Standing Rock Reservation

Blackfoot Tribe

Sihasapa (‘black feet’, so called because they wore black moccasins). A small division of the Teton Sioux. The name, like the names of some other Teton tribes, does not appear to have come into notice until a recent date, no mention being made of it by Lewis and Clark, Long, or earlier authorities. Catlin in his Letters and Notes, written during his stay among the northwestern Indians (1832-39), mentions the Blackfoot Sioux. In a note to De Smet’s Letters they were estimated to number 1,500. Culbertson estimated the tribe at 450 lodges, an exaggeration, and mentions five bands or subtribes, … Read more

Dr. Lucien C. Warner, New York

Dr. Lucien C. Warner, New York. It has been my privilege to spend about two weeks in traveling through the Sioux Reservation, and I want to speak especially of the Standing Rock Agency, where there are about 4,000 Indians. It is a grazing country, where it is impossible to raise any crops. Grain and vegetables do not succeed oftener than once in three years. There is no water outside the river and wells, and the water of the wells is often so mineral that it destroys the grass. If you were to give land in severalty and fence off the … Read more

Some Debate about Leasing Indian Lands

Third session, Thursday morning, October 17 Miss Collins was invited to speak. Miss Mary Collins. The question of leasing lands has come to us at Standing Rock Agency. We had a council of our Indians to consider the question. A great cattle company wanted to hire the land, and the Indians, without a single exception, voted against it, and their speeches were very interesting and strong. They said: “If we begin renting our lands, and depending on the income which we shall receive in this way, then we begin to pauperize our young men. We old ones have had to … Read more

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