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The name "Sioux" is an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux borrowed into French Canadian from Nadoüessioüak from the early Ottawa exonym: na·towe·ssiwak "Sioux". The Proto-Algonquian form *nātowēwa meaning "Northern Iroquoian" has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (massasauga, Sistrurus). This information was interpreted by some that the Ottawa borrowing was an insult. However, this proto-Algonquian term most likely is ultimately derived from a form *-ātowē meaning simply "speak foreign language", which was later extended in meaning in some Algonquian languages to refer to the massasauga. Thus, contrary to many accounts, the Ottawa word na·towe·ssiwak never equated the Sioux with snakes. There were three main divisions of the Sioux: Santee, Yankton, and Teton, calling themselves, respectively, Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota. The Santee, or Eastern Sioux, comprised the Mdewkanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, and Sisseton; the Yankton included the Yankton and Yanktonai; and the Teton, or Western Sioux, had seven main divisions--the Sihasapa, or Blackfoot; Brulé (Upper and Lower); Hunkpapa; Miniconjou; Oglala; Sans Arcs; and Oohenonpa, or Two-Kettle. Further Divisions included: Dhegiha, Chiwere, Mandan, and Hidatsa. (see table above) Before the middle of the 17th century, the Santee Sioux lived in the area around Lake Superior, where they gathered wild rice and beans, hunted deer and buffalo, and speared fish from canoes. Prolonged and continual warfare with the Ojibwa drove the Santee into southern and western Minnesota; the Teton and Yankton divisions were forced permanently from Minnesota onto the Great Plains (in present North and South Dakota), where they ceased to carry on their traditional agricultural activity and adopted the Plains way of life, which centred on the nomadic hunting of buffalo and other big game. The Sioux (IPA /su/) are a Native American people. The term can describe any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects. The Sioux are often divided into three main groups based on dialect and subculture: Teton (translation uncertain): the westernmost Sioux known for their hunting and warrior culture. Often referred to as the Lakota. Yankton-Yanktonai (Nakota)
The Yankton-Yanktonai are a branch of Sioux peoples who moved into northern Minnesota. They originally constituted of two main ethnic groups: the Yankton ("campers at the end") and Yanktonai ("lesser campers at the end"). Economically, they were involved in quarrying pipestone. It should be remembered that the 'divisions' of the old political organization of the Dakota Nations, collectively referred to as the Seven Council Fires, or Oċéti Śakówiŋ, is used to index the entire Dakota collective. The word khóda in Dakota (and khóla in Lakota) means ‘friend’ or ‘ally.’ Therefore, “Dakota means an alliance of friends. The root word is frequently come upon in the Siouan language, as in okodakiciye, meaning society, association, republic. The tribe consists of seven bands closely related, springing from one parent stock and still joined in alliance for mutual protection”. The three 'divisions' are somewhat arbitrary and are based primarily on relatively minor dialectical differences; there are many kinship ties throughout the three groups, since these 'groups' were historically (and are probably today as well) much more fluid than discrete. Furthermore, due to land expropriation and massive social upheavals caused by the "Dakota-U.S. Wars" (circa 1862-1890), some members of all three groups fled to Rupert's Land, later the Northwest Territories of Canada (est. 1870). Their descendants reside on eight small Dakota Reserves in Canada, four of which are located in Manitoba (Sioux Valley, Long Plain [Dakota Tipi], Birdtail Creek, and Oak Lake [Pipestone]) and the remaining four (Standing Buffalo, Moose Woods [White Cap], Round Plain [Wahpeton], and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan.
The earlier linguistic 3-way division of the Dakotan branch of the Siouan family identified Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota as dialects of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee and Yankton, Nakota = Yanktonai & Assiniboine. This classification was based in large part on each group's particular pronunciation of the autonym Dakhóta-Lakhóta-Nakhóta. However, more recent research has shown that Assiniboine (and also Stoney) are not mutually intelligible with the Sioux groups, while the Yankton-Yanktonai, Santee, and Teton groups all spoke mutually intelligible varieties of a Sioux idiom. This more recent classification identifies Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages with Sioux being the third language that has three similar dialects: Teton, Santee-Sisseton, Yankton-Yanktonai. Furthermore, the Yankton-Yanktonai never referred to themselves using the pronunciation Nakhóta but rather pronounced it the same as the Santee (i.e. Dakhóta). (Assiniboine and Stoney speakers use the pronunciation Nakhóta or Nakhóda.)
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Albers, Patricia C. (2001). Santee. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 761-776). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-050400-7. |
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Lakhota Sioux Heritage Language & Culture Site Lakota Language Consortium |
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