Seventh Annual Report Part 32

> Dakota, Berghaus, Physik. Atlas, map 72, 1887.

Derivation: A corruption of the Algonkin word nadowe-ssi-wag, the snake-like ones, the enemies (Trumbull).

Under the family Gallatin makes four subdivisions, viz, the Winnebagos, the Sioux proper and the a.s.siniboins, the Minnetare group, and the Osages and southern kindred tribes. Gallatin speaks of the distribution of the family as follows: The Winnebagoes have their princ.i.p.al seats on the Fox River of Lake Michigan and towards the heads of the Rock River of the Mississippi; of the Dahcotas proper, the Mendewahkantoan or Gens du Lac lived east of the Mississippi from Prairie du Chien north to Spirit Lake. The three others, Wahkpatoan, Wahkpakotoan and Sisitoans inhabit the country between the Mississippi and the St. Peters, and that on the southern tributaries of this river and on the headwaters of the Red River of Lake Winnipek. The three western tribes, the Yanktons, the Yanktoanans and the Tetons wander between the Mississippi and the Missouri, extending southerly to 43 of north lat.i.tude and some distance west of the Missouri, between 43 and 47 of lat.i.tude. The Shyennes are included in the family but are marked as doubtfully belonging here.

Owing to the fact that Sioux is a word of reproach and means snake or enemy, the term has been discarded by many later writers as a family designation, and Dakota, which signifies friend or ally, has been employed in its stead. The two words are, however, by no means properly synonymous. The term Sioux was used by Gallatin in a comprehensive or family sense and was applied to all the tribes collectively known to him to speak kindred dialects of a widespread language. It is in this sense only, as applied to the linguistic family, that the term is here employed. The term Dahcota (Dakota) was correctly applied by Gallatin to the Dakota tribes proper as distinguished from the other members of the linguistic family who are not Dakotas in a tribal sense. The use of the term with this signification should be perpetuated.

It is only recently that a definite decision has been reached respecting the relations.h.i.+p of the Catawba and Woccon, the latter an extinct tribe known to have been linguistically related to the Catawba. Gallatin thought that he was able to discern some affinities of the Catawban language with Muskhogee and even with Choctaw, though these were not sufficient to induce him to cla.s.s them together. Mr. Gatschet was the first to call attention to the presence in the Catawba language of a considerable number of words having a Siouan affinity.

Recently Mr. Dorsey has made a critical examination of all the Catawba linguistic material available, which has been materially increased by the labors of Mr. Gatschet, and the result seems to justify its inclusion as one of the dialects of the widespread Siouan family.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.

The pristine territory of this family was mainly in one body, the only exceptions being the habitats of the Biloxi, the Tutelo, the Catawba and Woccon.

Contrary to the popular opinion of the present day, the general trend of Siouan migration has been westward. In comparatively late prehistoric times, probably most of the Siouan tribes dwelt east of the Mississippi River.

The main Siouan territory extended from about 53 north in the Hudson Bay Company Territory, to about 33, including a considerable part of the watershed of the Missouri River and that of the Upper Mississippi.

It was bounded on the northwest, north, northeast, and for some distance on the east by Algonquian territory. South of 45 north the line ran eastward to Lake Michigan, as the Green Bay region belonged to the Winnebago.[86]

[Footnote 86: See treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1825.]

It extended westward from Lake Michigan through Illinois, crossing the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien. At this point began the Algonquian territory (Sac, etc.) on the west side of the Mississippi, extending southward to the Missouri, and crossing that river it returned to the Mississippi at St. Louis. The Siouan tribes claimed all of the present States of Iowa and Missouri, except the parts occupied by Algonquian tribes. The dividing line between the two for a short distance below St. Louis was the Mississippi River. The line then ran west of Dunklin, New Madrid, and Pemiscot Counties, in Missouri, and Mississippi County and those parts of Craighead and Poinsett Counties, Arkansas, lying east of the St. Francis River. Once more the Mississippi became the eastern boundary, but in this case separating the Siouan from the Muskhogean territory. The Quapaw or Akansa were the most southerly tribe in the main Siouan territory. In 1673[87] they were east of the Mississippi. Joutel (1687) located two of their villages on the Arkansas and two on the Mississippi one of the latter being on the east bank, in our present State of Mississippi, and the other being on the opposite side, in Arkansas. Shea says[88] that the Kaskaskias were found by De Soto in 1540 in lat.i.tude 36, and that the Quapaw were higher up the Mississippi. But we know that the southeast corner of Missouri and the northeast corner of Arkansas, east of the St. Francis River, belonged to Algonquian tribes. A study of the map of Arkansas shows reason for believing that there may have been a slight overlapping of habitats, or a sort of debatable ground. At any rate it seems advisable to compromise, and a.s.sign the Quapaw and Osage (Siouan tribes) all of Arkansas up to about 36 north.

[Footnote 87: Marquettes Autograph Map.]

[Footnote 88: Disc. of Miss. Valley, p. 170, note.]

On the southwest of the Siouan family was the Southern Caddoan group, the boundary extending from the west side of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, nearly opposite Vicksburg, Mississippi, and running northwestwardly to the bend of Red River between Arkansas and Louisiana; thence northwest along the divide between the watersheds of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. In the northwest corner of Indian Territory the Osages came in contact with the Comanche (Shoshonean), and near the western boundary of Kansas the Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho (the two latter being recent Algonquian intruders?) barred the westward march of the Kansa or Kaw.

The p.a.w.nee group of the Caddoan family in western Nebraska and northwestern Kansas separated the Ponka and Dakota on the north from the Kansa on the south, and the Omaha and other Siouan tribes on the east from Kiowa and other tribes on the west. The Omaha and cognate peoples occupied in Nebraska the lower part of the Platte River, most of the Elkhorn Valley, and the Ponka claimed the region watered by the Niobrara in northern Nebraska.

There seems to be sufficient evidence for a.s.signing to the Crows (Siouan) the northwest corner of Nebraska (i.e., that part north of the Kiowan and Caddoan habitats) and the southwest part of South Dakota (not claimed by Cheyenne[89]), as well as the northern part of Wyoming and the southern part of Montana, where they met the Shoshonean stock.[90]

[Footnote 89: See Cheyenne treaty, in Indian Treaties, 1873, pp.

124, 5481-5489.]

[Footnote 90: Lewis and Clarke, Trav., Lond., 1807, p. 25. Lewis and Clarke, Expl., 1874, vol. 2, p. 390. A. L. Riggs, MS. letter to Dorsey, 1876 or 1877. Dorsey, Ponka tradition: The Black Hills belong to the Crows. That the Dakotas were not there till this century see Corbusiers Dakota Winter Counts, in 4th Rept. Bur.

Eth., p. 130, where it is also said that the Crow were the original owners of the Black Hills.]

The Biloxi habitat in 1699 was on the Pascogoula river,[91] in the southeast corner of the present State of Mississippi. The Biloxi subsequently removed to Louisiana, where a few survivors were found by Mr. Gatschet in 1886.

[Footnote 91: Margry, Dcouvertes, vol. 4, p. 195.]

The Tutelo habitat in 1671 was in Brunswick County, southern Virginia, and it probably included Lunenburgh and Mecklenburg Counties.[92] The Earl of Bellomont (1699) says[93] that the Shateras were supposed to be the Toteros, on Big Sandy River, Virginia, and Pownall, in his map of North America (1776), gives the Totteroy (i.e., Big Sandy) River.

Subsequently to 1671 the Tutelo left Virginia and moved to North Carolina.[94] They returned to Virginia (with the Sapona), joined the Nottaway and Meherrin, whom they and the Tuscarora followed into Pennsylvania in the last century; thence they went to New York, where they joined the Six Nations, with whom they removed to Grand River Reservation, Ontario, Canada, after the Revolutionary war. The last full-blood Tutelo died in 1870. For the important discovery of the Siouan affinity of the Tutelo language we are indebted to Mr. Hale.

[Footnote 92: Batts in Doc. Col. Hist. N.Y., 1853, vol. 3, p. 194.

Harrison, MS. letter to Dorsey, 1886.]

[Footnote 93: Doc. Col. Hist. N.Y., 1854, vol. 4. p. 488.]

[Footnote 94: Lawson, Hist. Carolina, 1714; reprint of 1860, p. 384.]

The Catawba lived on the river of the same name on the northern boundary of South Carolina. Originally they were a powerful tribe, the leading people of South Carolina, and probably occupied a large part of the Carolinas. The Woccon were widely separated from kinsmen living in North Carolina in the fork of the Cotentnea and Neuse Rivers.

The Wateree, living just below the Catawba, were very probably of the same linguistic connection.

PRINc.i.p.aL TRIBES.

I. _Dakota_.

(A) Santee: include Mde-wa-kan-ton-wan (Spirit Lake village, Santee Reservation, Nebraska), and Wa-qpe-ku-te (Leaf Shooters); some on Fort Peck Reservation, Montana.

(B) Sisseton (Si-si-ton-wan), on Sisseton Reservation, South Dakota, and part on Devils Lake Reservation, North Dakota.

(C) Wahpeton (Wa-qpe-ton-wan, Wa-hpe-ton-wan); Leaf village.

Some on Sisseton Reservation; most on Devils Lake Reservation.

(D) Yankton (I-hak-ton-wan), at Yankton Reservation, South Dakota.

(E) Yanktonnais (I-hak-ton-wan-na); divided into _Upper_ and _Lower_. Of the _Upper Yanktonnais_, there are some of the _Cut-head band_ (Pa-ba-ksa gens) on Devils Lake Reservation.

_Upper Yanktonnais_, most are on Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota; _Lower Yanktonnais_, most are on Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota, some are on Standing Rock Reservation, and some on Fort Peck Reservation, Montana.

(F) Teton (Ti-ton-wan); some on Fort Peck Reservation, Montana.

(a) _Brul_ (Si-tcan-xu); some are on Standing Rock Reservation.

Most of the _Upper Brul_ (Highland Sitcanxu) are on Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. Most of the _Lower Brul_ (Lowland Sitcanxu) are on Lower Brul Reservation, South Dakota.

(b) _Sans Arcs_ (I-ta-zip-tco, Without Bows).

Most are on Cheyenne Reservation, South Dakota; some on Standing Rock Reservation.

(c) _Blackfeet_ (Si-hasa-pa).

Most are on Cheyenne Reservation; some on Standing Rock Reservation.

(d) _Minneconjou_ (Mi-ni-ko-o-ju).

Most are on Cheyenne Reservation, some are on Rosebud Reservation, and some on Standing Rock Reservation.

(e) _Two Kettles_ (O-o-he-non-pa, Two Boilings), on Cheyenne Reservation.

(f) _Ogalalla_ (O-gla-la). Most on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota; some on Standing Rock Reservation. _Wa-za-za_ (Wa-ja-ja, Wa-zha-zha), a gens of the Oglala (Pine Ridge Reservation); _Loafers_ (Wa-glu-xe, In-breeders), a gens of the Oglala; most on Pine Ridge Reservation; some on Rosebud Reservation.

(g) _Uncpapa_ (1862-63), _Uncapapa_ (1880-81), (Hu-kpa-pa), on Standing Rock Reservation.

II. _a.s.sinaboin_ (Hohe, Dakota name); most in British North America; some on Fort Peck Reservation, Montana.