SIOUX
23
SIOUX
Iho Sioux, sent delegates to the home of the Messinh,
in Western Nevada, to investiRnfc thr runioin'. The
first del<')i:ition, as well as a second, ciinfirined (he
truth of (he reporl, and in the sjiring of 1.S90 the
ceremonial "Ghost Dance," intended to h;isten the
fulfilment of the prophecy, was inaugurated at Pine
Ridge. Because of its strong appeal to the Indians
under the existing conditions, the Dance soon spread
among other Teton reservations until the Indians were
in a frenzy of religious excitement. The newly-
appointed agent at Pine Ridge became frightened and
called for troops, thus precipitating the outbreak of
1890. By 1 December 3000 troops were dispo.sed in the
neighbourhood of the western Sioux reseri-ations the
under orders of General Nelson Miles. Leading
events of the outbreak were: the killing of Sitting
Bull, his son, and six others on 15 December, at his
camp on Grand River, Standing Rock reservation,
while resisting arrest by the Indian police, six of whom
were killed in the encounter; the flight of Sitting Bull's
followers and others of Standing Rock and Cheyenne
River reservations into the Bad Lands of western
South Dakota where they joined other refugee
"ho.stiles" from Pine Ridge and Rosebud; the fight at
Wounded Knee Creek, twenty miles north-east of
Pine Ridge agency, 29 December, 1S90, between a
band of surrendered hostiles under Big Foot and a
detachment of the Seventh Cavalry under Colonel
For.syth. On 16 JanTlS91, the hostiles surrendered to
General Miles at Pine Ridge, and the outbreak was at
an end. With the restoration of peace, grievances w'ere
adjusted and the work of civilization resumed.
Under provision of the general allotment law of 1887
negotiations were concluded from time to time with
the various bands by which the size of the reserva-
tions was still further curtailed, and lands allotted
in severalty, until now almost all of the Sioux Indi-
ans are individual owners and well on the way to
full citizen.ship. Indian dress and adornment are
nearly obsolete, together with the tipi and aboriginal
ceremonial, and the great majority are clothed in
citizen's dress, living in comfortable small houses
with modern furniture, and engaged in farming and
stock raising. The death of the old chief. Red Cloud,
at Pine Ridge in 1909, removed almost the last link
bimling the Sioux to their Indian past.
Reliciovs Statis. — in 1909 nearly 10,000 of the 25,000 Sioux within the United States were officially reported as Christians. The proportion is now probably at least one-half, of whom about half are Catholic, the others being chiefly Episcopalian and Presbyterian. The Catholic missions are: Our Lady of Sorrows, Fort Totten, N. D. (Devil's Lake Res.), Benedictine; St. Elizabeth, Cannonball, X. D. (Standing Rock Res.), Benedictine; St. Peter, Fort Yates, N. D. (Standing Rock Res.), Benedictine; St. James, Porcupine (Shields P. O.), N. D. (Stand- ing Rock Res.), Benedictine; St. Benedict, Stand- ing Rock Agency, S. D. (Standing Rock Res.), Bene- dictine; St. Aloysius, Standing Rock Agency, S. I)., (Standing Rock Res.), Benedictine; St. Edward, Standing Rock Agency, S. D., (Standing Rock Res.), Benedictine; St. Bede, Standing Rock Agency, S. D. (Standing Rock Res.), Benedictine; Immaculate Conception, Stephan, S. D. (Crow Creek Res.), Benedictine; St. Matthew, Veblen Co. (Britton P. O.) S. D. (former Si.sseton Res.), secular; Corpus Christi, Chej-enne River Agency, S. D. (Chey. R. Res.), secular; St. Francis, Rosebud, S. D. (Rosebud Res.), Jesuit; Holy Rosary, Pine Ridge, S. D. (Pine Ridge Res.), Jesuit. The two Jesuit missions maintain boarding-schools, and are assisted by Franciscan Sisters. The Immaculate Conception mission al.so maintains a boarding-school, with Benedictine Si.s- ters. At the Fort Totten mi.ssion a monthly paiier, "Sina Sapa Wocekiye T.ieyanpaha" (Black-gown Prayer Herald), entirely in the Sioux language, is
published under (he editorship of Father Jerome
Hunt, who has been with the mi.ssion from its foun-
dation. Notable events in the ri'ligious life of (he
tribe are the Catholic Sioux congresses held in the
summer of each year, one in North and one in South
Dakota, which are attended by many high church
dignitaries and mission workers antl several thousands
of Catholic Indians. Of some 470 Christian Sioux
in Canada about one-fourth are Catholic, chiefly at
Standing Buffalo Reservation, Sask., where they are
served from the Oblate mission school at Qu'Appelle.
ORaANIZATION AND CULTURE. — The Sioux Were not a compact nation with centralized government and supreme head chief, but were a confederacy of seven allied sub-tribes sjieaking a common language, each with a recognizeil hi'ail chi(-f and each sulidivided into bands or villages governed l)y subordinate chiefs. The .seven sub-tribes, from east to west, were: (1) Mdewakantonwan (^Ide-wakaiiton) \illage (people) of the Spirit Lake (i.e. Mille Lac); (2) Wakhpekute "Leaf Shooters"; (,3) Wakhpetonwan (Wahpeton), "Village in the Leaves"; (4) Sisitonwan (Sisseton), "Village of the Marsh"; (5) Ihanktonwan (Yankton), "Village at the End"; (6) Ihanktonwanna (Yank- tonai), "Little Yankton"; (7) Titonwan (Teton), "Village of the Prairie". Of these, (he first four, originally holding the heads of the iVIississippi, con- stitute the Isanti (Santee) or eastern, dialectic group; The Yankton and Yanktonai, about the lower and upper courses of the James River respectively, together with the Assiniboin tribe constitute the central dialectic group. The great Teton division, west of the Missouri and comprising three-fifths of the whole nation, constitutes a third <lialectic group. The Teton are divided into seven )irincipal bands, commonly known as Ogalala (at Pine Kidml; Brul6 (at Rosebud and Lower Brule); Iluiikpa.i)a (at Standing Rock); Blackfoot (at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River); Minieonju, S.ans-Arc, and Two Kettle (Cheyenne River). Among the more seden- tary eastern bands chiefship seems to have been hereditary in the male line, but with the roving west- ern bands it depended usually upon pre-eminent ability. In their original home about the heads of the Mississippi the Sioux subsisted chiefly upon wild rice, fish, and small game, and were expert canoe men, but as they drifted west into the plains and obtained possession of the horse their whole manner of life was changed, and they became .a race of eques- trian nomads, subsisting almost entirely upon the bviffalo. They seem never to have been agricidtural to any great extent. Their dwelling was the birch- bark lodge in the east and the butTalo-skin tipi on the plain. Their dead were sometimes deix>sited in a coffin upon the surface of the ground, but more often laid upon a scaffolding or in the tree-t ops. Food and valuables were left with t he corp.se, and relat ives gashed their bodies with knives and cut off t heir hair in token of grief. Besides the knife, bow, and hatchet of the forest warrior, they carried also on the plains the lance and shield of the horseman. Polygamy was recog- nized. There was no clan system.
To the Sioux the earth was a great island plain surrounded by an ocean far to the west of which was the spirit world. There were two souls — some said four — one of which remained near the grav(! after death, while the other travelled on to the spirit world, or in certain cases became a wandering and dangerous ghost. In the west also, in a nuigic house upon the top of a high mountain and guarded by four sentinel animals at the four doonvays, lived the Wnkinyan, or thunders, the greatest of the gods, and mortal enemies of the subterranean earth spirits and the water spirits. The sun also was a great god. There was no supreme "Great Spirit", as siippo.sed by the whites, no ethical code to their supernaturalism, and no heaven or hell in their
