Sioux

Organization of the Sioux

The Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands are subdivisions of the eastern or Dakotah Indians. There are two bands of the eastern Santee Division, who speak the [Page 1232]Dakotah language with the D dialect. The other divisions are referred to as the Great Sioux or Dakota/Lakota/Nakota Nations and consist of the western Teton division and the middle Yankton divisions who speak the L and N dialects, respectively. The word Dakota can be translated into English as friend. The real significance of the word Dakota derives from the word WoDakotah, meaning harmony—a condition of being at peace with oneself and in harmony with one another and with nature, and a condition of lifestyle patterned after the natural order of nature.

Sioux at the White House. Members of the Yankton, Santee Sioux (Dakota), and Upper Missouri Sioux tribes are shown with President Andrew Johnson and others at a reception in the East Room of the White House on February 23, 1867. Throughout the 1800s, the United States negotiated, under show of armed force, a series of treaties with various Sioux tribal groups. These treaties involved, essentially, land cessions and promises to pay for the land with goods and cash.

Source: The Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-106694.

The Sioux were further divided by Council Fires: Eastern-Santee-Dakota: Spirit Lake People (Mdewakantonwan), Shooters among the Leaves People (Wahpekute); People Dwelling among the Leaves (Wahpetonwan); People of the Fish Village (Sissetonwan); A Middle-Yankton-Nakota: Dwellers at the End; Yankton-Ihanktonwan; Little Dwellers at the End Yanktonai-Ihanktonwanna; and Western-Teton-Lakota, Dwellers on the Plains (Titonwan).

These Council Fires were located in present-day North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Their governmental structure was dictated by these subdivisions, which in turn, dictated the political and social lives of the people within their specific geographical location.

Kinship and the Social and Political Order of Bands

The Sioux were originally family-oriented and honored close kinship ties. Kinship terms denoted the primary roles and relationships of people and respect was a primary responsibility between members. The tribe comprised the tioyspaye, and the primary function of this formal structure within the tribe was to provide support, to instruct, provide a nurturing environment, and to guide and protect a healthy family life.

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