Teton Sioux

Treaty of June 22, 1825

Treaty with the Teton, Yancton, and Yanctonies bands of the Sioux tribe of Indians. For the purposes of perpetuating the friendship which has heretofore existed, as also to remove all future cause of discussion or dissension, as it respects trade and friendship between the United States and their citizens, and the Teton, Yancton, and Yanctonies bands of the Sioux tribe of Indians, the President of the United States of America, by Brigadier-General Henry Atkinson, of the United States’ army, and Major Benjamin O’Fallon, Indian Agent, with full powers and authority, specially appointed and commissioned for that purpose of the one … Read more

Treaty of July 19, 1815

A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded at Portage des Sioux, between William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Chouteau, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, on the part and behalf of the said States, of the one part; and the undersigned Chiefs and Warriors of the Teton Tribe of Indians, on the part and behalf of their said Tribe, of the other part. The parties being desirous of re-establishing peace and friendship between the United States and the said tribe, and of being placed in all things, and in every respect, on the same footing upon … Read more

Fort Peck Reservation

Fort Peck Agency Report of Special Agent Jere E. Stevens on the Indians of Port Peck reservation, Port Peck agency, Montana, December 1890, and January 1891. Names of Indian tribes or parts of tribes occupying said reservations: Assinaboine, Brule, Santee, Teton, Unkpapa, and Yanktonai Sioux. The unallotted area of this reservation is 1,776,000 acres, or 2,775 square miles. The reservation has not been surveyed, it was established, altered, or changed by treaty of October 17, 1855 (11 U. S. Stats., p. 657); unratified treaties of’ July 18, 1866, and of July 13 and 15 and September 1, 1868; executive orders, … Read more

Houses of the Oglala Tribe

Drying Buffalo Meat - A Typical Camp Scene (Ernst Henry Griset)

Of the early history of this, the principal division of the Teton, nothing is known. During the first years of the last century they were discovered by Lewis and Clark on the banks of the upper Missouri, south of the Cheyenne River, in the present Stanley County, South Dakota. They hunted and roamed over a wide region. and by the middle of the century occupied the country between the Forks of the Platte and beyond to the Black Hills. While living on the banks of the Missouri their villages undoubtedly resembled the skin-covered tipi settlements of the other kindred tribes, … Read more

Houses of the Teton Tribe

Page of Kurz's Sketchbook, showing Fort Pierre and Indian encampment, July 4, 1851.

The Teton, moving westward from their early habitat to the east and north of the Minnesota, were encountered on the banks of the Missouri by Captains Lewis and Clark when they ascended the river, during the early autumn of 1804. On September 26 of that year the expedition reached the mouth of Teton River (the present Bad River), which enters the Missouri from the west at Pierre, Stanley County, South Dakota. Here stood the great village of the Teton, concerning which Sergeant Gass gave a very interesting account in his journal: “We remained here all day. Capt. Lewis, myself and … Read more

Teton Sioux Tribe

Teton (contr. of Titonwan, ‘dwellers on the prairie’). The western and principal division of the Dakota or Sioux, including all the bands formerly ranging west of Missouri river, and now residing on reservations in South Dakota and North Dakota. The bands officially recognized are: Oglala of Pine Ridge agency Brule of Rosebud and Lower Brule agencies Blackfoot Miniconjou Sans Arc Two Kettle of Cheyenne River agency Hunkpapa, etc., of Standing Rock agency. Their history is interwoven with that of the other Dakota and is little more than a recountal of attacks on other tribes and on border settlers and emigrants. … Read more

Hunkpapa Sioux Tribe

Hunkpapa Tribe, Hunkpapa Indians, Hunkpapa Sioux Indians. ( Hunkpapa is variously interpreted ‘at the entrance, ‘at the head end of the circle,’ ‘those who camp by themselves,’ and `wanderers’). A division of the Teton Sioux. From the meager data relating to the history of this band it seeing probable that it is one of comparatively modern formation. When Hennepin, in 1680, found what are believed to have been the Teton as far as the banks of the upper Mississippi, no mention of the Hunkpapa at that early date or for 100 years there after can be found unless it be under some … Read more

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

Yesterday and Today

“We then proceeded on for a mile, and anchored off a willow island, which, from the circumstances which had just occurred, we called Badhumored Island.” This is quoted, not for the chronicles of Swiss Family Robinson, but from a much nearer source, the journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-6; and it sums up the impression left by the first meeting of the party with the Teton Sioux, one of the three great branches of that numerous tribe more properly known as Dakota. Of all the Indians on the long journey into the wilderness that the United States … Read more