Native American: Sioux

The Nakotas/Yanktonais ( YANK – ta –Nigh), The Lakota, The Dakata

Geographical Location

• Located in the woods of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

• Lived near Missouri River, then moved west towards the Great Plains and Yellowstone River.

• Men could hunt for dear and fish in rivers and lakes.

• The women grew beans squash and corn.

Lifestyle ( food, clothing, etc.):

• Built their lives around the buffalo.

• Food, shelter and clothing came from the buffalo.

• Lakota’s wasted no part of the buffalo -- used bones for scraping knives. Used ribs for sled. Skulls for decoration.

Homes and or/Dwellings

• Lakota’s lived in teepees – tents and they often covered their homes with buffalo hides – this kept in heat).

• Teepees were often stationed on reservations and sometimes painted for decoration.

• Teepees had special rules. Women kept to one side of the tepee and the men stayed on the other side.

Religion• Believed that everything in the world

had a spirit, including rocks and trees.

• The most powerful spirit was the great spirit or the grandfather spirit.

• Every summer Lakota’s held a Sun Dance – a religious ceremonies that last for several days.

Encounters• Other tribes feared Lakota warriors.

• Lakota's would raid other tribes for horses.

• Lakota’s often wore a crown of eagle feathers or a warbonnet on their heads.

How do they keep their stories?

Oral tradition: preserved their culture through spoken word ( stories) and creative tools to help them remember.

Winter Counts: was one such tool.

Sioux Annual Cycle begin with the first snowfall and ended with the next snowfall.

Before the next snowfall, elders in the community gathered. Together they decided on one event to serve as the historical reminder for the year.

The year was named after the chosen event.

PictographOne person in the community was chosen as the keeper and painted onto the buffalo hide a pictograph.

The Keeper painted a new picture on the hide each year to commemorate that years event.

Sioux – Dakota – Creation Myth

• Tate = Wind god. Had five sons: North, South, East, West and Yumni ( Whirlwind)

• One Day – Tate meets a beautiful woman, name Whope ( Daughter of Son and Moon).

• Tate takes Whope in as a daughter.

• Whope makes all of the winds their favorite meal, but no matter how much the winds ate, their plates remained full.

• Winds decided that Whope has supernatural powers.

• They fight for her attention.

Each Wind wore his own personality

North Wind: Strong, but Cruel.

East Wind: Is infrequently called upon. He brings with him dawn and a new day.

West Wind: Strong and Good, but cannot protect against the North.

South Wind = Okaga: Stays with you, and brings a pleasant life.

Yumni = the Whirlwind: Knows all the games.

Who will Whope Choose?

“ I want a tipi for Okaga and myself, a place for him and his brothers.”

Gods make the world and all that is in it as their wedding present.

The Sioux, Lakota’s and Dakota’s, see the world as having four directions, dictated by the winds.

Each wind has a special power and meaning, and the Sioux’s understand these particular powers as the wind’s spirtual purpose.

Sioux’s TodayThere are a combined 26,000 speakers of Lakota and Dakota Sioux in the western United States and southern Canada, especially in their namesake

states of North and South Dakota. 

Six tribal leaders, associated with various Sioux tribes, have served in new power initiatives that will harness South Dakota greatest natural recourse:

Wind.