EXTENT OF THE STOCK

Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families found in North America above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were confined to the tenth of the territory bordering Pacific ocean; the remaining nine-tenths of the land was occupied by a few strong stocks, comprising the Algonquian, Athapascan, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, Siouan, and others of more limited extent.

The Indians of the Siouan stock occupied the central portion of the continent. They were preeminently plains Indians, ranging from Lake Michigan to the Rocky mountains, and from the Arkansas to the Saskatchewan, while an outlying body stretched to the shores of the Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters and warriors and grouped in shifting tribes led by the chase or driven by battle from place to place over their vast and naturally rich domain, though a crude agriculture sprang up whenever a tribe tarried long in one spot. No native stock is more interesting than the great Siouan group, and none save the Algonquian and Iroquoian approach it in wealth of literary and historical records; for since the advent of white men the Siouan Indians have played striking rôles on the stage of human development, and have caught the eye of every thoughtful observer.

The term Siouan is the adjective denoting the "Sioux" Indians and cognate tribes. The word "Sioux" has been variously and vaguely used. Originally it was a corruption of a term expressing enmity or contempt, applied to a part of the plains tribes by the forest-dwelling Algonquian Indians. According to Trumbull, it was the popular appellation of those tribes which call themselves Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota[pg 158] ("Friendly," implying confederated or allied), and was an abbreviation of Nadowessioux, a Canadian-French corruption of Nadowe-ssi-wag ("the snake-like ones" or "enemies"), a term rooted in the Algonquian nadowe ("a snake"); and some writers have applied the designation to different portions of the stock, while others have rejected it because of the offensive implication or for other reasons. So long ago as 1836, however, Gallatin employed the term "Sioux" to designate collectively "the nations which speak the Sioux language,"2 and used an alternative term to designate the subordinate confederacy—i.e., he used the term in a systematic way for the first time to denote an ethnic unit which experience has shown to be well defined. Gallatin's terminology was soon after adopted by Prichard and others, and has been followed by most careful writers on the American Indians. Accordingly the name must be regarded as established through priority and prescription, and has been used in the original sense in various standard publications.3

In colloquial usage and in the usage of the ephemeral press, the term "Sioux" was applied sometimes to one but oftener to several of the allied tribes embraced in the first of the principal groups of which the stock is composed, i.e., the group or confederacy styling themselves Dakota. Sometimes the term was employed in its simple form, but as explorers and pioneers gained an inkling of the organization of the group, it was often compounded with the tribal name as "Santee-Sioux," "Yanktonnai-Sioux," "Sisseton-Sioux," etc. As acquaintance between white men and red increased, the stock name was gradually displaced by tribe names until the colloquial appellation "Sioux" became but a memory or tradition throughout much of the territory formerly dominated by the great Siouan stock. One of the reasons for the abandonment of the name was undoubtedly its inappropriateness as a designation for the confederacy occupying the plains of the upper Missouri, since it was an alien and opprobrious designation for a people bearing a euphonious appellation of their own. Moreover, colloquial usage was gradually influenced by the usage of scholars, who accepted the native name for the Dakota (spelled Dahcota by Gallatin) confederacy, as well as the tribal names adopted by Gallatin, Prichard, and others. Thus the ill-defined term "Sioux" has dropped out of use in the substantive form, and is retained, in the adjective form only, to designate a great stock to which no other collective name, either intern or alien, has ever been definitely and justly applied.

The earlier students of the Siouan Indians recognized the plains tribes alone as belonging to that stock, and it has only recently been shown that certain of the native forest-dwellers long ago encountered by English colonists on the Atlantic coast were closely akin to the[pg 159] plains Indians in language, institutions, and beliefs. In 1872 Hale noted a resemblance between the Tutelo and Dakota languages, and this resemblance was discussed orally and in correspondence with several students of Indian languages, but the probability of direct connection seemed so remote that the affinity was not generally accepted. Even in 1880, after extended comparison with Dakota material (including that collected by the newly instituted Bureau of Ethnology), this distinguished investigator was able to detect only certain general similarities between the Tutelo tongue and the dialects of the Dakota tribes.4 In 1881 Gatschet made a collection of linguistic material among the Catawba Indians of South Carolina, and was struck with the resemblance of many of the vocables to Siouan terms of like meaning, and began the preparation of a comparative Catawba-Dakota vocabulary. To this the Tutelo, ¢egiha, ʇɔiwe´re, and Hotcañgara (Winnebago) were added by Dorsey, who made a critical examination of all Catawba material extant and compared it with several Dakota dialects, with which he was specially conversant. These examinations and comparisons demonstrated the affinity between the Dakota and Catawba tongues and showed them to be of common descent; and the establishment of this relation made easy the acceptance of the affinity suggested by Hale between the Dakota and Tutelo.

Up to this time it was supposed that the eastern tribes "were merely offshoots of the Dakota;" but in 1883 Hale observed that "while the language of these eastern tribes is closely allied to that of the western Dakota, it bears evidence of being older in form,"5 and consequently that the Siouan tribes of the interior seem to have migrated westward from a common fatherland with their eastern brethren bordering the Atlantic. Subsequently Gatschet discovered that the Biloxi Indians of the Gulf coast used many terms common to the Siouan tongues; and in 1891 Dorsey visited these Indians and procured a rich collection of words, phrases, and myths, whereby the Siouan affinity of these Indians was established. Meantime Mooney began researches among the Cherokee and cognate tribes of the southern Atlantic slope and found fresh evidence that their ancient neighbors were related in tongue and belief with the buffalo hunters of the plains; and he has recently set forth the relations of the several Atlantic slope tribes of Siouan affinity in full detail.6 Through the addition of these eastern tribes the great Siouan stock is augmented in extent and range and enhanced in interest; for the records of a group of cognate tribes are thereby increased so fully as to afford historical perspective and to indicate, if not clearly to display, the course of tribal differentiation.

According to Dorsey, whose acquaintance with the Siouan Indians was especially close, the main portion of the Siouan stock, occupying the continental interior, comprised seven principal divisions (including[pg 160] the Biloxi and not distinguishing the Asiniboin), each composed of one or more tribes or confederacies, all defined and classified by linguistic, social, and mythologic relations; and he and Mooney recognize several additional groups, denned by linguistic affinity or historical evidence of intimate relations, in the eastern part of the country. So far as made out through the latest researches, the grand divisions, confederacies, and tribes of the stock,7 with their present condition, are as follows:

1. Dakota-Asiniboin

Dakota ("Friendly") or Ot´-ce-ti ca-ko-win ("Seven council-fires") confederacy, comprising—

Asiuiboin ("Cook-with-stones people" in Algonquian), commonly called Nakota among themselves, and called Hohe ("Rebels") by the Dakota; an offshoot from the Yanktonnai; not studied in detail during recent years; partly on Fort Peck reservation, Montana, mostly in Canada; comprising in 1833 (according to Prince Maximilian)8—

2. ¢egiha ("People Dwelling here")9

3. ʇɔiwe´re ("People of this place")

4. Winnebago

Winnebago (Algonquian designation, meaning "Turbid water people"?) or Ho-tcañ-ga-ra ("People of the parent speech"),[pg 163] mostly on Winnebago reservation in Nebraska, some in Wisconsin, and a few in Michigan; composition never definitely ascertained; comprised in 1850 (according to Schoolcraft12) twenty-one bands, all west of the Mississippi, viz.:

5. Mandan

Mandan (their own name is questionable; Catlin says they called themselves See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, "People of the pheasants;"13 Prince Maximilian says they called themselves Numangkake, "Men," adding usually the name of their village, and that another name is Mahna-Narra, "The Sulky [Ones]," applied because they separated from the rest of their nation;14 of the latter name their common appellation seems to be a corruption); on Fort Berthold reservation, North Dakota, comprising in 1804 (according to Lewis and Clark15) three villages—

6. Hidatsa

7. Biloxi

8. Monakan

Monakan confederacy.

Tutelo.

?Manahoac confederacy, extinct.

9. Catawba or Ni-ya ("People")

10. Sara (extinct)

11. ? Pedee (extinct)

The definition of the first six of these divisions is based on extended researches among the tribes and in the literature representing the work of earlier observers, and may be regarded as satisfactory. In some cases, notably the Dakota confederacy, the constitution of the divisions is also satisfactory, though in others, including the Asiniboin, Mandan, and Winnebago, the tabulation represents little more than superficial enumeration of villages and bands, generally by observers possessing little knowledge of Indian sociology or language. So far as the survivors of the Biloxi are concerned the classification is satisfactory; but there is doubt concerning the former limits of the division, and also concerning the relations of the extinct tribes referred to on slender, yet the best available, evidence. The classification of[pg 166] the extinct and nearly extinct Siouan Indians of the east is much less satisfactory. In several cases languages are utterly lost, and in others a few doubtful terms alone remain. In these cases affinity is inferred in part from geographic relation, but chiefly from the recorded federation of tribes and union of remnants as the aboriginal population faded under the light of brighter intelligence; and in all such instances it has been assumed that federation and union grew out of that conformity in mode of thought which is characteristic of peoples speaking identical or closely related tongues. Accordingly, while the grouping of eastern tribes rests in part on meager testimony and is open to question at many points, it is perhaps the best that can be devised, and suffices for convenience of statement if not as a final classification. So far as practicable the names adopted for the tribes, confederacies, and other groups are those in common use, the aboriginal designations, when distinct, being added in those cases in which they are known.

The present population of the Siouan stock is probably between 40,000 and 45,000, including 2,000 or more (mainly Asiniboin) in Canada.

TRIBAL NOMENCLATURE

In the Siouan stock, as among the American Indians generally, the accepted appellations for tribes and other groups are variously derived. Many of the Siouan tribal names were, like the name of the stock, given by alien peoples, including white men, though most are founded on the descriptive or other designations used in the groups to which they pertain. At first glance, the names seem to be loosely applied and perhaps vaguely defined, and this laxity in application and definition does not disappear, but rather increases, with closer examination.

There are special reasons for the indefiniteness of Indian nomenclature: The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed most of them remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i.e., the stage in which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary symbols, but by means of arbitrary associations,18 and in this stage names are connotive or descriptive, rather than denotive as in the scriptorial stage. Moreover, among the Indians, as among all other prescriptorial peoples, the ego is paramount, and all things are described, much more largely than among cultured peoples, with reference to the describer and the position which he occupies—Self and Here, and, if need be, Now and Thus, are the fundamental elements of primitive conception and description, and these elements are implied and exemplified, rather than expressed, in thought and utterance. Accordingly there is a notable paucity in names, especially for themselves, among the Indian tribes, while the descriptive designations applied to a given group by neighboring tribes are often diverse.

The principles controlling nomenclature in its inchoate stages are illustrated among the Siouan peoples. So far as their own tongues were concerned, the stock was nameless, and could not be designated save through integral parts. Even the great Dakota confederacy, one of the most extensive and powerful aboriginal organizations, bore no better designation than a term probably applied originally to associated tribes in a descriptive way and perhaps used as a greeting or countersign, although there was an alternative proper descriptive term.—"Seven Council-fires"—apparently of considerable antiquity, since it seems to have been originally applied before the separation of the Asiniboin.19 In like manner the ¢egiha, ʇɔiwe're, and Hotcañgara groups, and perhaps the Niya, were without denotive designations for themselves, merely styling themselves "Local People," "Men," "Inhabitants," or, still more ambitiously, "People of the Parent Speech," in terms which are variously rendered by different interpreters; they were lords in their own domain, and felt no need for special title. Different Dakota tribes went so far as to claim that their respective habitats marked the middle of the world, so that each insisted on precedence as the leading tribe,20 and it was the boast of the Mandan that they were the original people of the earth.21 In the more carefully studied confederacies the constituent groups generally bore designations apparently used for convenient distinction in the confederation; sometimes they were purely descriptive, as in the case of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Oto, and several others; again they referred to the federate organization (probably, possibly to relative position of habitat), as in the Yankton, Yanktonai, and Huñkpapa; more frequently they referred to geographic or topographic position, e.g., Teton, Omaha, Pahe'tsi, Kwapa, etc; while some appear to have had a figurative or symbolic connotation, as Brulé, Ogalala, and Ponka. Usually the designations employed by alien peoples were more definite than those used in the group designated, as illustrated by the stock name, Asiniboin, and Iowa. Commonly the alien appellations were terms of reproach; thus Sioux, Biloxi, and Hohe (the Dakota designation for the Asiniboin) are clearly opprobrious, while Paskagula might easily be opprobrious among hunters and warriors, and Iowa and Oto appear to be derogatory or contemptuous expressions. The names applied by the whites were sometimes taken from geographic positions, as in the case of Upper Yanktonai and Cape Fear—the geographic names themselves being frequently of Indian origin. Some of the current names represent translations of the aboriginal terms either into English ("Blackfeet," "Two Kettles," "Crow,") or into French ("Sans Arcs," "Brulé"," "Gros Ventres"); yet most of the names, at least of the prairie tribes, are simply corruptions of the aboriginal terms, though frequently the modification is so complete as to render identification and interpretation difficult—it[pg 168] is not easy to find Waca'ce in "Osage" (so spelled by the French, whose orthography was adopted and mispronounced by English-speaking pioneers), or Pa'qotce in "Iowa."

The meanings of most of the eastern names are lost; yet so far as they are preserved they are of a kind with those of the interior. So, too, are the subtribal names enumerated by Dorsey.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

DAKOTA-ASINIBOIN

The Dakota are mentioned in the Jesuit Relations as early as 1639-40; the tradition is noted that the Ojibwa, on arriving at the Great Lakes in an early migration from the Atlantic coast, encountered representatives[pg 190] of the great confederacy of the plains. In 1641 the French voyageurs met the Potawatomi Indians flying from a nation called Nadawessi (enemies); and the Frenchmen adopted the alien name for the warlike prairie tribes. By 1658 the Jesuits had learned of the existence of thirty Dakota villages west-northwest from the Potawatomi mission St Michel; and in 1689 they recorded the presence of tribes apparently representing the Dakota confederacy on the upper Mississippi, near the mouth of the St Croix. According to Croghan's History of Western Pennsylvania, the "Sue" Indians occupied the country southwest of Lake Superior about 1759; and Dr T.S. Williamson, "the father of the Dakota mission," states that the Dakota must have resided about the confluence of the Mississippi and the Minnesota or St Peters for at least two hundred years prior to 1860.

According to traditions collected by Dorsey, the Teton took possession of the Black Hills region, which had previously been occupied by the Crow Indians, long before white men came; and the Yankton and Yanktonnai, which were found on the Missouri by Lewis and Clark, were not long removed from the region about Minnesota river. In 1862 the Santee and other Dakota tribes united in a formidable outbreak in which more than 1,000 whites were massacred or slain in battle. Through this outbreak and the consequent governmental action toward the control and settlement of the tribes, much was learned concerning the characteristics of the people, and various Indian leaders became known; Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, American Horse, and Even-his-horse-is-feared (commonly miscalled Man-afraid-of-his-horses) were among the famous Dakota chiefs and warriors, notable representatives of a passing race, whose names are prominent in the history of the country. Other outbreaks occurred, the last of note resulting from the ghost-dance fantasy in 1890-91, which fortunately was quickly suppressed. Yet, with slight interruptions, the Dakota tribes in the United States were steadily gathered on reservations. Some 800 or more still roam the prairies north of the international boundary, but the great body of the confederacy, numbering nearly 28,000, are domiciled on reservations (already noted) in Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The separation of the Asiniboin from the Wazi-kute gens of the Yanktonai apparently occurred before the middle of the seventeenth century, since the Jesuit relation of 1658 distinguishes between the Poualak or Guerriers (undoubtedly the Dakota proper) and the Assiuipoualak or Guerriers de pierre. The Asiniboin are undoubtedly the Essanape (Essanapi or Assinapi) who were next to the Makatapi (Dakota) in the Walam-Olum record of the Lenni-Lenape or Delaware. In 1680 Hennepin located the Asiniboin northeast of the Issati (Isanyati or Santee) who were on Knife lake (Minnesota); and the Jesuit map of 1681 placed them on Lake-of-the-Woods, then called "L. Assinepoualacs." La Hontan claimed to have visited the Eokoro (Arikara)[pg 191] in 1689-90, when the Essanape were sixty leagues above; and Perrot's Mémoire refers to the Asiniboin as a Sioux tribe which, in the seventeenth century, seceded from their nation and took refuge among the rocks of Lake-of-the-Woods. Chauvignerie located some of the tribe south of Ounipigan (Winnipeg) lake in 1736, and they were near Lake-of-the-Woods as late as 1766, when they were said to have 1,500 warriors. It is well known that in 1829 they occupied a considerable territory west of the Dakota and north of Missouri river, with a population estimated at 8,000; and Drake estimated their number at 10,000 before the smallpox epidemic of 1838, which is said to have carried off 4,000. From this blow the tribe seems never to have fully recovered, and now numbers probably no more than 3,000, mostly in Canada, where they continue to roam the plains they have occupied for half a century.

¢EGIHA

According to tribal traditions collected by Dorsey, the ancestors of the Omaha, Ponka, Elwapa, Osage, and Kansa were originally one people dwelling on Ohio and Wabash rivers, but gradually working westward. The first separation took place at the mouth of the Ohio, when those who went down the Mississippi became the Kwapa or Downstream People, while those who ascended the great river became the Omaha or Up-stream People. This separation must have occurred at least as early as 1500, since it preceded De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi.

The Omaha group (from whom the Osage, Kansa, and Ponka were not yet separated) ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri, where they remained for some time, though war and hunting parties explored the country northwestward, and the body of the tribe gradually followed these pioneers, though the Osage and Kansa were successively left behind. Some of the pioneer parties discovered the pipestone quarry, and many traditions cling about this landmark. Subsequently they were driven across the Big Sioux by the Yankton Indians, who then lived toward the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi. The group gradually differentiated and finally divided through the separation of the Ponka, probably about the middle of the seventeenth century. The Omaha gathered south of the Missouri, between the mouths of the Platte and Niobrara, while the Ponka pushed into the Black Hills country.

The Omaha tribe remained within the great bend of the Missouri, opposite the mouth of the Big Sioux, until white men came. Their hunting ground extended westward and southwestward, chiefly north of the Platte and along the Elkhorn, to the territory of the Ponka and the Pawnee (Caddoan); and in 1766 Carver met their hunting parties on Minnesota river. Toward the end of the eighteenth century they were nearly destroyed by smallpox, their number having been reduced from about 3,500 to but little over 300 when they were visited by Lewis[pg 192] and Clark, their famous chief Blackbird being one of those carried off by the epidemic. Subsequently they increased in numbers; in 1890 their population was about 1,200. They are now on reservations, mostly owning land in severalty, and are citizens of the United States and of the state of Nebraska.

Although the name Ponka did not appear in history before 1700 it must have been used for many generations earlier, since it is an archaic designation connected with the social organization of several tribes and the secret societies of the Osage and Kansa, as well as the Ponka. In 1700 the Ponka were indicated on De l'Isle's map, though they were not then segregated territorially from the Omaha. They, too, suffered terribly from the smallpox epidemic, and when met by Lewis and Clark in 1804 numbered only about 200. They increased rapidly, reaching about 600 in 1829 and some 800 in 1842; in 1871, when they were first visited by Dorsey, they numbered 747. Up to this time the Ponka and Dakota were amicable; but a dispute grew out of the cession of lands, and the Teton made annual raids on the Ponka until the enforced removal of the tribe to Indian Territory took place in 1877. Through this warfare, more than a quarter of the Ponka lost their lives. The displacement of this tribe from lands owned by them in fee simple attracted attention, and a commission was appointed by President Hayes in 1880 to inquire into the matter; the commission, consisting of Generals Crook and Miles and Messrs William Stickney and Walter Allen, visited the Ponka settlements in Indian Territory and on the Niobrara and effected a satisfactory arrangement of the affairs of the tribe, through which the greater portion (some 600) remained in Indian Territory, while some 225 kept their reservation in Nebraska.

When the ¢egiha divided at the mouth of the Ohio, the ancestors of the Osage and Kansa accompanied the main Omaha body up the Mississippi to the mouth of Osage river. There the Osage separated from the group, ascending the river which bears their name. They were distinguished by Marquette in 1673 as the "Ouchage" and "Autrechaha," and by Penicaut in 1719 as the "Huzzau," "Ous," and "Wawha." According to Croghan, they were, in 1759, on "White creek, a branch of the Mississippi," with the "Grand Tuc;" but"White creek" (or White water) was an old designation for Osage river, and "Grand Tuc" is, according to Mooney, a corruption of "Grandes Eaux," or Great Osage; and there is accordingly no sufficient reason for supposing that they returned to the Mississippi. Toward the close of the eighteenth century the Osage and Kansa encountered the Comanche and perhaps other Shoshonean peoples, and their course was turned southward; and in 1817, according to Brown, the Great Osage and Little Osage were chiefly on Osage and Arkansas rivers, in four villages. In 1829 Porter described their country as beginning 25 miles west of the Missouri line and running to the Mexican line of that date, being 50 miles wide; and he gave their number as 5,000. According to[pg 193] Schoolcraft, they numbered 3,758 in April, 1853, but this was after the removal of an important branch known as Black Dog's band to a new locality farther down Verdigris river. In 1850 the Osage occupied at least seven large villages, besides numerous small ones, on Neosho and Verdigris rivers. In 1873, when visited by Dorsey, they were gathered on their reservations in what is now Oklahoma. In 1890 they numbered 158.

The Kansa remained with the Up-stream People in their gradual ascent of the Missouri to the mouth of the Kaw or Kansas, when they diverged westward; but they soon came in contact with inimical peoples, and, like the Osage, were driven southward. The date of this divergence is not fixed, but it must have been after 1723, when Bourgmont mentioned a large village of "Quans" located on a small river flowing northward thirty leagues above Kaw river, near the Missouri. After the cession of Louisiana to the United States, a treaty was made with the Kansa Indians, who were then on Kaw river, at the mouth of the Saline, having been forced back from the Missouri by the Dakota; they then numbered about 1,500 and occupied about thirty earth lodges. In 1825 they ceded their lands on the Missouri to the Government, retaining a reservation on the Kaw, where they were constantly subjected to attacks from the Pawnee and other tribes, through which large numbers of their warriors were slain. In 1846 they again ceded their lands and received a new reservation on Neosho river in Kansas. This was soon overrun by settlers, when another reservation was assigned to them in Indian Territory, near the Osage country. By 1890 their population was reduced to 214.

The Kwapa were found by De Soto in 1541 on the Mississippi above the mouth of the St Francis, and, according to Marquette's map, they were partly east of the Mississippi in 1673. In 1681 La Salle found them in three villages distributed along the Mississippi, and soon afterward Tonty mentioned four villages, one (Kappa = Uʞaqpaqti, "Real Kwapa") on the Mississippi and three (Toyengan = Tanwan-jiʞa, "Small Village"; Toriman = Ti-uad¢iman, and Osotonoy = Uzutiuwe) inland; this observation was verified by Dorsey in 1883 by the discovery that these names are still in use. In early days the Kwapa were known as "Akansa," or Arkansa, first noted by La Metairie in 1682. It is probable that this name was an Algonquian designation given because of confusion with, or recognition of affinity to, the Kansa or Kanze, the prefix "a" being a common one in Algouquian appellations. In 1687 Joutel located two of the villages of the tribe on the Arkansas and two on the Mississippi, one of the latter being on the eastern side. According to St Cosme, the greater part of the tribe died of smallpox in October, 1699. In 1700 De l'Isle placed the principal "Acansa" village on the southern side of Arkansas river; and, according to Gravier, there were in 1701 five villages, the largest, Imaha (Omaha), being highest on the Arkansas. In 1805 Sibley placed the "Arkensa"[pg 194] in three villages on the southern side of Arkansas river, about 12 miles above Arkansas post. They claimed to be the original proprietors of the country bordering the Arkansas for 300 miles, or up to the confluence of the Cadwa, above which lay the territory of the Osage. Subsequently the Kwapa affiliated with the Caddo Indians, though of another stock; according to Porter they were in the Caddo country in 1829. As reservations were established, the Kwapa were re-segregated, and in 1877 were on their reservation in northwestern Indian Territory; but most of them afterward scattered, chiefly to the Osage country, where in 1890 they were found to number 232.

ʇƆIWE'RE

The ancestry and prehistoric movements of the tribes constituting this group are involved in considerable obscurity, though it is known from tradition as well as linguistic affinity that they sprung from the Winnebago.

Since the days of Marquette (1673) the Iowa have ranged over the country between the Mississippi and Missouri, up to the latitude of Oneota (formerly upper Iowa) river,- and even across the Missouri about the mouth of the Platte. Chauvignerie located them, in 1736 west of the Mississippi and (probably through error in identification of the waterway) south of the Missouri; and in 1761 Jefferys placed them between Missouri river and the headwaters of Des Moines river, above the Oto and below the Maha (Omaha). In 1805, according to Drake, they dwelt on Des Moines river, forty leagues above its mouth, and numbered 800. In 1811 Pike found them in two villages on Des Moines and Iowa rivers. In 1815 they were decimated by smallpox, and also lost heavily through war against the tribes of the Dakota confederacy. In 1829 Porter placed them on the Little Platte, some 15 miles from the Missouri line, and about 1853 Schoolcraft located them on Nemaha river, their principal village being near the mouth of the Great Nemaha. In 1848 they suffered another epidemic of smallpox, by which 100 warriors, besides women and children, were carried off. As the country settled, the Iowa, like the other Indians of the stock, were collected on reservations which they still occupy in Kansas and Oklahoma. According to the last census their population was 273.

The Missouri were first seen by Tonty about 1670; they were located near the Mississippi on Marquette's map (1673) under the name of Ouemessourit, probably a corruption of their name by the Illinois tribe, with the characteristic Algonquian prefix. The name Missouri was first used by Joutel in 1687. In 1723 Bourgmont located their principal village 30 leagues below Kaw river and 60 leagues below the chief settlement of the Kansa; according to Groghan, they were located on Mississippi river opposite the Illinois country in 1759. Although the early locations are somewhat indefinite, it seems certain that the tribe formerly dwelt on the Mississippi about the mouth of[pg 195] the Missouri, and that they gradually ascended the latter stream, remaining for a time between Grand and Chariton rivers and establishing a town on the left bank of the Missouri near the mouth of the Grand. There they were found by French traders, who built a fort on an island quite near their village about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Soon afterward they were conquered and dispersed by a combination of Sac, Fox, and other Indians; they also suffered from smallpox. On the division, five or six lodges joined the Osage, two or three took refuge with the Kansa, and most of the remainder amalgamated with the Oto. In 1805 Lewis and Clark found a part of the tribe, numbering about 300, south of Platte river. The only known survivors in 1829 were with the Oto, when they numbered no more than 80. In 1842 their village stood on the southern bank of Platte river near the Oto settlement, and they followed the latter tribe to Indian Territory in 1882.

According to Winnebago tradition, the ʇɔiwe're tribes separated from that "People of the parent speech" long ago, the Iowa being the first and the Oto the last to leave. In 1673 the Oto were located by Marquette west of Missouri river, between the fortieth and fortyfirst parallels; in 1680 they were 130 leagues from the Illinois, almost opposite the mouth of the Miskoncing (Wisconsin), and in 1687 they were on Osage river. According to La Hontan they were, in 1690, on Otontas (Osage) river; and in 1698 Hennepin placed them ten days' journey from Fort Crève Cœur. Iberville, in 1700, located the Iowa and Oto with the Omaha, between Wisconsin and Missouri rivers, about 100 leagues from the Illinois tribe; and Charlevoix, in 1721, fixed the Oto habitat as below that of the Iowa and above that of the Kansa on the western side of the Missouri. Dupratz mentions the Oto as a small nation on Missouri river in 1758, and Jefferys (1761) described them as occupying the southern bank of the Panis (Platte) between its mouth and the Pawnee territory; according to Porter, they occupied the same position in 1829. The Oto claimed the land bordering the Platte from their village to the mouth of the river, and also that on both sides of the Missouri as far as the Big Nemaha. In 1833 Catlin found the Oto and Missouri together in the Pawnee country; about 1841 they were gathered in four villages on the southern side of the Platte, from 5 to 18 miles above its mouth. In 1880 a part of the tribe removed to the Sac and Fox reservation in Indian Territory, where they still remain; in 1882 the rest of the tribe, with the remnant of the Missouri, emigrated to the Pouka, Pawnee, and Oto reservation in the present Oklahoma, where, in 1890 they were found to number 400.

WINNEBAGO

Linguistically the Winnebago Indians are closely related to the ʇɔiwe're on the one side and to the Mandan on the other. They were first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation of 1636, though the earliest[pg 196] known use of the name Winnebago occurs in the Relation of 1640; Nicollet found them on Green bay in 1639. According to Shea, the Winnebago were almost annihilated by the Illinois (Algonquian) tribe in early days, and the historical group was made up of the survivors of the early battles. Cbauvignerie placed the Winnebago on Lake Superior in 1736, and Jefferys referred to them and the Sac as living near the head of Green bay in 1761; Carver mentions a Winnebago village on a small island near the eastern end of Winnebago lake in 1778. Pike enumerated seven Winnebago villages existing in 1811; and in 1822 the population of the tribe was estimated at 5,800 (including 900 warriors) in the country about Winnebago lake and extending thence southwestward to the Mississippi. By treaties in 1825 and 1832 they ceded their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox rivers for a reservation on the Mississippi above the Oneota; one of their villages in 1832 was at Prairie la Grosse. They suffered several visitations of smallpox; the third, which occurred in 1836, carried off more than a quarter of the tribe. A part of the people long remained widely distributed over their old country east of the Mississippi and along that river in Iowa and Minnesota; in 1840 most of the tribe removed to the neutral ground in the then territory of Iowa; in 1846 they surrendered their reservation for another above the Minnesota, and in 1856 they were removed to Blue Earth, Minnesota. Here they were mastering agriculture, when the Sioux war broke out and the settlers demanded their removal. Those who had taken up farms, thereby abandoning tribal rights, were allowed to remain, but the others were transferred to Crow creek, on Missouri river, whence they soon escaped. Their privations and sufferings were terrible; out of 2,000 taken to Crow creek only 1,200 reached the Omaha reservation, whither most of them fled. They were assigned a new reservation on the Omaha lands, where they now remain, occupying lands allotted in severalty. In 1890 there were 1,215 Winnebago on the reservation, but nearly an equal number were scattered over Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where they now live chiefly by agriculture, with a strong predilection for hunting.

MANDAN

The Mandan had a vague tradition of emigration from the eastern part of the country, and Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, and others found traces of Mandan house-structures at various points along the Missouri; thus they appear to have ascended that stream before the advent of the ¢egiha. During the historical period their movements were limited; they were first visited in the upper Missouri country by Sieur de la Verendrye in 1738. About 1750 they established two villages on the eastern side and seven on the western side of the Missouri, near the mouth of Heart river. Here they were assailed by the Asiniboin and Dakota and attacked by smallpox, and were greatly reduced; the two eastern villages consolidated, and the people[pg 197] migrated up the Missouri to a point 1,430 miles above its mouth (as subsequently determined by Lewis and Clark); the seven villages were soon reduced to five, and these people also ascended the river and formed two villages in the Arikara country, near the Mandan of the eastern side, where they remained until about 1766, when they also consolidated. Thus the once powerful and populous tribe was reduced to two villages which, in 1804, were found by Lewis and Clark on opposite banks of the Missouri, about 4 miles below Knife river. Here for a time the tribe waxed and promised to regain the early prestige, reaching a population of 1,600 in 1837; but in that year they were again attacked by smallpox and almost annihilated, the survivors numbering only 31 according to one account, or 125 to 145 according to others. After this visitation they united in one village. When the Hidatsa removed from Knife river in 1845, some of the Mandan accompanied them, and others followed at intervals as late as 1858, when only a few still remained at their old home. In 1872 a reservation was set apart for the Hidatsa and Arikara and the survivors of the Mandan on Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota and Montana, but in 1886 the reservation was reduced. According to the census returns, the Mandan numbered 252 in 1890.

HIDATSA

There has been much confusion concerning the definition and designation of the Hidatsa Indians. They were formerly known as Minitari or Gros Ventres of the Missouri, in distinction from the Gros Ventres of the plains, who belong to another stock. The origin of the term Gros Ventres is somewhat obscure, and various observers have pointed out its inapplicability, especially to the well-formed Hidatsa tribesmen. According to Dorsey, the French pioneers probably translated a native term referring to a traditional buffalo paunch, which occupies a prominent place in the Hidatsa mythology and which, in early times, led to a dispute and the separation of the Crow from the main group some time in the eighteenth century.

The earlier legends of the Hidatsa are vague, but there is a definite tradition of a migration northward, about 1765, from the neighborhood of Heart river, where they were associated with the Mandan, to Knife river. At least as early as 1796, according to Matthews, there were three villages belonging to this tribe on Knife river—one at the mouth, another half a mile above, and the third and largest 3 miles from the mouth. Here the people were found by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and here they remained until 1837, when the scourge of smallpox fell and many of the people perished, the survivors uniting in a single village. About 1845 the Hidatsa and a part of the Mandan again migrated up the Missouri, and established a village 30 miles by land and 60 miles by water above their old home, within what is now Fort Berthold reservation. Their population has apparently varied greatly, partly by[pg 198] reason of the ill definition of the tribe by different enumerators, partly by reason of the inroads of smallpox. In 1890 they numbered 522.

The Crow people are known by the Hidatsa as Kihatsa (They-refused-the-paunch), according to Matthews; and Dorsey points out that their own name, Absaruke, does not mean " crow," but refers to a variety of hawk. Lewis and Clark found the tribe in four bands. In 1817 Brown located them on Yellowstone river. In 1829 they were described by Porter as ranging along Yellowstone river on the eastern side of the Bocky mountains, and numbered at 4,000; while in 1834, according to Drake, they occupied the southern branch of the Yellowstone, about the fortysixth parallel and one hundred and fifth meridian, with a population of 4,500. In 1842 their number was estimated at 4,000, and they were described as inhabiting the headwaters of the Yellowstone. They have since been duly gathered on the Crow reservation in Montana, and are slowly adopting civilization. In 1890 they numbered 2,287.

THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN TRIBES

The history of the Monakan, Oatawba, Sara, Pedee, and Santee, and incidentally that of the Biloxi, has been carefully reviewed in a recent publication by Mooney54 , and does not require repetition.

GENERAL MOVEMENTS

On reviewing the records of explorers and pioneers and the few traditions which have been preserved, the course of Siouan migration and development becomes clear. In general the movements were westward and northwestward. The Dakota tribes have not been traced far, though several of them, like the Yanktonnai, migrated hundreds of miles from the period of first observation to the end of the eighteenth century; then came the Mandan, according to their tradition, and as they ascended the Missouri left traces of their occupancy scattered over 1,000 miles of migration; next the ¢egiha descended the Ohio and passed from the cis-Mississippi forests over the trans-Mississippi plains—the stronger branch following the Mandan, while the lesser at first descended the great river and then worked up the Arkansas into the buffalo country until checked and diverted by antagonistic tribes. So also the ʇɔiwe're, first recorded near the Mississippi, pushed 300 miles westward; while the Winnebago gradually emigrated from the region of the Great Lakes into the trans-Mississippi country even before their movements were affected by contact with white men. In like manner the Hidatsa are known to have flowed northwestward many scores of miles; and the Asiniboin swept more rapidly across the plains from the place of their rebellion against the Yanktonnai, on the Mississippi, before they found final resting place on the Saskatchewan[pg 199] plains 500 or 800 miles away. All of the movements were consistent and, despite intertribal friction and strife, measurably harmonious. The lines of movement, so far as they can be restored, are in full accord with the lines of linguistic evolution traced by Hale and Dorsey and Gatschet, and indicate that some five hundred or possibly one thousand years ago the tribesmen pushed over the Appalachians to the Ohio and followed that stream and its tributaries to the Mississippi (though there are faint indications that some of the early emigrants ascended the northern tributaries to the region of the Great Lakes); and that the human flood gained volume as it advanced and expanded to cover the entire region of the plains. The records concerning the movement of this great human stream find support in the manifest reason for the movement; the reason was the food quest by which all primitive men are led, and its end was the abundant fauna of the prairieland, with the buffalo at its head.

While the early population of the Siouan stock, when first the huntsmen crossed the Appalachians, may not be known, the lines of migration indicate that the people increased and multiplied amain during their long journey, and that their numbers culminated, despite external conflict and internal strife, about the beginning of written history, when the Siouan population may have been 100,000 or more. Then came war against the whites and the still more deadly smallpox, whereby the vigorous stock was checked and crippled and the population gradually reduced; but since the first shock, which occurred at different dates in different parts of the great region, the Siouan people have fairly held their own, and some branches are perhaps gaining in strength.