the best interests of all the people and representing the people’s wishes in conducting business and making decisions. The tribes exerted sovereignty by pursuing legislation in Congress and Parliament on behalf of tribal members, managing a variety of programs formerly run by the federal governments, establishing laws and rules of conduct on the reservation, and investing tribal capital in business ventures. In their governing system, the Sioux nations seek to maintain continuity with the past as they work to preserve and protect the best interests of all the people.

The Sioux population continued to increase in the early twenty-first century. Most lived on sixteen Oceti Sakowin reservations located in the US and Canada, with the largest concentration living in six reservations in South Dakota. Large off-reservation populations of Sioux existed in Rapid City, South Dakota; Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Sioux are leaders in implementing social and educational reforms and are particularly prominent in their community colleges. In 2016, protestors, including many Sioux individuals, opposed the construction of a proposed oil pipeline that would pass through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, located on the border of North and South Dakota. After more than a year of protests, construction of the pipeline was completed, but protests and legal challenges over the pipeline's harms to the environment continued into the 2020s.

Sioux individuals in Canada and the United States also continued to actively promote expressions of traditional Sioux culture and values through a wide range of events, arts, and ceremonies in the twenty-first century. They made efforts to preserve their language through programs that teach the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota languages to younger generations.

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