Dakota Indians - Description and History, 1884 This file is a complete transcription of the descriptive information about The Dakota Indians as found in A. T. Andreas' "Historical Atlas of Dakota", 1884. THE DAKOTAS The following interesting paragraphs are compiled from a grammar and dictionary of the Dakota Language, edited by Rev. S. R. Riggs, A. M., who was for several years a missionary among the Sioux. The work was written about 1852. The Dakota nation was estimated by Mr. Riggs in 1852 to number about 25,000. This estimate corresponds with Governor Edmonds' estimate at the present time, when the facilities for taking a correct census are much better than they were thirty years ago. As they are a vigorous, aggressive race it is quite probable that unlike many other tribes or nations, they are not diminishing in numbers. At the time of Mr. Riggs' writing the nation was somewhat differently situated from what it is now, a large number of them being in Minnesota' the various bands ranging from the Mississippi the Black Hills, and from the Big Sioux River on the south to Devil's Lake on the north. Early in the winter of 1837 they ceded to the United States all their lands lying on the eastern side of the Mississippi. During the summer of 1851 the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, with Governor Ramsey of Minnesota, negotiated with the Dakotas of the Mississippi and Minnesota, or St. Peter's valley for all their land lying east of a line running from Otter-Tail Lake through Lake Traverse(Lac Travers) to the junction of the big Sioux River with the Missouri; the Indians retaining for themselves a reservation on the upper Minnesota River, twenty miles wide and about 140 long. This purchase included all the wooded lands belonging to the Dakotas, and extended on the southwest side of the Minnesota River some distance into the great plains of Dakota, where immense herds of buffalo roamed, furnishing the Indian with many of the necessaries of life' food, clothing, tents, bow strings, fuel, etc. In the winter the Indians were wont to pitch their tents in the borders of the groves or clusters of forest trees which skirted the margins of the larger streams. Their national name the Dakotas say signifies leagued or allied, and they sometimes speak of themselves as the Ocetisakowin, or Seven Council fires. The following are the seven principal bands which compose the Dakota nation: (1) The Indewakantonwans--"Village of the Spirit, of Sacred Lake. These people the writer estimates at 2,000 and says, " they plant corn and other vegetables, and some of them have made a little progress in civilization. (2) The Wahpekutes---"Leaf-shooters." It is not known from what circumstance these people received their name. IN 1851 they were a roving band numbering 500 or 600, who claimed the country from the Cannon river to the headwaters of the Blue Earth River, in southeastern Minnesota. (3) The Wahpetonwans---"village in the leaves" probably received their name from the fact that formerly they lived together in the timber. The old home of this band was formerly about the Little Rapids of the Minnesota River. Their later residence has been about Big Stone Lake, in the Wahpeton and Sisseton reservation, where they are make quite rapid advances in education, the science of agriculture, and the mechanic arts. (4) The Sisitonwans---"village of the marsh." The meaning off the prefix "sisi" is not well defined. It is not found, according to Mr. Riggs, in any other combination in the language, but Joseph Renville, a half breed Dakota, and considered the highest authority in matters pertaining to the language, said that "sisin" was formerly used to designate a marsh or slough on the prairie. These people are now on the reservation which is occupied in common by them and the Wahpetons. The Indians of the Mississippi and Minnesota valleys were then called by the Indians of the plains, Isantees, from "Isanati" or "Isanyati," which name seems to have been given from the fact that they once lived at Isantandi or Knife Lake, one of the Mille Lacs. (5) The Ihanktonwannas---"end village band"--were among the most populous of the Dakota Tribes, being estimated in 1850 at 4,000 souls. The tents on the Minnesota River were generally estimated to contain an average of six inmates, but on the plains, where tent poles were scarce, they were made larger and crowded closer, so that they contained about ten persons each. The Ihanktonwannas are divided into the Hunkpatidans (signification not known), the Pabaksa, "Cut Heads;" the Wazikute---"Pine Shooters"---and the Kiyuksa, "Dividers," or "Breakers of Law." in those days their home was on the James River, and along the east side of the Missouri River, and as far north as Devil's Lake. The Indians claim that the Assinniboines or "Hohe" of the Dakota tongue, are an offshoot from this branch of the great family. (6) The Ihanktonwans, another "village at the end" band, was in 1850 mostly on the west side of the Missouri River. This and the preceding band, whose Indian names are so nearly the same, are generally designated by the whites as Yankton, or Yancktonnais. (7) The Titonwans---"village of the prairie"---were supposed in 1850 to constitute about one-half of the Sioux nation, numbering, according to good authority, 12,500 souls. They then lived west of the Missouri River, and their habitat included the Black Hills. They were closely allied with the Cheyenne and Arickarees, with whom they had formed numerous marriage alliances. There was a chronic state of war between them and the Panas or Pawnees. A number of white men had married among them. The Titonwans were then divided into seven bands, viz: the Dicaugu, "Burnt Thighs;" the Itazipco, "Bow Pith'" the Sihasapa. "Blackfeet;" the Munkanye- wo-Zapi, "Those who plant by the water; " the Oohenonpa, "Two-boilings," and the Oglala and Hunkpapa, the meaning of which names is not given. "The more recent migration of the Dakotas has been from northeast to east and southwest. This appears from the names Indewakantanwan and Isanati, before mentioned." In 1851 there were Dakotas still living who remembered when the Ihanktonwanna were occupants of Lac-qui-parle, on the upper Minnesota River, form which circumstance the probably derived their name, as being at the end of the stream. "At that time the Sisitonwans were all below in the great bend of the St. Peter; the Whapetonwans and the Wahpekutes were inhabitants of the Big Woods and the lower part of the Minnesota valley; the Indewakantonwans were on the eastern side of the Mississippi, and the Titonwans had probably not crossed to the west side of the Missouri." Questions of priority and precedence among these land are sometimes discussed. The Indewakantonwans think the mouth of the Minnesota River is precisely over the center of the earth, and that they occupy the gate that opens into the western workd. These considerations serve to give them importance in their own estimation. On the other hand, the Sisitonwans and Ihanktonwans allege that as they live on the great water-shed of this part of the Continent, from which the streams run north, east, south and west, they must be about the center of the eaarth, and they urge this fact as entitling them to precedence. It is singular that the Titonwans, who are much the largest band of the Dakotas, do not appear to claim the chief place for themselves, but yield to the pretensions of the Ihanktonwans, whom they call by the name of Wiciyela, which in its meaning may be regarded as about equivalent to "They are the people." Referring to the Dakota language, Mr. Riggs says: In the language as spoken by the different bands of those properly denominated Dakotas, some differences exist. The intercourse between the Indewakantonwans on the Mississippi and lower Minnesota, and the Wahpetonwans, Wahpekutes and a part of the Sisitonwans family, has been so constant that but slight variations are discoverable in their manner of speaking. In some instances where the Wahpetonwans use d, some of the Indewakontonwans so modify the sound that it becomes t, and where the former use h, the latter sometimes employ n, As a matter of course, some few words have currency in one band which are not used, perhaps, not generally known to the others; but none of the dialectical variations are of such a kind as to impede the free intercourse of thought. The Sisitonwans of Lake Traverse and the prairie present more differences in their speech. One of the most marked of these is their use of nd for dan, the diminutive termination. As there is less frequent intercourse between them and the Isanties, their provincialism's are more numerous; and from the connections with the Ihanktonwans of the prairie, they have adopted some of their forms of speech. The chief peculiarities of the Ihanktonwan dialect, as compared with that of the Dakotas of the Minnesota valley, is the almost universal substitution of k for h. The Titonwan dialect exhibits more striking differences, In it g, hard is used for the h of the Isanties and k of the Ihanktonwans, and rejecting d altogether, the use l in it stead. By the bands of Dakotas east of James River, hard g is not heard except as final in some syllables where contraction has taken place and l does not occur. Thus, to illustrate the forgoing: "Canpahinihona" a cart or wagon, of the Wahpetonwans becomes "cunpunminers" in the mouth of an Indewakautonwan, "canpakmekma" in that of an Ihanktonwan, and "canpazmigma" with a Titonwan. "Hda," to go home, of the Isanties, is "kda" in the Ihanktonwan dialect, and "gla" in the Titonwan. Many word, too, are entirely different, as for example, "isan," a knife. The Titonwans say "milla," and the Ihanktonwans "minna." Isantanka," the name by which the people of the United States are designated, on the Mississippi and Minnesota, becomes Minnahanska and Millahanska on the Missouri. In the arrangement of words in a sentence, the Dakota language may be regarded as eminently primitive and natural. The sentence, "give me bread," a Dakota transposes to "agnyapi-makee-ye," bread me give. Such is the genius of the language that in translating a sentence or verse from the Bible, it is generally necessary to commence not at the beginning, but at the end and such, too, is the common practice of their best interpreters. When the person who is speaking leaves off, there they commence and proceed backward to the beginning. In this way the connection of the sentence is more easily retained in the mind, and more naturally evolved. There are, however, some cases in which this method can not be followed. In a logical argument, if the conclusion is first translated, it will in some cases need to be repeated after the premises, but the therefore which connects the conclusion to the premises, very frequently in Mr. Renville's translations, comes after the conclusion. The method of expressing ideas, so entirely different from that to which our minds have been accustomed, makes it difficult to learn to think in Dakota. According to Rev. Mr. Riggs the Dakotas have a sacred language known only to their war-prophets, conjurors and medicine men. It is untelligible to the common people who imagine those that use it to be vastly superior beings. It is not a very extensive language, the employment of a few strange words mixed with the ordinary tongue being sufficient to produce the desired effect, like General Jackson's home-made Latin among the ignorant yeomen of the south. Mr. Riggs remarks that "the Dakotas can hardly be said to know anything about poetry. A few words make a long song, for the `hi-hi-hi-hi' is only now and then interrupted by the enunciation of words." Their war songs are highly figurative and the meaning very ambiguous. The mourning song of Black Boy for his grandson, published in the Dakota Friend, by Rev. G. H. Pond, illustrates the repetition of the same thought expressed in the same words. "The unearthliness of the screed," says Mr. Pond "can not be described, as in the twilight of the morning, while the mother of the deceased boy, whose name was Wak-a-du-taw-in, was bewailing in a manner which would excite the sympathies of the hardest heard, Hok-si-dan-su-pa (Black Boy), standing on the brow of a hill, addressed himself to the ghostly inhabitants of the spirit world, in ghostly notes as follows. "Ko-da, ahitonwan-yanka-wo; Ko-da, ahitonwan-yanka-wo; Ko-da, ahitonwan-yanka-wo; Hoksidan-sapa-takizakpaku-wan-udo, Eyape-nunwe," (Friend, pause and look this way; Friend, pause and look this way; Friend, pause and look this way, Say ye, A grandson of Black Boy is coming.) In counting the Dakotas make use of their fingers. `Opawinge' means one hundred, and is derived perhaps from `pawinge' to go around in a circle, or make gyrations, as the fingers have all been gone over so many tens. `Kekto pawinge' means on thousand, and they have no separate word to denote a higher number. They have a word to denote the half of anything, but none to denote any other subdivision less than a whole number. They have word or names signifying subdivisions of time. Their years they ordinarily count by winters. When going on a journey a man does not say he will be back in so many days, but in so many nights, or sleeps. They compute distances by the nights passed in making the journey. They have no divisions equivalent to weeks. Their months are so many moons. The popular belief is that when the moon is full a great number of mice commence nibbling on one side of it, which work they continue until they have eaten the whole of it. Soon after another begins to grow and goes on increasing until it has reached its full size only to share a like fate. A new moon is to the Indians really new, and not the old one restored. To the "moons" they have given names corresponding with some prominent physical fact occurring at that particular time of year. Five moon are usually counted as constituting the winter and five for the summer, leaving only one each for spring and autumn, but this arrangement is not strictly adhered to. They often discuss very warmly the question of what moon is. The raccoons do not always make their appearance at the same time every winter, and the causes which produce sore eyes are not developed at exactly the same period each succeeding spring. These variations give opportunity for exciting arguments in the winter tent of the Dakota for or against Wi-cath-wi or Istawicayazan-wi. But the fact that twelve moons do not bring them to the point from whence they commenced counting seems never to have suggested itself to their minds. RELIGION.----Mr. Riggs says: "The Dakotas have indeed gods many,' their imagination having peopled both the visible and invisible world with mysterious or spiritual beings, who are continually exerting themselves in reference to the human family, either for weal or woe. These spiritual existences inhabit almost everything, and, consequently, almost everything is an object of worship/ On the same occasion, a Dakota dances in religious homage to the sun and moon, and spreads out his hands in prayer to a painted stone' and he finds it necessary to offer sacrifice more frequently to the Bad Spirit than to the Great Spirit. He has his god of the north, and god of the south; his god of the woods, and god of the prairies; his god of the air, and his god of the waters." Evidently this is a mistake of the printer. In another place the name is written Landaclle The following notice of Mr. Riggs, who died at Beloit, Wis., some time in the summer of 1883, we clip from the Minneapolis Journal: "Information has been received in this city of the death of Rev. Dr. S. R. Riggs, at his home in Beloit, Wis. The deceased was one of the earliest missionaries in Minnesota, arriving at Fort Snelling June 1, 1837, as the representative of the American board to the Dakota Indians. Dr. Riggs was born in Steubenville, O., March 23, 1812, and after graduating from Jefferson college, entered the Allegheny Theological Seminary. He was accompanied by his wife to this State, and in September, 1837, having spent the interval from his arrival in studying the Dakota language, he went to Lac qui Parle in company with Dr. Williamson and Rev. Gideon Pond. Here he remained for five years, converting the red men, and reduced the language to a written form, preparing a printed alphabet and publishing books for the use of the Indians. In 1851, he commenced the Dakota Dictionary, the Minnesota Historical Society raising a subscription for its publication. But the work was examined by the officers of the Smithsonian Institute, and found to be of such value that it was accepted and printed by the government. During the Sioux troubles in 1862 the Riggs family were living at Hazelton, and Dr. Riggs did good service as Interpreter during the trials of the imprisoned chiefs. For some years after Dr. Riggs lived in St. Anthony, and in 1865 removed to Beloit where he spent the rest of his life, devoting the summer to the active mission labors and in the winter to the work of translating. He was looked upon as the general advisor and executer of the whole field of mission work in Minnesota and Dakota. The works of his lifetime are represented by upwards of fifty translations and original writings in connection with Dakota history, and the Dakota edition of the Bible which appeared in 1878. Beloit college conferred upon him the degree of doctor of chemistry, and Jefferson college that of doctor of laws. The sickness which caused his death began in February last, the exact nature of the disease baffling the skill of his physicians. For a month past he said that he would hold out until his son, who has been for three years at Gothagen University, Germany, could get home. The son arrived on Monday, and from that hour he gradually sank until his death yesterday morning." This name seems to have been applied to the Mille Lacs of Minnesota, and Devil's Lake in Dakota This would read more correctly if he had said "there they commence and interpret or translate backward.