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SIOUX

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 150 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIOUX , a tribe of See also:

North See also:American See also:Indians. The name is an See also:abbreviation of the See also:French corruption Nadaouesioux of the Algonquian name Nadowesiwug, " little See also:snakes. " They See also:call themselves Dakotas (" See also:allies "). They were formerly divided into seven clans: hence the name they sometimes used, Otceti Cakowin, " the seven See also:council-fires. " There was a further See also:distribution into eastern and western Sioux. The former were generally sedentary and agricultural, the latter See also:nomad horsemen. The Sioux were ever conspicuous, even among Indians, for their See also:physical strength and indomitable courage. Their See also:original See also:home was See also:east of the Alleghanics, but in 1632 the French found them chiefly in See also:Minnesota and See also:Wisconsin. Thereafter driven westward by the Ojibwa and the French, they crossed the See also:Missouri into the plains. The Sioux fought on the See also:English See also:side in the See also:War of See also:Independence and in that of 1812. In 1815 a treaty was made with the American See also:government by which the right of the tribe to an immense See also:tract, including much of Minnesota, most of the Dakotas, and a large See also:part of Wisconsin, See also:Iowa, Missouri and See also:Wyoming, was admitted. In 1835 See also:missions were started among the eastern Sioux by the American See also:Board, and See also:schools were opened.

In 1837 the tribe sold all their See also:

land east of the See also:Mississippi. In 1851 the bulk of their Minnesota territory was sold, but a hitch in the carrying out of the agreement led to a risingand See also:massacre of whites in 1857 at Spirit See also:Lake on the Minnesota-Iowa border. There was See also:peace again till 1862, when once again the tribe revolted and attacked the See also:white settlers. A terrible massacre ensued, and the punitive See also:measures adopted were severe. See also:Thirty-nine of the See also:Indian leaders were hanged from the same See also:scaffold, and all the Minnesota Sioux were moved to reservations in Dakota. The western Sioux, angry at the treatment of their kinsmen, then became thoroughly hostile and carried on intermittent war with the whites till 1877. In 1875 and 1876 under their See also:chief, Sitting See also:Bull, they successfully resisted the government troops, and finally Sitting Bull and most of his followers escaped into See also:Canada. Sitting Bull returned in 1881. In 1889 a treaty was made reducing Sioux territory. Difficulties in the working of this, and religious excitement in connexion with the See also:Ghost See also:Dance craze, led to an outbreak in 189o. Sitting Bull and three See also:hundred Indians were killed at Wounded See also:Knee See also:Creek, and the Sioux were finally subdued. They are now on different reservations and number some twenty- four thousand.

See INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN.

End of Article: SIOUX

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