Sioux
The Sioux Nation(s) are a group of Indian Nations collected under one rubric due to language, associations, traditions and an Act of Congress that defined them as one "Nation". The three tribes are the Lakota, the Dakota, and the Nakota.
The Dakota (Santee Sioux or Easter Sioux) had their traditional homelands in and around the Great Lakes regions of the North East, most concentrated in and around Minnesota ('Smoky Water' in the Dakota Dialect). They were traditionally a woodland people, subsisting on hunting and fishing but also some varieties of agriculture. [1] As Eastern Americans began to explore, they pushed the Dakota north and west, into what was named the "Dakota territory", but was in fact populated more by the Lakota.
The Nakota or Yankton Sioux were a small subset of the Sioux Nations.
The Lakota (also Teton) Sioux are the largest of the three subsets of the Sioux Nations. They are the stereotypical "plains indian" "Movie Indian", complete with a complex horse driven culture, tipis, and head gear straight out of a John Wayne show.
Siouian Languages
The Siouian language group is a large family of languages that include the Sioux, the Mandian and the Haditsian. It is a verb last language that uses infixes on the verb to identify the subject (that is, a verb like "to hit" apa is aMapa "I hit"; aWapa, "you hit" and just apa "he or she hits".) Also, Lakota and Dakota have different grammars for women as for men.
References
- ↑ This is notable, as the facts of who the Dakota were stand in contract to how they were presented over time, with such concepts attributed to them as "We do not cut into Mother Earth".
