Yanktonai Tribe

Yanktonai Indians (ihanke ‘end,’ tonwan ‘village,’ na diminutive: ‘little-end village.’Riggs). One of the 7 primary divisions or subtribes of the Dakota, speaking the same dialect as the Yankton and believed to be the elder tribe. Long evidently obtained tradition from the Indians to this effect. He first apparent reference to one of the tribes in which the other is not included is that to the Yankton by La Sueur in 1700. It is not until noticed by Lewis and Clark in 1804 that they reappear. These explorers state that they roved on the headwaters of the Sioux, James, and Red … Read more