North Dakota

Sioux Ceremonies

The Sioux occupy a country from the Mississippi river to some point west of the Missouri, and from the Chippewa tribe on the north, to the Winnebago on the south; the whole extent being about nine hundred miles long by four hundred in breadth. Dahcotah is the proper name of this once powerful tribe of Indians. The term Sioux is not recognized, except among those who live near the whites. It is said to have been given by the old French traders, that the Dahcotahs might not know when they were the subjects of conversation. The exact meaning of the … Read more

Shah-Co-Pee, The Orator of the Sioux

Shah-co-pee (or Six) is one of the chiefs of the Dahcotahs; his village is about twenty-five miles from Fort Snelling. He belongs to the bands that are called Men-da-wa-can-ton, or People of the Spirit Lakes. No one who has lived at Fort Snelling can ever forget him, for at what house has he not called to shake hands and smoke; to say that he is a great chief, and that he is hungry and must eat before he starts for home? If the hint is not immediately acted upon, he adds that the sun is dying fast, and it is … Read more

Dakota Indian Names and Writing

The names of the Sioux bands or villages, are as fanciful as those given to individuals. Near Fort Snelling, are the “Men-da-wahcan-tons,” or people of the spirit lakes; the “Wahk-patons,” or people of the leaves; the “Wahk-pa-coo-tahs,” or people that shoot at leaves, and other bands who have names of this kind. Among those chiefs who have been well-known around Fort Snelling, are: Wah-ba-shaw The Leaf Wah-ke-on-tun-kah Big Thunder Wah-coo-ta Red Wing Muzza Hotah Gray Iron Ma-pe-ah-we-chas-tah The man in the Cloud Tah-chun-coo-wash-ta Good Road Sha-ce-pee The Sixth Wah-soo-we-chasta-ne Bad Hail Ish-ta-hum-bah Sleepy Eyes These fanciful names are given to … Read more

Mock-Pe-En-Dag-A-Win: or Checkered Cloud, the Medicine Woman

Mock-Pe-En-Dag-A-Win: or Checkered Cloud, the Medicine Woman Within a few miles of Fort Snelling lives Checkered Cloud. Not that she has any settled habitation; she is far too important a character for that. Indeed she is not often two days in the same place. Her wanderings are not, however, of any great extent, so that she can always be found when wanted. But her wigwam is about seven miles from the fort, and she is never much farther off. Her occupations change with the day. She has been very busy of late, for Checkered Cloud is one of the medicine … Read more

The Maiden’s Rock or Wenona’s Leap

Lake Pepin is a widening of the Mississippi river. It is about twenty miles in length, and from one to two miles wide. The country along its banks is barren. The lake has little current, but is dangerous for steamboats in a high wind. It is not deep, and abounds in fish, particularly the sturgeon. On its shores the traveler gathers white and red agates, and sometimes specimens streaked with veins of gold color. The lover reads the motto from his mistress’ seal, not thinking that the beautiful stone which made the impression, was found on the banks of Lake … Read more

U-Me-Ne-Wah-Chippe or To Dance Around

I have noticed the many singular notions of the Sioux concerning thunder, and especially the fact that they believe it to be a large bird. They represent it thus. This figure is often seen worked with porcupine quills on their ornaments. Ke-on means to fly. Thunder is called Wah-ke-on or All-flier. U-mi-ne-wah-chippe is a dance given by some one who fears thunder and thus endeavors to propitiate the god and save his own life. A ring is made, of about sixty feet in circumference, by sticking saplings in the ground, and bending their tops down, fastening them together. In the … Read more

Dakota Indian Doctors

When an Indian is sick and wants “the Doctor” as we say, or a medicine man, as they say, they call them also priests, doctors and jugglers, a messenger is sent for one, with a pipe filled in one hand, and payment in the other; which fee may be a gun, blanket, kettle or anything in the way of present. The messenger enters the wigwam (or teepee, as the houses of the Sioux are called) of the juggler, presents the pipe, and lays the present or fee beside him. Having smoked, the Doctor goes to the teepee of the patient, … Read more

Dakota Indian Children

The children among the Sioux are early accustomed to look with indifference upon the sufferings or death of a person they hate. A few years ago a battle was fought quite near Fort Snelling. The next day the Sioux children were playing football merrily with the head of a Chippeway. One boy, and a small boy too, had ornamented his head and ears with curls. He had taken the skin peeled off a Chippeway who was killed in the battle, wound it around a stick until it assumed the appearance of a curl, and tied them over his ears. Another … Read more

Dahcotah, Or Life and Legends of the Sioux around Ft. Snelling

Teton Dakota

The text provides an insightful overview of the Teton Dakota (or Sioux) tribe, derived from observations during a seven-year period near Fort Snelling. This fort, built in 1819 and strategically placed at the Mississippi and St. Peter’s rivers, resembles an old German castle and played a key role in local native interactions. Noteworthy is the account of the Sioux chief Wabashaw, who successfully halted the resettlement of the Winnebago tribe by swaying them to stay near his land. This situation escalated to the involvement of Fort Snelling personnel to resolve the delay caused. The contents also cover a broad range of topics on Dakota customs, ceremonies, significant individuals, and cultural narratives, enriching the understanding of this nearly extinct tribe’s heritage and societal structure.

The Indian in a Trance

About forty years ago, Ahak-tah, “The Male Elk,” was taken sick with a sore throat. It was in the winter too, and sickness and cold together are hard to bear. Want was an evil from which they were suffering; though the Dahcotahs were not so poor then as they are now. They had not given so much of their lands to the white people; and they depended more upon their own exertions for support than they do at present. The medicine men did all they could to cure Ahaktah; they tried to charm away the animal that had entered into … Read more

Haokah Ozape, The Dance to the Giant

The dance to the Giant is now rarely celebrated among the Dahcotahs. So severe is the sacrifice to this deity, that there are few who have courage to attempt it; and yet Haokah is universally reverenced and feared among the Sioux. They believe in the existence of many Giants, but Haokah is one of the principal. He is styled the anti-natural god. In summer he feels cold, in winter he suffers from the heat; hot water is cold to him, and the contrary. The Dahcotah warrior, however brave he may be, believes that when he dreams of Haokah, calamity is … Read more

Perils of Missionary Life

Perils Of Missionary Life Rev. T.L. Riggs, our missionary at Oahe, Dakota, thus describes the loss of a team and the peril of his fellow missionary, Rev. J.F. Cross: “I wished to cross my team on the ice to the west side of the Missouri and keep it there for use during the breaking up of the river. Being very busy with some writing, I asked Mr. Cross to take my team over when he started to return to the White River, sending a man with him. Mr. Cross’s team went over safely, but mine, which Mr. Cross himself was … Read more

The Ramona School

By Dist. Sec. J.E. Roy. I had the pleasure, in Santa Fé, January 13th, of attending an entertainment given by the Ramona pupils in honor of Miss Platt, one of their teachers. Gov. Prince and his wife, and several of the citizens, were present as invited guests. After the singing of several songs, and a statement made by Prof. Elmore Chase, the Principal, fourteen of the scholars rendered, in the action of nature and the speaking of English, Mrs. Bentley’s dialogue, “The Old Year’s Vision and the New Year’s Message,” as found in the January number of The Youth’s Temperance … Read more

1889 – 1891 Indian Mission Staff Members

1889 – 1891 Indian Mission Staff Members 1889 Santee Agency, Nebraska Normal Training School Superintendent and Missionary, Rev. A.L. Riggs, Santee Agency, Neb. Treasurer Mr. Joseph H. Steer, Santee Agency, Neb. Teachers Mr. J.A. Chadbourne, Bridgewater, Mass. Miss Harriet B. Ilsley, Newark, N.J. Miss Susie M. Furman, Canandaigua, Mich. Miss Edith Leonard, Scotland, Mass. Miss Cora I. Riggs, Santee Agency, Neb. Miss Ella Worden, Topeka, Kan. Native Teachers, James Garvie, Santee Agency, Neb. Jennie M. Cox, Santee Agency, Neb. Eugenia LaMoore, Brown Earth, Dak. Matrons, (Dakota Home), Miss L.H. Douglass, New Haven, Conn. (Bird’s Nest), Miss Harriet A. Brown, Rocky … Read more

Missionary Life Among the Dakota Indians

By Mrs. J.F. Cross It is hard to get the most interesting experiences of a missionary’s life, because they belong to the daily routine and so are often unmentioned. But here is a description of life and travel among the Indians, by the wife of a missionary just going to the Dakotas: The land of the Dakotas—what a distance! How long the miles seemed from my home! How frightful the land seemed to me, from the tales of blizzards and cyclones! How strange to go to live among the Sioux Indians, known to me principally for the Minnesota, Fort Fetterman … Read more

One Day’s Missionary Work

A Trip Among the Out Stations The out-station work among the Indians is a feature almost peculiar to the Indian Missions of the A.M.A. These stations are the picket-lines pushed forward into the Reservations beyond the line of established schools and missions. Each one consists of a cheap home connected sometimes with a cheap school-house, and these are occupied by one or two native Indian missionaries who teach and preach, and thus accomplish an immediate good and lay the foundation for the more permanent church and school. The Association has about twenty such stations on the Cheyenne and other rivers … Read more

Conference with Indian Commissioners

The Annual Conference of the Board of Indian Commissioners with the representatives of the various religious bodies having charge of Indian Missions was held in the parlors of the Riggs House, January 8th. The presence of Senator Dawes, Representative Cutcheon, and other distinguished persons, gave weight to the deliberations, and special interest was added to the meeting by the troubles now prevailing in the Dakotas among the Sioux Indians. Commissioner Morgan, Captain Pratt of the Carlisle School, General Armstrong of Hampton, and the Secretaries of the Missionary Societies presented an array of facts and of recent information that gave a … Read more

Christmas at Fort Yates, Dakota

Our readers will be glad to welcome Miss Josephine E. Barnaby to her new field of work, and to a place in the pages of the Missionary. She is of the Omaha tribe, was a student at Hampton, then spent some time in a training school for nurses in New Haven, Connecticut, and is now the assistant of Miss Collins at the Grand River Station. Miss Collins writes of her: “Josephine is very much interested in her work. She said to-day, ‘I wish every one interested in Indians could come here and stay long enough to see how the foundation … Read more