Dakota people

Dakota

Charles Alex Eastman (1858–1939), physician, author, and co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America
Total population
(20,460 (2010)[1])
Regions with significant populations
 United States (South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota),
 Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan)
Languages
Dakota,[1] English
Religion
Christianity (incl. syncretistic forms), traditional tribal religion, Native American Church
Related ethnic groups
Lakota, Assiniboine, Stoney (Nakota), and other Sioux

The Dakota people are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux /ˈsuː/ people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota.

The Eastern Dakota are the Santee (Isáŋyathi or Isáŋ-athi; "knife" + "encampment", ″dwells at the place of knife flint″), who reside in the eastern Dakotas, central Minnesota and northern Iowa. They have federally recognized tribes established in several places.

The Western Dakota are the Yankton, and the Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna; "Village-at-the-end" and "Little village-at-the-end"), who reside in the Missouri River area. The Yankton-Yanktonai are collectively also referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena (″Those Who Speak Like Men″). They also have distinct federally recognized tribes.

In the past the Western Dakota have been erroneously classified as Nakota, a branch of the Sioux who moved further west. The latter are now located in Montana and across the border in Canada, where they are known as Stoney.[2]

Name

The word Dakota means "ally" in the Dakota language, and their autonyms include Ikčé Wičhášta ("Indian people") and Dakhóta Oyáte ("Dakota people").[3]

Ethnic groups

The Eastern and Western Dakota are two of the three groupings belonging to the Sioux nation (also called Dakota in a broad sense), the third being the Lakota (Thítȟuŋwaŋ or Teton). The three groupings speak dialects that are still relatively mutually intelligible. This is referred to as a common language, Dakota-Lakota, or Sioux.[4]

The other two languages of the Dakotan dialect continuum, Assiniboine and Stoney (spoken by the Nakota or Nakoda peoples), have grown widely or completely unintelligible to Dakota and Lakota speakers.[5]

The Dakota include the following bands:

Zitkala-Sa (1876—1938), Yankton author, photographed by Joseph Keiley

The majority of the Santee live on reservations, reserves, and communities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada. However some of those in the north woods of Minnesota remain at the Ottertail Lake and Inspiration Peak areas. They were never sent to reservations as they were protected by settlers whom they had befriended.

After the Dakota War of 1862, many Santee were sent to Crow Creek Indian Reservation; in 1864 some from the Crow Creek Reservation were sent to the Santee Sioux Reservation.

The Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ (Mdewakanton) live predominantly at the Prairie Island and Shakopee reservations in Minnesota.

Most of the Yankton live on the Yankton Indian Reservation in southeastern South Dakota. Some Yankton live on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation and Crow Creek Reservation, which is also occupied by the Lower Yanktonai.

The Upper Yanktonai live in the northern part of Standing Rock Reservation, on the Spirit Lake Reservation in central North Dakota, and in the eastern half of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana. In addition, they reside at several Canadian reserves, including Birdtail, Oak Lake, and Whitecap (formerly Moose Woods).

History

First contacts with Europeans

The Dakota lived in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 17th century.[3][7] By 1700 some had migrated to present-day South Dakota.[8] Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants.[9] The French were trying to gain an advantage in the struggle for the North American fur trade against the English, who had recently established the Hudson's Bay Company.

Dakota War of 1862

Siege of New Ulm, August 19, 1862.
Drawing of the mass hanging of Dakota in Mankato, Minnesota

By 1862, shortly after a failed crop the year before and a winter starvation, the federal payment was late. The local traders would not issue any more credit to the Santee and one trader, Andrew Myrick, went so far as to say, "If they're hungry, let them eat grass."[10] 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. The Santee attacked the trading post. Later settlers found Myrick among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass.[11]

On November 5, 1862 in Minnesota, in courts-martial, 303 Santee Dakota were found guilty of rape and murder of hundreds of American settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. No attorneys or witness were allowed as a defense for the accused, and many were convicted in less than five minutes of court time with the judge.[12] President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentence of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the execution of 38 Santee men by hanging on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Forty-three-year-old Alexander Wilkin commanded the executions, which together amounted to the largest single mass execution in U.S. history.[13]

Afterwards, the US suspended treaty annuities to the Dakota for four years and awarded the money to the white victims and their families. The men remanded by order of President Lincoln were sent to a prison in Iowa, where more than half died.[12]

During and after the revolt, many Santee and their kin fled Minnesota and Eastern Dakota to Canada, or settled in the James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to Crow Creek Reservation on the east bank of the Missouri.[12] A few joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military.[12]

Others were able to remain in Minnesota and the east, in small reservations existing into the 21st century, including Sisseton-Wahpeton, Flandreau, and Devils Lake (Spirit Lake or Fort Totten) Reservations in the Dakotas. Some ended up in Nebraska, where the Santee Sioux Tribe today has a reservation on the south bank of the Missouri.

Those who fled to Canada now have descendants residing on nine small Dakota Reserves, five of which are located in Manitoba (Sioux Valley, Dakota Plains, Dakota Tipi, Birdtail Creek, and Oak Lake [Pipestone]) and the remaining four (Standing Buffalo, Moose Woods [White Cap], Round Plain [Wahpeton], and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan.

Reserves and First Nations

In Minnesota, the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 left the Dakota with a reservation 20 miles (32 km) wide on each side of the Minnesota River.

In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as First Nations. The land holdings of these First Nations are called Indian Reserves.

Modern reservations, reserves, and communities of the Sioux

Reserve/Reservation[14] Community Bands residing Location
Fort Peck Indian Reservation Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes Hunkpapa, Upper Yanktonai (Pabaksa), Sisseton, Wahpeton, and the Hudesabina (Red Bottom), Wadopabina (Canoe Paddler), Wadopahnatonwan (Canoe Paddlerrs Who Live on the Prairie), Sahiyaiyeskabi (Plains Cree-Speakers), Inyantonwanbina (Stone People) and Fat Horse Band of the Assiniboine Montana, United States
Spirit Lake Reservation

(Formerly Devil's Lake Reservation)

 Spirit Lake Tribe

(Mni Wakan Oyate)

 Wahpeton, Sisseton, Upper Yanktonai North Dakota, USA
Standing Rock Indian Reservation Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Upper Yanktonai, Hunkpapa North Dakota, South Dakota, USA
Lake Traverse Indian Reservation Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sisseton, Wahpeton South Dakota, USA
Flandreau Indian Reservation Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton South Dakota, USA
Crow Creek Indian Reservation Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Lower Yanktonai South Dakota, USA
Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation Yankton Sioux Tribe Yankton South Dakota, USA
Upper Sioux Indian Reservation Upper Sioux Community

(Pejuhutazizi Oyate)

 Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpeton Minnesota, USA
Lower Sioux Indian Reservation Lower Sioux Indian Community Mdewakanton, Wahpekute Minnesota, USA
Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation

(Formerly Prior Lake Indian Reservation)

 Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Mdewakanton, Wahpekute Minnesota, USA
Prairie Island Indian Community Prairie Island Indian Community Mdewakanton, Wahpekute Minnesota, USA
Santee Indian Reservation Santee Sioux Nation Mdewakanton, Wahpekute Nebraska, USA
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* Sioux Valley First Nation Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute Manitoba, Canada
Dakota Plains Indian Reserve 6A Dakota Plains Wahpeton First Nation Wahpeton, Sisseton Manitoba, Canada
Dakota Tipi 1 Reserve Dakota Tipi First Nation Wahpeton Manitoba, Canada
Birdtail Creek 57 Reserve, Birdtail Hay Lands 57A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* Birdtail Sioux First Nation Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Yanktonai Manitoba, Canada
Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation, Oak Lake 59A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Yanktonai Manitoba, Canada
Standing Buffalo 78 Reserve Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation Sisseton, Wahpeton Saskatchewan, Canada
Whitecap Reserve Whitecap Dakota First Nation Wahpeton, Sisseton Saskatchewan, Canada
Dakota Plains Wahpeton Reserve Dakota Plains Wahpeton First Nation Wahpeton Manitoba, Canada
Wood Mountain 160 Reserve, Treaty Four Reserve Grounds Indian Reserve No. 77* Wood Mountain Hunkpapa Saskatchewan, Canada

(* Reserves shared with other First Nations)

Language

The Dakota language is a Mississippi Valley Siouan language, belonging to the greater Siouan-Catawban language family. It is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language, and both are also more distantly related to the Stoney and Assiniboine languages. Dakota is written in the Latin script and has a dictionary and grammar.[1]

  1. Eastern Dakota (also known as Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta)
    • Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute)
    • Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ)
  2. Western Dakota (or Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta)
    • Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ)
    • Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna)
      • Upper Yanktonai (Wičhíyena)

Modern geographic divisions

The Dakota maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and communities in North America: in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana in the United States; and in Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan in Canada.

The earliest known European record of the Dakota identified them in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. After the introduction of the horse in the early 18th century, the Sioux dominated larger areas of land—from present day Central Canada to the Platte River, from Minnesota to the Yellowstone River, including the Powder River country.[15]

Santee (Isáŋyathi or Eastern Dakota)

The Santee migrated north and westward from the Southeast United States, first into Ohio, then to Minnesota. Some came up from the Santee River and Lake Marion, area of South Carolina. The Santee River was named after them, and some of their ancestors' ancient earthwork mounds have survived along the portion of the dammed-up river that forms Lake Marion. In the past, they were a Woodland people who thrived on hunting, fishing and farming.

Migrations of Ojibwe people from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, with muskets supplied by the French and British, pushed the Dakota further into Minnesota and west and southward. The US gave the name "Dakota Territory" to the northern expanse west of the Mississippi River and up to its headwaters.[16]

Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna (Yankton-Yanktonai or Western Dakota)

The Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ-Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, also known by the anglicized spelling Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ: "End village") and Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna: "Little end village") divisions consist of two bands or two of the seven council fires. According to Nasunatanka and Matononpa in 1880, the Yanktonai are divided into two sub-groups known as the Upper Yanktonai and the Lower Yanktonai (Húŋkpathina).[16]

They were involved in quarrying pipestone. The Yankton-Yanktonai moved into northern Minnesota. In the 18th century, they were recorded as living in the Mankato (Maka To – Earth Blue/Blue Earth) region of southwestern Minnesota along the Blue Earth River.[17]

Notable Dakota people

Historical

Contemporary

Contemporary Sioux people are also listed under the tribes to which they belong:

By individual tribe

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 "Dakota." Ethnologue. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  2. ↑ for a report on the long-established blunder of misnaming as "Nakota", the Yankton and the Yanktonai, see the article Nakota
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Barry M. Pritzker, A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000; pg. 316
  4. ↑ Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L., "The Siouan languages"; in DeMallie, R.J. (ed) (2001). Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94–114) [W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.)]. Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution: pp. 97 ff; ISBN 0-16-050400-7.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ullrich, Jan (2008). New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton). Lakota Language Consortium. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-9761082-9-1.
  6. ↑ not to be confused with the Oglala thiyóšpaye bearing the same name, "Húŋkpathila"
  7. ↑ Hyde, George E. (1984). Red Cloud's Folk: A History of the Oglala Sioux Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-8061-1520-3.
  8. ↑ Johnson, Michael; Smith, Jonathan (2000). Tribes of the Sioux Nation. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 1-85532-878-X.
  9. ↑ van Houten, Gerry (1991). Corporate Canada An Historical Outline. Toronto: Progress Books. pp. 6–8. ISBN 0-919396-54-2.
  10. ↑ Dillon, Richard (1993). North American Indian Wars. City: Booksales. p. 126. ISBN 1-55521-951-9.
  11. ↑ Steil, Mark; Tim Post (2002-09-26). "Let them eat grass". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2011-09-21.
  12. 1 2 3 4 War for the Plains. Time-Life Books. 1994. ISBN 0-8094-9445-0.
  13. ↑ Steil, Mark; Tim Post (2002-09-26). "Execution and expulsion". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Michael (2000). The Tribes of the Sioux Nation. Osprey Publishing Oxford. ISBN 1-85532-878-X.
  15. ↑ Mails, Thomas E. (1973). Dog Soldiers, Bear Men, and Buffalo Women: A Study of the Societies and Cults of the Plains Indians. Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-13-217216-X.
  16. 1 2 Riggs, Stephen R. (1893). Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography. Washington Government Printing Office, Ross & Haines, Inc. ISBN 0-87018-052-5.
  17. ↑ OneRoad, Amos E.; Alanson Skinner (2003). Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-453-X.

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