THE LAKOTA – PART 2 of 2

[Please keep in mind this is a general, quick and brief summary of a vast, complex history and culture using just the few resources listed above. If the title said THE GERMANS or THE CHINESE and reported drinking beer or eating rice, that DOES NOT MEAN it is totally correct for each and every person in a culture at all moments of existence! Ed.] 

SOCIETY:

Though the Sioux were known as great warriors, the family was considered the center of Sioux life. Children were called "Wakanisha” which meant sacred and were the center of attention. While monogamy was most common practice, men were allowed to take more than one wife. 

The roles of men and women were clearly defined with women as the matriarchs, ruling the family and domestic lives of the band. The men were expected to provide for and defend the family. Hunting was taken very seriously and infraction of the hunting rules and traditions could lead to destruction of a man’s teepee or other property.

The Sioux were a deeply spiritual people, believing in one all-pervasive god, Wakan Tanka, or the Great Mystery. Religious visions were cultivated and the people communed with the spirit world through music and dance. Rituals of self-sacrifice by inflicting slashes upon themselves or other self-inflicted wounds, asserted their identity as Indian warriors. This was also practiced by mourners during burial ceremonies.

Indian war parties varied from eight to a hundred warriors, usually volunteers. The leader was often a well-known warrior who had demonstrated his skill in battle. Warriors are reported to have worn no shirt, but maybe a robe worn at this time was belted about the waist. In actual battle, the warriors wore only moccasins and breechcloth.

Occasionally the wives of a few of the men followed a large war party to assist in their care, and to do the cooking. A sacred War Pack, kept in the Tent of War, was important in any war activities. The contents of the pack were believed to protect the tribe from harm. A returning war party with the scalp of an enemy held a special scalp or victory dance. Men who won special honors on the war path were permitted to wear an eagle feather in their scalp locks. A deer-tail headdress might also be worn by certain warriors. The large feathered headdresses seen in the videos of today were worn only on social occasions by noted men. While only the men wore feathers in their hair, women might wear them on their clothing. 

By the early 1800s, political and cultural differences between the Sioux groups became pronounced and true Eastern, Middle, and Teton (Western) divisions emerged. The Tetons, the largest of the Lakota tribes, dominated the Black Hills region. 

Both the Dakota and Lakota relied almost exclusively on the buffalo as a major source of food, shelter, and material items. Both groups had complex spiritual ceremonies, and placed much emphasis on family and doing things that benefitted the people rather than the individual. These cultural and spiritual values remain important among many of the people to the present day. Once the people acquired the horse, in the mid-1700s, there was an impact on the material culture as well as the social customs of the people; tepees became larger, there was greater mobility, and hunting became more productive.

Additionally, the horse had a direct impact on the integration of the warfare in the fabric of the people’s lives. Plains Indian warfare focused on controlling resources such as hunting grounds and areas such as the Black Hills as well as raiding rival tribes’ camps for horses and acquiring honors connected with capturing the horses. Plains warfare emphasized out-smarting the enemy, not necessarily killing them as warfare traditions became institutionalized among tribes. War, battle, and raids were an underlying principle of the Sioux people, because through them, men gained prestige, and their prestige was reflected in the family honor. Raids were very much like contests; men seeking to out-smart the enemy and gain individual honors by counting coup, or striking the enemy with the hand or a special staff. This style of warfare, described by one author as comparable to a rough game, changed dramatically after encounters with the U.S. Army in the 1850s.

Initial contact with European whites and the American Indian nations began in the 1600s with the British and French rival trading companies, often enlisting Indian allies in their conflicts in return for trading. Official United States contact with the Lakota occurred during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 and was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, which however never occurred and they proceeded on. 

The Lakota lifeways and warfare customs were followed mostly uninterrupted from then until the discovery of gold in California in 1849. In the early 1850s, overland travelers enroute to gold fields began to cross through Lakota territory in increasing numbers led the U.S. to extend its boundaries to the Pacific Ocean, encroaching on the Indian lands, threatening the buffalo herds and once again changing the Indian way of life.
 

Resources

http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/migration.html
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-sioux.html
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/frameset_reset.html
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0500/stories/0503_0106.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_people
http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/VTrips/BattleMtnSD.HTM
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKJJ_Battle_Mountain
South Dakota Department of Tourism
Photos courtesy of @joedickie and @nrphotography2018