The Great Sioux Nation

What is known today as the Sioux nation already existed as the Oceti Sakowin before the coming of white men to this country. The term translates to "Seven Council Fires" and is used to represent the seven original tribes of this continent. According to their own myths, Tokahe (the first) is tricked into bringing himself and six other men with their families to the surface of the earth by Inktomi (the spider). Prior to this the humans lived below the earth, with no culture, and no contact with the Gods. These first seven families account for what is known today as the seven fires.

The term "Sioux" actually came from the Chippewa (Ojibway) word nadouessioux (little snake). It was shortened by the white settlers who obtained the name from the long time enemy of the Oceti Sakowin. The story is a very complex one, with many diverging details of alliances and warring nations, but from those first seven fires came the nations that make up the Oceti Sakowin.

They are generally classified based on the language they speak, and how the word "friend" translates in that language, either as dakota, nakota, or lakota.

The Teton

The Teton, by far the largest portion of the council, are the tribe known as the Lakota and they have seven bands;

• Oglala
• Sicangu (Brule)
• Hunkpapa
• Miniconjous
• Shiasapa
• Itazipacola
• Oohenupa

The Santee

The Santee are the tribe known as the Dakota and they have four bands;

• Mdewakantonwon
• Wahpeton
• Wahpekute
• Sisseton

The Yankton

The Yankton are the tribe known as the Nakota and they have three bands;

• Yankton
• Upper Yanktonia
• Lower Yanktonia

For the remainder of this accounting, the following native terms will be used, rather than their more widely known counter parts.

• Oceti Sakowin- Great Sioux Nation
• Teton- Lakota
• Santee- Dakota
• Yankton- Nakota

Sioux Uprising

The Oceti Sakowin once ranged through out North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado. The center of their Nation, spiritually at least, was in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Called Paha Sapa by many, it was from these hills, from the Wind Cave, they believed Tokahe had emerged. By the mid 1800's virtually all of the tribes and bands had experienced relocation and war, even among themselves. The Teton bands Oglala and Brule controlled the Black Hills. They had allowed the Cheyenne to remain as allies but drove away the other tribes. The rest of the Teton had soon followed the Oglala and Brule into the area.

Around 1850 an effort began to exterminate the buffalo herds roaming the plains. It was believed by killing the buffalo they could reduce the tribes ability to resist assimilation by the Americans. The Fort Laramie series of treaties beginning in 1851 gave rights of safe passage to the settlers in return for annuity payments to the Natives. The payments were often late though, and conditions on the reservations continued to degenerate. The members of the Oceti Sakowin had two choices at this point in history; to stay on the reservations and starve, or to roam the lands and be considered "hostile". The Homestead Act of 1862 unleashed a flood of settlers onto the Oceti Sakowin's territories. The Santee War or Sioux Uprising began in Minnesota in August of 1862 as a result of this set of circumstances. The Santee of Minnesota, aided by the Teton of South Dakota, launched an all out war to regain some of their freedoms.

The Santee were eventually subdued though, and by December of 1862 thirty-eight of their men were executed for murder. The rest were confined to a reservation on the Missouri River. By 1864 most of the Santee and many of the Teton who had aided them had been killed or were in prison for their part in the war.

Fort Laramie Treaty of 68

Between the years of 1864 and 1866 the wars between the settlers and the Oceti Sakowin continued as the rush to the Montana gold discovery was under way. In April of 1866 the war chief Red Cloud, among others, came to Fort Laramie to negotiate an end to the violence. While the chiefs were at the negotiations Col. Henry Carrington began to build forts along what is known as the Bozeman trail. Seeing that the negotiations were a farce, Red Cloud led a fight to close off the trail that crossed over the hunting grounds of the Teton. Under the leadership of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, the tribes managed to make it impossible for the US military to occupy the territories. The US sued for peace, and this the only incident where the United States has admitted defeat in war.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1968 withdrew troops from the Black Hills and created the Great Sioux Reservation. The reservation included most of present day South Dakota and pledged to keep white people out of this territory. Not all the tribes were in agreement with the treaty, but many accepted the US's promise that "no person except those herein designated and authorized to do so shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle on, or reside in the territory..."

The Battle of Little Bighorn

In 1874 the United States Government violated the terms of the treaty to investigate claims of gold in the Black Hills. General George Custer, with over 1,000 pony soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry rode into the Black Hills. When Custer reported that gold was in fact in abundance in the hills, prospectors flooded into the area. During 1875-76 attempts are made to "buy" the black hills and it was declared all tribal members not on the reservations were to be considered hostile. The number of natives now classified as hostile was greatly under-estimated by the US government.

In the spring of 1876 Sitting Bull organized the greatest gathering of the Northern Plains Indians to combat the intrusion. General Custer and 210 of his men were killed in the battle of Little Big Horn the summer of that same year. The government moved it's focus from war with the natives to forcing submission by other means.

In 1875 President Grant opened the Black Hills to miners. The clothes and rations promised under the treaty were not delivered. By this time the buffalo that had once numbered upwards of 50 million had been mostly exterminated. The Manypenny Comission persuaded the natives to sign over the Black Hills as an alternative to starvation. In 1877 the Manypenny agreement was ratified by congress taking the Black Hills and confining the tribes to reservations.

The Dawes Act of 1887 gave the President the power to reduce the holding of the tribes by allotment. The outcome was that the Great Sioux Reservation was split into six small reservations and the majority of their land was opened to settlers.

The Ghost Dance

In the year 1890 the tribes were confined to ever decreasing acreage and dependent on the governments hand outs for their survival. A Paiute shaman call Wovoka had begun a new mysticism that predicted the earth would rise up and cover the whites and the tribes would once again claim their freedom to roam and hunt on their ancestral grounds. The Ghost Dance became a key ceremony in this belief and it spread through the reservations bringing new energy to the tribes and fears to the whites.

When attempts were made to arrest Sitting Bull for the part he played in the spread of the Ghost Dance, he was killed. Much of his band fled to the Pine Ridge reservation for the protection of Red Cloud there. The cavalry caught them at a place called Wounded Knee and killed 300 people, leaving the bodies to freeze in the snow. 300 men, women and children, many of whom were fleeing at the time of their death, died that day. Most of them were unarmed, yet no soldiers were ever brought to trial for their part in the massacre.

This is believed to have been the end of the Great Sioux Uprising. From this point forward the government exercised increasing control over the tribes and their survival.

Mount Rushmore

Five years before the Wounded Knee Massacre, one peak of the Black Hills acquired a new name. Mount Rushmore named for Chester Rushmore is what it has been called by Americans since 1885.

At that point in history it was desirous of the Americans that monuments to their pride should be created across this great new country. A sculptor named Gutzon Borglum undertook to create the most impressive of these monuments on the peak of the Black Hills now known as Mount Rushmore. The intention, according to Gutzon, was to show the world what manner of men these founding fathers were. It was decided that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln would be immortalized in this monument. Drilling began in 1929 and was completed by Gutzon's son in 1941. The displaced tribes were forced to watch in horror as their sacred hills slowly took the shape of huge replicas of the white faces of their oppressors.

While this monument may not have had the expressed intent of intimidating the tribes, as a reminder to their defeat, it can certainly be argued that could be their perception. It served as a warning, the opposition is huge, and cannot be resisted. The proud quotes of the fore fathers, on how all men are created equal, could not have meant much to these it did not apply to. The fact that this new world and new form of liberty was entrusted to the Americans to make a reality would not seem like a good thing under their circumstances. They only knew of the suffering they had experienced as the results of these forefathers and their followers.

Increasingly resentful and enclosed, they were subject to a tribal government controlled by the US Government itself. The government was aided by such tribe members who valued position and wealth above the traditions of their tribes. The murder rate on the reservations was many times that of the national average. Alcohol, not known to them before the coming of the white man, had works it's disastrous effects on much of the surviving population. Children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to schools that would teach them to behave as white people. The children grew up with the seeds of resentment and anger for the white men who had seized control of their world.

The New World

In the late 1960's the elders of the tribes still held on to the ancient knowledge of their people. Passing it down to this new, white man modified, generation was a difficult endeavor. The new generation was ready to take drastic actions, and they had the energy and attitude to attempt it. The elders were weary of life under such conditions and desperate for something to lift the morale of the tribes. The American Indian Movement was born out of the desperate need of an outlet for the rage and frustration felt for so long by these people. Many people consider the AIM to be militant by nature. It has had many organizational and legal problems since it's inception in 1968. Others feel it is at the least a much needed symbol of solidarity for the native peoples.

Despite the mutilation of their beloved mountains, the tribes try even today to regain possession of them. What they would do with Mount Rushmore if they were successful is a matter of speculation. Perhaps it can be as Gutzon himself suggested, and" the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away." Some present day Americans feel that the long over due return of the Black Hills to its rightful owner, would be a small but sincere gesture of a desire to end the oppression our native people. Many millions more, perhaps even unaware of the true nature of the monument, consider it a point of national pride.