The Dakota (Dakota: Dakȟóta or Dakhóta, pronounced [daˈkˣota]) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota.
The four bands of Eastern Dakota are the Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, and Sisíthuŋwaŋ and are sometimes referred to as 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 Upper 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, who are located in Montana and across the border in Canada, where they are known as Stoney.
Contents
Name
The word Dakota means "ally or friend" in the Dakota language, and their autonyms include Ikčé Wičhášta ("Indian people") and Dakhóta Oyáte ("Dakota people").
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.
The Dakota include the following bands:
Santee division (Eastern Dakota) (Isáŋyathi, meaning "knife camp")
Mdewakanton (Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ "Spirit Lake Village" or "people of the mystic lake")
notable persons: Taoyateduta
Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, translating to "swamp/lake/fish scale village")
Wahpekute (Waȟpékhute, "Leaf Archers")
notable persons: Inkpaduta
Wahpeton (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, "Leaf Village")
Yankton-Yanktonai division (Western Dakota) (Wičhíyena)
Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ, "End Village")
Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, "Little End Village")
Upper Yanktonai
Húŋkpathina or Lower Yanktonai
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.
Eastern Dakota (also known as Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta)
Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute)
Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ)
Western Dakota (or Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta)
Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ)
Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna)
Upper Yanktonai (Wičhíyena)
History
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 1700s pushed the Dakota into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) and Teton (Lakota) were residing. In the 1800s, the Dakota signed treaties with the United States, ceding much of their land in Minnesota. Failure of the United States to make treaty payments on time, as well as low food supplies, led to the Dakota War of 1862, which resulted in the Dakota being exiled from Minnesota to numerous reservations in Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Canada. After 1870, 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 referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena, resided in the Minnesota River area before ceding their land and moving to South Dakota in 1858. Despite ceding their lands, their treaty with the U.S. government allowed them 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. They are considered to be the Western Dakota (also called middle Sioux), and have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota. The actual Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana.
Santee (Isáŋyathi or Eastern Dakota)
Migrations of Ojibwe people from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, who were armed 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.
After the Dakota War of 1862, the federal government expelled the Santee (who included the Mdewakanton) from Minnesota. Many were sent to Crow Creek Indian Reservation east of the Missouri River in what is now South Dakota. In 1864 some from the Crow Creek Reservation were sent to St. Louis and then traveled by boat up the Missouri River, ultimately to the Santee Sioux Reservation.
In the 21st century, the majority of the Santee live on reservations and reserves, and many in small and larger cities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada. They went to cities for more work opportunities and improved living conditions.
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).
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.
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 the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and on the Spirit Lake Reservation, in areas within central North Dakota. Others live 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).
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.
Modern reservations, reserves, and communities of the Sioux
(* Reserves shared with other First Nations)
Archery
The Yankton excelled at archery. Made from local materials, the tribe used bows and arrows to hunt deer, antelope, and small game. Reportedly, the Yankton could kill a bison with each arrow in a quiver.
Bows
Another example of a Yankton bow was collected in 1869 and is kept by the Department of Anthropology at the National Archives. It is made from either ash or white oak and is sinew backed. The sinew is coated with a white, chalky material to prevent moisture from loosening the bands. There are remains of red pigment on the belly of the bow, and four red slashes are painted on the back of each limb. The bow is only 45.25 inches tip to tip, and with thick limbs is very strong.
The bowstring is two-ply sinew. "The sinew string is broken but well made and is permanently tied to the bottom limb with a slip knot.
Arrows
The Smithsonian has Yankton arrows also collected in 1869, that have metal arrowheads. The four arrows range from 23.75 inches (shortest) to 26.25 inches (longest). Unlike most Sioux arrows from the time and region, these were made from split hickory instead of shoots. With their iron broad-head arrowheads, the arrows could have deep penetration power with the thick hickory shafts. The arrows are fletched two hawk feathers each, and one turkey feather used as the cock feather. They are attached with animal glue and sinew string. Blue and green paint is evident underneath the feathers. The nocks are widely flared,
Quivers and case
A Sioux quiver and bow case was donated to the archives in 1892. It is brain-tanned buckskin with beadwork at the top and bottom. Fringe was sewn with sinew to the top and bottom. The quiver is 26.5 inches long, and the bow case is 46 3/8 inches long.
Notable Dakota people
Historical
Hazaiyankawin (Azayamankawin), Mdewakanton Dakota woman who ran canoe ferry service in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Inkpaduta (Scarlet Point/Red End), Wahpekute Dakota war chief
Ištáȟba (Sleepy Eye), Sisseton Dakota chief
Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa (Cloud Man), Mdewakanton Dakota chief
Ohíyes'a (Charles Eastman), Dakota author, physician and reformer who helped found the Boy Scouts of America
Snana (Maggie Brass), Mdewakanton woman who saved Mary Schwandt during the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862
Tamaha (One Eye/Standing Moose), Mdewekanton Dakota scout for the U.S. during the War of 1812
Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow III/His Red Nation), Mdewakanton Dakota chief of Kaposia band and military leader during U.S.–Dakota War of 1862
Ti'wakan (Gabriel Renville), Sisseton Wahpeton chief from 1866 to 1892
Wapahaśa (Wabasha II), head chief of Mdewakanton Dakota and Kiyuksa band in early 1800s
Wapahaśa (Wabasha III), head chief of the Santee Sioux
Wánataŋ (Wanata), Yanktonai Dakota chief
Wánataŋ (Wanata#Chief Wanataan II), Sisseton Dakota chief, son of the former
Waŋbdí Okíčhize (War Eagle), Yankton Dakota chief of Santee origin
Contemporary
Ella Cara Deloria (1889 – 1971), author, ethnographer, linguist
Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005), Standing Rock author, activist, historian and theologian
Floyd Red Crow Westerman/Kanghi Duta (1936–2007), Sisseton Wahpeton actor
John Trudell (1946–2015), Santee activist, American Indian Movement leader
Mazuha Hokshina (Oscar Howe, 1915-1983), Yanktonai Dakota, artist
Contemporary Sioux people are also listed under the tribes to which they belong:
Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
Spirit Lake Dakota Tribe of the Spirit Lake Reservation