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THE 
 
 SIOUAN INDIANS 
 
 -A PRELi:\[INARY SKETCH 
 
 ^^ J M(?(j!-EE 
 
 EXTKACT P^ROM THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
 BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 
 
 WASIIIXGTON 
 
 GOVEENMF.NT I'RINTING OFFICE 
 1897 
 
THE 
 
 SIOUAN INDIANS 
 
 A PRELIMINARY SKETCH 
 
 ^^^ J MeOEE 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE FIFTEENTH ANXIAL REPORT OF THE 
 BUREAU OF ETHNOLO(;Y 
 
 WAsnrNGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1897 
 
 "5 
 
^^ 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 E5^ 
 
 52300 
 
N T K N T S 
 
 Tbc Sionaii stock 157 
 
 Detiuitioii 1.57 
 
 Extent of the stock 157 
 
 Tribal nomenclature 166 
 
 Principal characters 168 
 
 Phonetic and graphic arts 168 
 
 Industrial and esthetic arts 170 
 
 Institutions 176 
 
 Beliefs 178 
 
 The development of mythology 178 
 
 The 8iouan mythology 182 
 
 Somatology 185 
 
 Habitat 186 
 
 Organization 187 
 
 History 189 
 
 Dalvota-Asiuiboin 189 
 
 (/'egiha 191 
 
 J aiwe're 194 
 
 Winnebago 195 
 
 JIandan 196 
 
 Hidatsa 197 
 
 The eastern and southern groups -- - 198 
 
 lleni'ral movements 198 
 
 Some features of Indian sociologv 199 
 
THE SIOIIAN INDIANS 
 
 A PRELIMINAKY SKETCH' 
 
 By W J McClEE 
 THE SIOUAX STOCK 
 
 DEFINITION 
 EXTENT OF THE STOCK 
 
 Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families fouud in S"ortli Amer- 
 ica above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were confined to the 
 tenth of the territory bordering Pacific ocean ; the remaining nine-tenths 
 of the land was occupied by a few strong stocks, comprising the Algon- 
 (juian, Athapascan, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, Siouan, and others of more 
 limited extent. 
 
 The Indians of the Siouan stock occupied the central portion of the 
 continent. They were preeminently plains Indians, ranging from Lake 
 Michigan to the Rocky mountains, and from tlie Arkansas to the Sas- 
 katchewan, while an outlying body stretched to the shores of the 
 Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters 
 and warriors and grouped in shifting tribes led by the chase or driven 
 by battle from place to place over their vast and naturally rich domain, 
 though a crude agriculture sprang up whenever a tribe tarried long in 
 one spot. No native stock is more interesting than the great Siouan 
 group, and none save the Algonquian and Iroquoian approach it in 
 wealth of literary and historical records; for since the advent of wliite 
 men the Siouan Indians have played striking roles on the stage of 
 human development, and have caught the eye of every thoughtful 
 observer. 
 
 The term Siouan is the adjective denoting the "Sioux'' Indians and 
 cognate tribes. The word "Sioux'' has been variously and vaguely 
 used. Originally it was ai corruption of a term exjiressing enmity or 
 contempt, applied to a part of the plains tribes by the forest dwelling 
 Algonquian Indians. According to Trumbull, it was the popular appel- 
 lation of those tribes which call themselves Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota 
 
 'Prepared as a compleiiipnt and introduction to the following paper nn ■•Siouan Sociology." by the 
 late James Owen Dorsev. 
 
 157 
 
158 THK SIOUAN INDIANS |eth. axn. 15 
 
 ("rrieiiiUy,'' implying coiiredeiated or allied), and was an abbreviation 
 of Xadoiroisioiu-, a Oanadiau-I'reiieh corruption of Xadi>ires.si-wag 
 ("tlie snake-like ones'* or '-enemies"), a term rooted in the Aljronquian 
 iiadoire (''a snake"'); and some writers have ai)plied the designation to 
 difl'erent portions of the stock, while others have rejected it because of 
 the ofllensive implication or for other reasons. So long ago as 18.'56, 
 however, Gallatin employed the term ''Sioux'" to designate collectively 
 •'the nations which sjjcak the Sioux language,'"' and used an alterna- 
 tive term to designate the subordinate confederacj' — i. e.. he used the 
 term in a systematic way for the first time to denote an ethnic unit 
 which exi)erience has shown to be well defined. Gallatin's terminology 
 was .soon after adopteil by I'richard and others, and has been followed 
 by most careful writers on the American Indians. Accordingly the 
 name must be regarded as established through priority and prescrij). 
 tion, and has been used in the original sense in various standard 
 publications. - 
 
 In colloquial usage and in the usage of the ephemeral i)ress, the 
 term "Si(mx'" was applied sometimes to one but oftener to several of 
 the allied tribes embraced in the first of the principal groups of which 
 the stock is comjiosed, i. e., the group or confederacy styling them- 
 selves Dakota. Sometimes the term was employed in its simple form, 
 but as explorers and pioneers gained an inkling of the organization of 
 the grou]), it was often compounded with the tribal name as "Sautee- 
 Sioux," ■' Yanktounai-Sioux," "Sisseton Sioux," etc. As acquaintance 
 between white men and red increased, the stock name was gradually 
 disjjlaced by tribe names until the colloquial appellation '-Sioux" 
 became but a memory or tradition throughout much of the territory 
 formerly dominated by the great Siouan stock. One of the reasons 
 for the abandonment of the name was undoubtedly its inappropriateness 
 as a designation for the confederacy occupying the plains of the upper 
 Missouri, since it was an alien and opprobrious designation for a i)eo- 
 ple bearing a euphonious appellation of their own. Moreover, colloquial 
 usage was gratlually intluenced by the usage of scholars, who accepted 
 the native nanu^ for the Dakota (s])elled Dahcota by (iallatiu) confed- 
 eracy, as well as the tribal names adopted by Gallatin, I'richard, and 
 others. Thus the ill-defined term '-Sioux"" has drojjped out of use in 
 the substantive form, and is retained, in the adjective form only, to 
 designate a great stock to which nu other collective name, either intern 
 or alien, has ever been (Ictiniicly and justly applied. 
 
 The earlier students of tiie Siouan Indians recognized the plains 
 tribes alone as belonging to that stock, and it has only recently been 
 shown that certain of the native forest -dwellers long ago encountered 
 by English colonists on the Atlantic coast were clo.sely akin to the 
 
 '••& synopais of tlir Iniliun Iribtg . . in Xortli Aim-rici.' Tr.liis. and Cull. Am. Autiq.Soc., 
 
 vol. II. I>. 120. 
 
 '■■Inilian liiigiii»lii'lniiiilu'8 of Amoricanorlli of Mexico." Seventh Annual Heporl of the Barcmi of 
 Ethnolojjj. for IKOS-SG (1891), iiji. 111-118. Johnson's Cyclopedia. lfi93-95 idiliou, vol. vii, p. 516. etc. 
 
MCGEE] SIOUAN TRIRKS OF THE KAST 159 
 
 plains Indians in hingaage, institutions, and beliefs. In 1872 TIale 
 noted a resemblance between the Tutelo and Dakota languages, and tliis 
 resemblance was discussed orally and in correspondence with several 
 students of Indian languages, but the probability of direct connection 
 seemed so remote that the affinity was not generally accepted. Even 
 in 1S80, after extended comparison with Dakota material (including 
 that collected by the newly instituted Bureau of Ethnology), this 
 distinguished investigator was able to detect only certain general simi- 
 larities between the Tutelo tongue and the dialects of the Dakota 
 tribes.' In 1881 Clatschet made a collection of linguistic material 
 among the Catawba Indians of South Carolina, and was struck with 
 the resemblance of many of the vocables to Sionan terms of like mean- 
 ing, and began the preparation of a comparative Catawba-Dakota 
 vocabulary. To this the Tutelo, (j'egiha, j^.jiwe're, and Ilotcangara 
 (Winnebago) were added by Dorsey, who made a critical examinati()n 
 of all Catawba material extant and compared it with several Dakota 
 dialects, with which he was specially conversant. These examniations 
 and comparisons demonstrated the afiSnity between the Dakota and 
 Catawba tongues and showed them to be of common descent; and the 
 establishment of this relation made easy the acceptance of the affinity 
 suggested by Hale between the Dakota and Tutelo. 
 
 Up to this time it was supposed that the eastern tribes "were merely 
 offshoots of the Dakota;'' but in 188.> Hale observed that "while the 
 language of these eastern tribes is closely allied to that of the western 
 Dakota, it bears evidence of being older in form,"^ and consecpiently 
 that the Siouan tribes of the interior seem to have migrated westward 
 from a common fatherland with their eastern brethren bordering the 
 Atlantic. Subsequently Gatschet discovered that the Biloxi Indians 
 of the Gulf coast used many terms common to the Siouan tongues; and 
 in 1801 Dorsey visited tliese Indians and procured a rich collection of 
 words, phrases, and myths, whereby the Siouan affinity of these Indians 
 was established. Meantime Mooney began researches among the Cher- 
 okee and cognate tribes of the southern Atlantic slope and found fresh 
 evidence that their ancient neighbors were related in tongue and belief 
 with the buffalo hunters of tiie plains; and he has recently set fortli 
 the relations of the several Atlantic slope tribes of Siouan affinity in full 
 detail.^ Through the addition of these eastern tribes the great Siouan 
 stock is augmented in extent and range and enhanced in interest; for 
 the records of a group of cognate tribes are thereby increased so fully 
 as to afford historical perspective and to indicate, if not clearly to dis- 
 play, the course of tribal differentiation. 
 
 According to Dorsey, whose acquaintance with the Siouan Indians 
 was especially close, the main portion of the Siouan stock, occu])ying 
 the continental interior, comprised seven principal divisions (including 
 
 'Correspondence with the Bureau of Ethnology. 
 
 2 "The Tutelo tribe and language," Proc. Aui. Philos. Soc, vol. xxi, 1883, p. 1. 
 
 'Sionan Tribes of the East: bulletin of tlie Bureau of Ethnology. 1894. 
 
160 THE SIOl'AN INDIANS [kth. ann. 15 
 
 the Biloxi and not distinguishing tbe Asiniboiii). each composed of 
 one or more tribes or confederacies, all dettned antl classitied by lin- 
 guistic, social, and niytliologic relations; and he and Mooney recoguize 
 several additional groups, defined by linguistic attinity or historical evi- 
 dence of intimate relations, in the eastern part of the country. So far 
 as made out through the latest researches, the grand divisions, confed- 
 eracies, aiul tribes of tlic stock,' with their present condition, are as 
 follows : 
 
 1. I>(l1;iilii-.l.sinih(tiii 
 
 Dakota ("Friendly") or Ot'-ce-ti ca-ko-wi" ("Seven council-fires") con- 
 federacy, comprising — 
 
 (A) Santee. including Mde-wa-ka"'-to"-wa" ("Spirit Lake vil- 
 lage"') and Waqpe'-ku-te (" Shoot among deciduous trees"), 
 mostly located in Knox county, Nebraska, on the former 
 Santee reservation, with some on Fort Peck reservation, 
 Montana. 
 
 (B) Sisseton or Si-si'to°-wa"' (••Fish-.scale village"), mostly ou 
 Sissetou reservation, .South Dakota, partly on Devils Lake 
 reservation, Xorth Dakota. 
 
 {G) Wahpetou or Wa'-(ipe'-to"-wa" (''Dwellers among deciduous 
 trees"), mostly ou Devils Lake reservation. North Dakota. 
 
 (D) Yankton or 1 haiik'-to" wa" ("End village"), in Yankton 
 village, South Dakota. 
 
 (E) Yanktonai or Ihank'-to"-wa"-na ("Little End village"), 
 comprising — 
 
 (rt) Upper Yanktonai, on Standing Rock reservation. 
 North Dakota, with the Pa'-ba-kse ("Cut head ") gens 
 on Devils Lake reservation, North Dakota. 
 
 (b) Lower Yanktonai, or IIurik]>atina ("Campers at the 
 horn [or end of the cam])ing circle]"), mostly on Crow 
 Creek reservation. South Dakota, with some on Stand- 
 ing Rock reservation. North Dakota, and others on 
 Fort Peck reservation, .Montana. 
 
 (F) Teton or Ti'-to"-wa" ("Prairie dwellers"), comprising — 
 
 («) Bruh' or Si-tca"'-xu ("Huriit thighs"), including Upper 
 Brule, mostly on Rosebud reservation. South Dakota, 
 and Lower Hrule, on Lower Brule reservation, in the 
 same state, with some of both on Standing Rock 
 reservation, North Dakota, and others ou Fort Peck 
 re.servation. Montana. 
 
 {b) Sans Arcs or I ta'zip,tco(" Without hows"), largely on 
 Cheyenne reservation. South Dakota, with others on 
 Standing Rock reservation, Xorth Dakota. 
 
 (<■) IJlackfeet or Si ha' sapa ("Black-feet"), mostly on 
 Cheyenne reservation, South Dakota, with some on 
 Standing Rock reservation. North Dakota. 
 
 ■ Tho aiibdiviaions lire set forth in the folloiriiig treatise on "Sionan Sociology." 
 
MCGEE) THE ASINIBOIX THK (I'KfUHA Ifil 
 
 {(}) Miiuiecoiijoii or Mi'-niko'-o-jii ("Plant beside the 
 streaiu"), mostly on Cheyenne reservation, South 
 Dakota, partly on llosebud reservation, South Dakota, 
 with some on Standing Rock reservation. North 
 Dakota. 
 (e) Two Kettles or O-o'-lu^ no"'-i)a ("Two boilings"'), ou 
 
 Cheyenne reservation. South Dakota. 
 (./) Ogalala or O gla'-la ("She poured out her own"), 
 mostly ou Piue Ridge reservation, South Dakota, with 
 some ou Standing Rock reservation, Xorth Dakota, 
 including the Wa-ja'-ja ("Fringed"') gens ou Pine 
 Ridge reservation, South Dakota, and Loafers or 
 Waglu'-xe ("In-breeders"), mostly ou Pine Ridge 
 reservation, with some ou Rosebud reservation, South 
 Dakota. 
 (//) Hunkpapa ("At the entrance"), ou Standing Rock 
 reservation, North Dakota. 
 Asiniboiu ("Cookwith-stones people'' in Algonquiau), commonly called 
 Xakota among themselves, and called Ilohe ("Rebels'") by the 
 Dakota; au ofi'shoot from the Yauktounai ; not studied in detail dur- 
 ing recent years; partly ou Fort Peck reservation, Montana, mostly 
 in Canada; comprising in 1S33 (according to Prince Maximilian)' — 
 (.■i) Itscheabim- ("Les gens des tilles"=Girl people?). 
 (/.*) Jatonabine ("Les gens des roches"=Stoue people); appar- 
 ently the leading band. 
 (C) Otopachguato ("Les gens du large"=Roamers?). 
 (/') Otaopabine ("Les gens des canots''=Canoe people?). 
 
 (E) Tschantoga ("Les gens des bois''=Forest people). 
 
 (F) Watopachnato ("Les gens de rage"= Ancient people?). 
 (tr) Tanintauei ("Les gens des osayes"=Bone people). 
 
 (H) Chiibin ("Les gens des niontagnes"=Mouutaiu people). 
 
 2. (I',e(jiha {'■'■ People dn-cUiiuj here''')'' 
 
 {A) Omaha or U-ma"-ha° ("Upstream people"), located on 
 < )maha reservation, Nebraska, comprisiug iu 1819 (accord- 
 ing to James)^ — 
 
 ((() Ilouga-sha-no tribe, including — 
 
 (1) Wase-isli-ta band. 
 
 (2) Enk-ka-sa-ba band. 
 
 * Travels in the Interior of North America ; Translated by H. Evans Lloyd : London, 1843, p. 194. 
 In this and other lists of names taken from early writers the original orthography and interpretation 
 are preserved. 
 
 'Defined in" The (fegiha Language," by J. GwenDorsey, Cont. N. A. Eth., vol. VI, 1890, p. xv. Miss 
 Fletcher, who is intimately acquainted witli the Omaha, <iuestions whether the relations between the 
 tribes are so close as to warrant the maintenance of this division; yet as an expression of linguistic 
 atfinity, at least, the division seems to be useful and desirable. 
 
 3 Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the Years 1819- 
 1820. . . undertbeCommandof Majors. H. Long, by Edwin James; London, 1823, vol. 11, p. 47 etseq. 
 15 ETH 11 
 
102 THE SIOL'AK INDIANS [eth. ans. 15 
 
 (3) Wa-sa-ba-eta-je (''Those who do not touch 
 
 bears") baud. 
 
 (4) Kaeta-.je (-'Those who do not touch tuitk-s") 
 
 band. 
 
 (5) Wajinga-e-ta jc Ijand. 
 
 (0) riuiifruli band. 
 
 (7) Konza band. 
 
 (8) Ta-pa-taJ-je band. 
 
 (b) Ish-tasun-da (''Gray eyes") tribe, inehidinjr — 
 
 (1) Tapa-eta-Je band. 
 
 (2) Mon-eka-goh-ha ('' Earth makers") baud. 
 
 (3) Ta-sin-da ("Bison tail") band. 
 
 (4) IiifTgera-jeda ("Red dung") liand. 
 (.5) Wash-atuQg baud. 
 
 {]i) I'onka ("Medicine'' ?), mostly on Ponca reservation. Indian 
 
 Territory, partly at Santee agency, Nebraska. 
 {(]) Kwapa, (^uapaw, or T7->ja'-<ipa ("Downstream jfeople,"* a 
 correhitive of U-ma"'-ha°), the '"Arkansa" of early writers, 
 mostly on Osage reservation, Oklahoma, jiartly on Quajjaw 
 reservation, Indian Territory. 
 {!)) Osage or Waca'-ce ("People"), comprising — 
 
 (a) Big Osage or I'ahe'-tsi ("Campeison tiic mountain''), 
 
 on Osage reservation, Indian Territory. 
 (/;) Little Osage or U-jscq'-ta (" Camiiers on the low- 
 land,") on Osage reservation, Indian Territory. 
 
 (c) San-;su'-j[(|-i"' ("Campers in the highland grove") or 
 
 "Arkansa baud," chietly on Osage reservation, Indian 
 
 Territory. 
 (E) Ivansa or Ka"'-ze (refers to winds, though jjredse signifi- 
 cance is unknowu; frequently called Kaw), on Kansas reser- 
 vatiou, Indian Territory. 
 
 3. j^oiirc're {'■^People of this phtce") 
 
 (A) lowaor Pa-qo-tce (" Dusty-heads''), chiefly on Great Nemaha 
 reservation, Kansas and Nebraska, partly on Sac and Fox 
 reservation, Indian Territory. 
 
 (B) Oto or Wato'-ta ("Aplirodiaian''), on Otoe reservation, 
 Indian Territory, 
 
 (C) Missouri or Ni u't'a-tci (exact meaning uueertain; said to 
 refer to drowning of peojjle in a stream; i)0ssibly a corrup- 
 tion of Nishu'-dje, "Smoky water," the name of Missouri 
 river); on Otoe reservation. Indian Territory. 
 
 t. \Vlnii,h(l;i<i 
 
 Winnebago (Algonquian designation, meaning " Turbid water 
 people"?) or Ilo-tcangara (" People of the parent speech"), 
 
 > Corrupled to "Cbancers" io early days: cf. Jam«8 ibid., vol. III. p. 108. 
 
THE WINNEBAGO THE MANPAN 163 
 
 mostly oil Winnebago reservation in Nebraska, some in Wis- 
 consin, and a few in Micbiyan ; composition never definitely 
 ascertained; comprised in 1850 (according to Sclioolcraft') 
 twenty-one bands, all west of the ^lississippi, viz. : 
 (rt) Little Mills' band. 
 
 (b) Little Dekonie's band. 
 
 (c) ;\Iaw-kiibsooncli-kaw"s baml. 
 ((/) ITo-pee-kaw's band. 
 
 ((") Waw-kon-liawkaw's band. 
 
 (/) Baptiste's band. 
 
 ((/) AVeenoosliik's band. 
 
 (/() Oon-a-hatakaw's band. 
 
 (i) Paw-sedechkaw's band. 
 
 (_/) Taw-nu-niik's band. 
 
 (A) Ah-lioo-zeeb-kaw's band. 
 
 (I) Is-cbaw-go-baw-kaw's band. 
 
 (m) Watcb-lia-takaw's band. 
 
 (») Wawmaw-noo-kaw-kaw's band. 
 
 («) Waw-kon-cliaw-zn-kaw's band. 
 
 {p) Good Thunder's band. 
 
 {q) Koog-ay-ray-kaw's baud. 
 
 (/•) Black Hawk's band. 
 
 (s) Little Thunder's baud. 
 
 (t) Naw-key-kukaw's band. 
 
 (u) O-chiu-chiu-nukaw's band. 
 
 5. Mandan 
 
 Mandan (their owu name is questionable; Catlin saj's they 
 called themselves See-pohs-kah nu-mah-kahkee, " Teople 
 of the pheasants;"- Prince Maximilian says they called 
 themselves Numangkake, "Men," adding usually the name 
 of their village, and that another name is Mahna-Xarra, 
 "The Sulky [Ones]," applied because they separated from 
 the rest of their nation; ' of the latter name their common 
 appellation seems to be a corruption); on Fort Berthold 
 reservation, North Dakota, comprising iu 1804 (according 
 to Lewis and Clark ^) three villages — 
 
 (a) ]Matootoiiha. 
 
 (b) Rooptahee. 
 
 (v) (Eapanopa's village). 
 
 • Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United 
 States, part l, Philadelphia, 1853, p. 498. 
 
 'Letters and Notes on the Manners. Customs, and Conditinn of the Xorth American In<ltans, -itb 
 edition: London. 1844, vol. 1. p. 80. 
 ^Travels, op. cit., p. 335. 
 
 * History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and Clark, by Elliott Cones, 1893, vol. I, 
 pp. 18"J-4. The other two villages enumerated apjiear to belong rather to the Hidatsa. Prince Mali- 
 miliiin found but two villaj^es iu 1833, Mih-Tutta Hang-Kush and Ruhptare, evidently corresponding 
 to the tirst two mentioned by the earlier explorers (op. cit., p. 335). 
 
164 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. axn. 15 
 
 C. HidntsH 
 
 (A 1 1 idatsa i tlieir owu name, the meaning of wliicli is uncertain, 
 but ai)peais to refer to a traditional butt'alo pauuch cou- 
 nected with the division of tlie group, though supposed by 
 some to refer to " willows'") ; formerly called Minitari ('• Cross 
 the water,'' or, objectionally, Gros Ventres); on Fort Herth- 
 old reservation, Xorth Dakota, comprising in 1 796 (according 
 to information gained by ilattbews') three villages — 
 
 («) Hidatsa. 
 
 (&) Amafiha ("Earth-lodge [village]*'?), 
 (r) Amaliami ("Mountain-country [people]"?). 
 {B) Crow or Ab-sa'-ru-ke, on the Grow reservation, Montana. 
 
 7. liilo.ri 
 
 (A) Biloxi ("Trifliiig" or "^Vorthless" in Choctaw) or Ta-neks' 
 Ha"-ya-di' ("Original people" in tljeir own language); partly 
 in Eai)i(les parish, Louisiana ; i)artly in Indian Territory, with 
 the Choctaw and Caddo. 
 
 (/>') Taskagula ("Bread people" in Choctaw), probably extinct. 
 
 (C) ?Moctobi (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 ( />) ?Chozetta (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 s. MoiiuLiin 
 ]M()uakan confederacy. 
 
 (.1) ^louakan ("Country [people of?]"),? extinct. 
 (/)') Meipontsky (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (C) tMahoc (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (D) Nuntaneuck or >'untaly (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 {E) Mohetan ("People of the earth'"?), extinct. 
 
 Tutelo. 
 
 (.1) Tutelo or Ve-sa'" (meaning unknown), probably extinct. 
 
 {A') Saponi (meaning unknown), probably extinct. (According 
 to ^loouey, the Tutelo and Saponi tribes were intimately con- 
 nected or identical, and the names were used interchange- 
 ably, the former becoming more prominent after the removal 
 of the tribal remnant from the Carolinas to New York.^) 
 
 (7>) Occanichi (meaiung unknown), probably extinct. 
 ! Mauahoac confederacy, extinct. 
 
 (.4) Jlanahoac (meaning unknown). 
 
 (7>) vStegarake (meaning unknown). 
 
 (C) Shackakoui (meaning unknown). 
 
 {£>) Tauxitauia (meaning unknown). 
 
 'Ethnography unci rhilology of the Hiilatan Indians ; MisceL Publ. No. 7, U. S. Geol. and Geog. 
 Survey. 1877. p. 38. 
 
 'Siiiuaii Tribes of Ihe En»t, p. 37. Local names derive<l from the Saponi dialect were recognized and 
 interprt'led liy a Kwapa when pronouiiceil by Dorsey. 
 
MCGEEl EASTERN SIOUAN DIVISIOxVS 165 
 
 (E) Outpoui (meaiiiug unknown). 
 
 (F) Tegniati (meaning unknown). 
 
 (G) Wlioukenti (meaning unknown). 
 (//) liasinniuga (uieauiog unknown). 
 
 !t. (Uitiurhd or Xi-j/a (^•People") 
 
 (A) Catawba (meaning unknown; they called themselves Xi-ya, 
 ''Men" in the comprehensive sense), nearly extinct. 
 
 (7>) Woccou (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (C) ? Sissipahaw (meaning unknow-n), extinct. 
 
 (D) ? Cape Fear (proper name unknown), extinct. 
 
 (E) 1 Warrenuuncoek (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 {F) °? Adshusheer (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 {G) ? Eno (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (H) ! Sbocco (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 [I) ? Waxliaw (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (.7) ? Sugeri (meaning unknown), extinct. 
 
 (K) Santee (meaning unknown). 
 
 (L) Wateree (derived from the ('atawl)a -word watoran, "to 
 
 float in the water"'). 
 (.1/) Sewee (meaning unknown). 
 (K) Cougaree (meaning unknown). 
 
 10. Sara (extinct) 
 
 {A) Sara ("Tall grass"). 
 
 (B) Keyauwi (meaning unknown). 
 
 11. / Pedee (extinct) 
 
 (A) Pedee (meaning unknown). 
 
 (B) Waccamaw (meaning unknown). 
 (0) Winyaw (meaning unknown). 
 (D) "Hooks" and "Backhooks"( ?). 
 
 The definition of the first six of these divisions is based on extended 
 researches among the tribes and in the literature representing the 
 work of earlier observers, and may be regarded as satisfactory. In some 
 cases, notably the Dakota confederacy, the constitution of the divi- 
 sions Is also satisfactory, though in others, including the Asiniboin, 
 Mandan, and Winnebago, the tabulation represents little more thau 
 superficial enumeration of villages and bands, generally by observers 
 possessing little knowledge of Indian sociology or language. So far 
 as the survivors of the Biloxi are concerned the classification is satis- 
 factory; but there is doubt concerning the former limits of the 
 division, and also concerning the relations of the extinct tribes referred 
 to on slender, yet the best available, evidence. The classification of 
 
166 THE SIOUAN INDIANS Jeth. anx. 15 
 
 the extinct and nearly extinct Siouan Indians of the east is much less 
 satisfactory. lu several cases lan^'iiajies are utterly lost, and in others 
 a few doubtful terms alone remain. In these cases affinity is inferred 
 in part from geographic relation, but chielly from the recorded feder- 
 ation of tribes and union of remnants as the aboriginal population 
 faded under thelight of brighter intelligence; and in all such instances 
 it has been assumed that federation and uiuon grew out of that con- 
 formity in mode of thought which is characteristic of peoples speaking 
 identical or closely related tongues. Accordingly, while the groui)ing 
 of eastern tribes rests in part on meager testimony and is open to 
 question at many points, it is perhaps the best that can be devised, 
 and sullices for convenience of statement if not as a tinal classification. 
 So far as practicable the names adopted for the tribes, confederacies, 
 and other groups are those in common use. the aboriginal designations, 
 when distinct, being added in those cases in whicli they are known. 
 
 The present population of the Siouan stock is probably between 
 40.()(»(» and 4.">,000, including L'.noo or more (mainly Asiniboiu) in 
 Canada. 
 
 TRIBAL NOMENCLATUKE 
 
 In the Siouan stock, as among the American Indians generally, the 
 accepted ai)pellations for tribes and other groups are variously derived. 
 IVIany of the Siouan tribal names were, like the name of the stock, 
 given by alien peoples, including white men, though most are founded 
 on the descriptive or other designations used in the groups to which 
 they ])ertain. At lirst glance, the names seem to be loosely ajjplied 
 and jierhaps vaguely defined, and this laxity in api)li(ation and defini- 
 tion does not disapjiear, but rather increases, with closer exannnation. 
 
 There are special reasons for the indefmiteness of Indian nomen- 
 clature: The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed 
 most of them remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i. e., 
 the stage in which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary 
 symbols, but by nieaiis of arbitrary associations,' and in this stage 
 names are connotive or descrii)tive, rather than deuotive as in the 
 scriptorial stage. Moreover, among the Indians, as among all other 
 prescriptorial peoples, the ego is paramount, and all things are 
 described, much more largely than among cultured peoples, with 
 reference to the describer and the position which he occupies — Self 
 and Here, and, if need be, Now and Thus, are the fundamental ele- 
 ments of primitive conception ami description, and these elements 
 are implied and exemi)litied. ratlier than expressed, in thought and 
 utterance. Accordingly there is a notable paucity in names, espe 
 daily for themselves, among the Indian tribes, while the descrip. 
 five designations applieil to a given group by neighboring tribes are 
 often diverse. 
 
 'Tlif loadinK culture stages ait< defined in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth- 
 nology, for 1891-i>2 (1890), p. xxiii ct seq. 
 
MCGEE] SIOUAN TRIBAL NOMENCLATURE 167 
 
 The principles controlling nomenclature in its indicate stages are 
 illustrated among tbe Siouaii jieoples. So far as their own tongues were 
 concerned, the stock was nameless, and could not be designated save 
 through integral parts. Even the great Dakota confederacy, one of the 
 most extensive and i)owerful aboriginal organizations, bore no better 
 designation than a term probably applied originally to associated tribes 
 in a descriptive way and perhaps used as a greeting or countersign, 
 although there was an alternative proper descriptive term — "Seven 
 Council-flres" — apparently of considerable anticjuitj", since it seems to 
 have been originally applied before the separation of the Asiniboin.' 
 Ill like manner the (pegiha, j^oiwe're, and Hotcafigara groups, and per- 
 haps the jSf lya, were without deuotive designations for themselves, merely 
 styling themselves " Local People," " Men," " Inhabitants,-' or, still more 
 ambitiously, " People of the Parent Speech," in terms which are variously 
 rendered by different interpreters; they were lords in their own domain, 
 and felt no need for special title. Different Dakota tribes went so far 
 as to claim that their respective habitats marked the middle of the 
 world, so that each insisted on iirecedeuce as the leading tribe,' and 
 it was the boast of the Mandaii that they were the original people of 
 the earth.' In the more carefully studied confederacies the constituent 
 groups generally bore designations apparently used for convenient dis- 
 tinction in the confederation ; sometimes they were purely descriptive, 
 as in the case of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Oto, and 
 several others; again they referred to the federate organization (prob- 
 ably, possibly to relative position of habitat), as in the Yankton, Yauk- 
 tonai, and Huhkpapa; more fre(piently they referred to geographic or 
 topographic position, e. g., Teton, Omaha, Pahe'tsi, Kwapa, etc; while 
 some appear to have had a figurative or symbolic connotation, as Brule, 
 Ogalala, and Ponka. Usually the designations employed by alien peo- 
 ples were more definite than those used in the group designated, as 
 illustrated by the stock name, Asiniboin, and Iowa. Commonly the 
 alien appellations were terms of reproach; thus Sioux, Biloxi, and 
 Hohe (the Dakota designation for the Asiniboin) are clearly opprobri- 
 ous, while Paskagula might easily be opprobrious among hunters and 
 warriors, and Iowa and Oto appear to be derogatory or contemptuous 
 expressions. The names applied by the whites were sometimes taken 
 from geographic positions, as in the case of Upper Yanktouai and 
 Cape Fear — the geographic names themselves being frequently of 
 Indian origin. Some of the current names represent translations of 
 the aboriginal terms either into English ('• Blackfeet," "Two Kettles," 
 "Crow,") or into French ("Sans Arcs," "Brule," " Gros Ventres ") ; 
 yet most of the names, at least of the prairie tribes, are simply cor- 
 ruptions of the aboriginal terms, though frequently the modification is 
 so complete as to render identification and interpretation difticult — it 
 
 iCf. Schoolcraft, '■ Information," etc, op. cit., jit. ii, 1852, p. 169. Dorsey was Inclined to consider 
 the number as made up without the Asiniboin. 
 'Eiggs-Dorsey : " Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography," Cont. N. A. Eth., vol. IX, 1893. p. 164 
 ^Catlin; " Letters and Notes," op. cit., p. 80. 
 
168 THE SIOUAX IXDIAXS (ETH. AKS. 15 
 
 is not easy to find Waca'ce in -'Osage'' (so s])i'lle(l by the French, whose 
 orthogr;ii)hy was adopted and mispronounced by English-speaking 
 pioneers ), or l^a'qotce in '• Iowa." 
 
 The meanings of most of the eastern names are lost; yet so far as 
 they are preserved they are of a kind with those of tlie interior. So, 
 too, are the siibtribal names enumerated by Dorsey. 
 
 PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS 
 PIIOXETIC AXn GRAPHIC ARTS 
 
 The Si(maii stock is defined by linguistic characters. The several 
 tribes and larger and smaller groups speak dialects so closely related 
 as to imply occasional or habitual association, and hence to indicate 
 community in interests and aflinity in development; and while the arts 
 (reflecting as they did the varying environment of a wide territorial 
 range) were diversified, the similarity in language was. as is usual, 
 accompanied by similarity in institutions and beliefs. Nearly all of 
 the known dialects are eminently vocalic, and the tongues of the i)lains, 
 which have been most extensively stutlied. are notably melodious; thus 
 the leading languages of the group display moderately high jihonetic 
 development. In grammatic structure the better-known dialects are 
 not so well devcloiieil ; the structure is comjilex. chiefly through the large 
 use of inflection, tliougli agglutination sometimes occurs. In some cases 
 the germ of organization is ftmnd in fairly definite juxtaposition or 
 I)laccment. The vocabulary is moderately rich, and of course represents 
 the daily needs of a primitive i^eople. their surroundings, their avoca- 
 tions, and their thoughts, while expressing little of the richer ideation 
 of cultured cosmopolites. On the whole, the speech of the Siouan stock 
 may be sai<l to have been fairly developed, and may. with the Algon- 
 quian. Iroquoian. and Shoshonean, be regarded as typical for the por- 
 tion of North America lying north of 3Iexico. Fortunately it has been 
 extensively studied by Kiggs, Hale. Dorsey. and several others, includ- 
 ing distinguished rei)reseiitatives of some of the tribes, and is thus 
 accessible to students. The high phonetic development of the Siouan 
 tongues reflects the needs and records the history of the hunter and 
 warrior tribes, whose phonetic symbols were necessarily so ditleren- 
 tiateil as to be intelligible in whisper, oratory, and war cry. as well as 
 iu ordinary converse, while the complex structure is in harmony with 
 the elaborate social organization and ritual of the Siouan ])eoi>le. 
 
 Many of the Siouan Indians were adepts iu the sign language; 
 indeed, this mode of conveying intelligence attained perhaps its high- 
 est develo]mient among some of the tribes of this stock, who, with 
 other plains Indians, developed i)antomiine and gesture into a surpris- 
 ingly perfect art of expression adapted to the needs of huntsmen and 
 warriors. 
 
 Most of the tribes were fairly proficient in ])ictography ; totemic and 
 other designs were inscribed on bark and wood, painted on skins, 
 
McoEEl GRAPHIC SYMBOLISM 169 
 
 wrouglit into domestic wares, and sometimes carved on rocks. Jona- 
 than Carver gives an example of picture-writing on a ti'ee, in cliarcoal 
 mixed with bear's grease, designed to convey information from the 
 ''Chipe'ways"(Algouquiau) to the "Naudowessies,"' and other instances 
 of intertribal communication by means of ijictography are on record. 
 Personal decoration was common, and was largely symbolic; the face 
 and body were painted in distinctive ways when going on the warpath, 
 in organizing the hunt, in mourning the dead, in celebrating the vic- 
 tory, and in performing various ceremonials. Scarification and m:nm- 
 ing were practiced by some of the tribes, always in a symbolic way. 
 Among the Mandan and Hidatsa scars were produced in cruel ceremo- 
 ,nials originally connected with war and liunting, and served as endur- 
 ing witnesses of courage and fortitude. Symbolic tattooing was fairly 
 common among the westernmost tribes. Eagle and other feathers were 
 worn as insignia of rank and f(u- other symbolic purjioses. while bear 
 claws and the scalps of enemies were worn as symbols of the chase 
 and battle. Some of the tribes recorded current history by means of 
 "winter counts'' or calendaric inscriptions, though their arithmetic 
 was meager and crude, and their calendar pioper was limited to recog- 
 nition of the year, lunation, and day — oi', as among so many primitive 
 people, the "snow," "dead moon." and "night,'' — with no definite sys- 
 tem of fitting lunations to the annual seasons. Most of the graphic 
 records were perishable, and have long ago disappeared; but during 
 recent decades several untutored tribesmen have executed vigorous 
 drawings representing hunting scenes and conflicts with white soldiery, 
 which have been preserved or reproduced. These crude essays in 
 graphic art were the germ of writing, and indicate that, at the time of 
 discovery, several Siouan tribes were near the gateway opening into 
 the broader field of scriptorial culture. So far as it extends, the crude 
 graphic symbolism betokens warlike habit and militant organization, 
 which were doubtless measurably inimical to further progress. 
 
 It would appear that, in connection with Their proficiency in gesture 
 speech and their meager graphic art, the Siouan Indians had become 
 masters in a vaguely understood system of dramaturgy or symbolized 
 conduct. Among them the use of the peace-pipe was general; among 
 several and perhaps all of the tribes the definite use of insignia was com- 
 mon ; among them the customary hierarchic organization of the abo- 
 rigines was remarkably developed and was maintained by an elaborate 
 and strict code of etiquette whose observance was exacted and yielded 
 by every tribesman. Thus the warriors, habituated to expressing and 
 recognizing tribal affiliation and status in address and deportment, were 
 notably observant of social minutiie, and this habit extended into every 
 activity of their lives. They were ceremonious among themselves and 
 
 ■Travels Through the Interior Parts of Xorth America in the Tears 1766. 1767, and 1768: London, 
 1778, p. 418. 
 
Ill I THE SIOUAX INDIANS [eth. axn. 15 
 
 ciat'ty toward enemies, tactful diplomatists as well as brave soldiers, 
 shrewd stratejjists as well as lieree tighters: ever tliey were skillful 
 readers of liiiiiiau nature, even when ruthless takers of human life. 
 Anionfr some of the tribes every movement and gesture and expires- 
 sion of the male adult seems to have been afleeted or conrrolled with 
 the view of impressing spectators and auditors, and through constant 
 schooling the warriors became most consummate actors. To the casual 
 observer, they were stoics or stupids according to the conditions of 
 observation: to many observers, they were cheats or charlatans; to 
 scientitic students, tlieir eccentrically develoi)ed volition and the thau- 
 maturgy by which it was normally accomjianied suggests early stages 
 in that curious development wliicli. in the Orient, culminates in necro- 
 mancy and occultism. Unfortunately this phase of the Indian char- 
 acter (which was shared by various tribes) was little apjjieciated by 
 the early travelers, and little record of it remains: yet there is enough 
 to indicate the importance of constantly studied ceremony, or symbolic 
 conduct, among them. Tlie development of affectation and self-control 
 among tlie Siouan tribesmen was undoulitedly shaped by warlike dis- 
 jKjsition. and theii- stoicism was displayed largely in war — as when the 
 cai)tured warrior went exultingly to the torture, taunting and tempting 
 his ca])tors to multiply their atrocities even until his tongue was torn 
 from its roots, in order that his fortitude might be jtroved ; but the 
 habit was tirmly fixed and found constant expression in commonplace 
 as well as in more dramatic actions. 
 
 INDISTHIAI. AND KSTHKTIC AKTS 
 
 Since the arts of primitive i)e()i)h' letlect environmental conditions 
 with close fidelity, and since the Siouuu Indians were distributed over 
 a vast territoiy varying in climate, hydrography, geology, fauna, and 
 flora, their industrial and esthetic arts can hardly be regarded as dis- 
 tiiujtive, and were indeed shared by otlier tribes of all neighboring 
 stocks. 
 
 Tlie best developed industries were hunting and warfare, though all 
 of the tribes subsisted in part on fruits, nuts, berries, tubers, grains, 
 and other vegetal products, largely wild, though sometiines jjlanted 
 and even cultivated in rude fashion. The southwestern tril>es, and to 
 some extent all of the prairie denizens and probably the eastern rem- 
 nant, grew maize, beans. pumi)kiiis, melons, squashes, sunflowers, and 
 tobacco, tlioiigh their agricultuie seems always to have been subordi- 
 nated to the chase, .\boriginally, they appear to have had no domes- 
 tic animals except dogs, which, according to Carver — one of tlie first 
 white men seen by tiie i)rairie tribes, — were kept for tlieir flesh, which 
 was eaten ceremonially,' and for use iu the chase.* According to 
 
 Hip. cit.p. 278. 
 
 *Op. cit.. p. 445. Ciirversays. "The dog^i omplnvod by the Indinns in liitnting app(>Artol»e all of the 
 same 8i>etiL'8; they carry their ears erect, and greatly reaeiubU* a wolf alioiit the heail. They are 
 exceedingly tisefiil to them in their huntint; excursions and will jitlaek the liereewt t)f the cann' they 
 arc in ]>urHiiit <if. They are also remarkable for their tidelity to iheir inastert*, but being ill tetl by 
 theiu are very troublesome iu their huts or tents." 
 
M^«EEj IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS 171 
 
 Lewis and Clark (1S04-18(M>), they were used for burden and draff;' 
 according to the naturalists accompanying Long's expedition (ISlD-lMi), 
 for flesh (eaten ceremonially and on ordinary occasions), draft, l)ur- 
 den, and the chase,- and according to Prince Maximilian, for food and 
 draft,^ all these functions indicating long familiarity with the canines. 
 Catliu, too, found ^' dog's meat . . . the most honorable food that 
 can be i)resented to a stranger-/' it was eaten ceremonially and on 
 important occasions.^ Moreover, the terms used for the dog and his 
 liarness are ancient and even archaic, and some of the most important 
 ceremonials were connected with this animal,'^ implying long-continued 
 association. Casual references indicate that some of the tribes lived 
 in mutual tolerance with several birds^' and mammals not yet domes- 
 ticated (indeed the buffalo may be said to have been in this condition), 
 so that the people were at the threshold of zoocidture. 
 
 The chief implements and weapons were of stone, wood, bone, horn, 
 and antler. According to Carver, the '' ^adowessie " were skillful bow- 
 men, using also the "casse-tete''' or warclub, and a iiint scalping- 
 kuife. Catlin was impressed with the shortness of the bows used 
 by the prairie tribes, though among the southwestern tribes they were 
 longer. Many of the Siouan Indians used the lance, javelin, or spear. 
 The domestic utensils were scant and sim^ile, as became wanderers 
 and fighters, wood being the common material, though crude pottery 
 
 ^Couea, "History of the Expedition," op. cit.. vol. i, p. 140. A note adds, "The dogs are not large, 
 much resemble a wolf, and will haul about 70 pounds each." 
 
 "Narrative of an Expedition totheSourceof St. Peter's River . . . under the Command of Stephen 
 H. Long, U. S. T. E., by William H. Keating; London, 1825, vol. i, p. 451: vol. ii, p.44. et al. Account 
 of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains . . . under the Command of Major S. H. 
 Long. U. S. T. E., by Edwin James : London. 1823, vol. i, pp. 155, 182. et ah 
 
 Say remarks (James, loc. cit., p. 155) of the coyote (?), " This animal ... is probably tbe origi- 
 nal of the domestic dog, eo common in the villages of the Indiana of this region [about Council Blutt's 
 and Omaha], some of the varieties of which still retain much of the habit and manners of thia 
 species." James saya (loc. cit., voL li. p. 13). "The dogs of the Konzas are generally of a mixed breed, 
 between our dogs with pendent ears and the native dogs, whose cars are universally erect. The 
 Indians of this nation seek every opportunity to cross the breed. These mongrel dogs are less com- 
 mon with the Omawhaws, while the dogs of the Pawnees generally have preserved their original 
 form." 
 
 ^Travels in the Interior of North America; London, 1843. The Prince adds, "In shape they diflFer 
 very little from the wolf, and are equally large and strong. Some are of the real wolf color; others 
 are black, white, or spotted with black and white, and differing only by the tail being rather more 
 turned up. Tbeir voice is not a proper barking, but a howl like that of the wolf, and they partly 
 descend from wolves, which approach the Indian huts, even in the daytime, and mix with the dogs" 
 (cf. p. 203 et al.). Writing at the Mandan village, he says, "The Mandansaud Uanitaries have not, by 
 any means, so many dogs as the Asainiboin, Crows, and Blackfeet. They are rarely of true wolt 
 color, but genei'ally black or white, or else resemble the wolf, but here they are more like the prairie 
 wolf {Canislatrans}. We likewise found among these animals a brown race, descended from European 
 pointers; hence the genuine bark of the dog is more frequently heard here, whereas among the western 
 nations they only howl. The Indian dogs are worked very hard, have hard blows and hard fare; in 
 fact, they are treated just as this fine animal is treated among the Esquimaux" (p. 345). 
 
 ^"Letters and Notes," etc, vol. I, j). 14; cf. p. 230 et al. He speaks (p. 201) of the Minitarf canines 
 as "semiloup dogs and whelps. " 
 
 'Keating's "Narrative," op. cit., vol. I!, p. 452; James' "Account," op. cit,, vol. I. p. 127 et al. 
 
 sAccordiug to Prince Maximilian, both the Mandan and Minitari kei)t owls in their lodges and 
 regarded them as soothsayers ("Travels." op. cit., pp. 383, 403), and tbe eagle was apparently tolerated 
 for the sake of his feathers. 
 
 '"Cassa Tate, the antient tomahawk " on the plate illustrating the objeets (" Travels." op. cit., pi. 
 4, p. 298). 
 
172 THE .SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.asn. 13 
 
 and basketry were maimfactured, together with bags and bottles of 
 skins or aiiinial iutestiues. Ceremonial objects were common, the 
 most conspicuous being the calumet, carved out of the sacied pipe- 
 stone or catlinite quarried for many generations in the midst of tlie 
 Siouan territory. Frequently the pipes were fasliioned in the form of 
 tomahawks, when they carried a double symbolic sigiiiticance. stand- 
 ing alike for peace and war, and thus expressing well the dominant 
 idea of the Siouan mind. Tobacco and kinnikiuic (a mixture of tobacco 
 with shredded bark, leaves, etc') were smoked. 
 
 Aboriginally the Siouan apparel was scanty, commonly coinijrising 
 breecliclout, moccasins, leggings, and robe, and consisted chielly of 
 dressed skins, though several of the tribes made simple fabrics of bast, 
 rushes, and other vegetal substances. Fur robes and rush mats com- 
 monly served for bedding, some of the tribes using rude bedsteads. 
 The buffalo hunting prairie tribes depended largely for apparel, bed- 
 ding, and liabitations, as well as for food, on the great beast to whose 
 comings and goings their movements were adjusted. Like other 
 Indians, the Siouan hunters and their consorts quickly availed them- 
 selves of the white man's stutfs, as well as his metal imi)lements, and 
 the ])rimitive dress was soon modified. 
 
 The woodland habitations were chiefly tent-shai)e structures of sap 
 lings covered with bark, rush mats, skins, or bushes: the ]irairie habi- 
 tations were mainly earth lodges for winter and buffalo-skin tipis for 
 stimnier. Among many of the tribes these domiciles, simple as they 
 were, were constructed in accordance with an elaborate plan controlled 
 by ritual. According to Morgan, the framework of the aboriginal 
 Dakota house consisted of l.'i poles;- and Dorsey describes the syste- 
 matic groujjing of the tipis belonging to different gentes and tribes. 
 Sudatories were characteristic in most of the tribes, menstrual lodges 
 were common, and most of the more sedentary tribes had council 
 houses or other communal structures. The Siouan domiciles were thus 
 adapted with remarkable closeness to the daily habits and environ- 
 ment of the tribesmen, while at the same time they reflected the com- 
 l>lex social organization growing out of their jirescriptorial status and 
 militant disposition. 
 
 Most of the Siouan men. wouieu. and children were fine swimmers, 
 though they tlid not comiiare well with neighboring tribes as makers 
 and managers of water craft. Tlio Dakota women made coracles of 
 buffalo hides, in which they transjxirted themselves and their house- 
 lioldry, but the use of these and other craft .seems to have been regarded 
 as little better than a feminine weakness. Other tribes were better 
 boatmen; for the Siouan Indian generally preferred land travel to 
 journeying by water, and avoided tlie burden of vehicles by which his 
 
 'Deacrihcd by Coues." History of the Expedition vmdcr tliL' Coiiiiuaiid of Lewis and Ciarlt. " 1893, 
 vol. I. p. 139. note. 
 »" IIoiisos and Iloueo-lift' of the American Aborigines," Cont. X. A. Etb.. vol. iv. 18*1. p. 114. 
 
wcQEE) THE BUFFALO AND THE HORSE 173 
 
 ever-varying' nioveiueiits in pursuit of i;aine(ir in waylaying and evatl- 
 ing enemies would have been limited and handicapped. 
 
 There are many indications and .some suggestive evidences that the 
 chief arts and certain instituti(msand beliefs, as well as the geographic 
 distribution, of the principal Siouan tribes were determined by a single 
 conspicuous feature in their environment — the buffalo. As Riggs, 
 Hale, and Dorsey have demonstrated, the original home of the Siouan 
 stock lay on the eastern sloi)e of the Appalachian mountains, stretch- 
 ing down over the Piedmont and ( 'oastplain provinces to the shores of 
 the Atlantic between the Potomac and the Savannah. As shown by 
 Allen, thebuffiilo, " prior to the year 1800," spread eastward across the 
 Appalachians' and into the priscan territory of the Siouan tribes. As 
 suggested by Slialer, the presence of this j'touderous and peaceful 
 animal n)aterially aflected the vocations of the Indians, tending to dis- 
 courage agriculture and encourage the chase: and it can hardly be 
 doubted that the bison was the bridge that carried the ancestors of the 
 western tribes from the crest of the Alleglienies to the Cotean des 
 Prairies and enabled them to disjjerse so widely over the plains beyond. 
 Certainly the toothsome flesh and useful skins must have attracted 
 the valiant huntsmen among the Ajjpalachiaus; certainly the feral 
 herds must have become constantly larger and more numerous west- 
 ward, thus tempting the pursuers down the waterways toward the 
 great river; certainly the vast herds beyond the Mississii)pi gave 
 stronger incentives and richer rewards than the hunters of big game 
 found elsewhere ; and certainly when the ])rairie tribes were discovered, 
 the men and animals lived in constant interaction, and many of the 
 hunters acted and thought only as they were moved by their easy prey. 
 As the Spanish horse spread northward over the Llano Estacado and 
 overflowed across the mountains trom the plains of the Cayuse, the 
 Dakota and other tribes found a new means of conquest over the 
 herds, and entered on a career so facile that they increased and multi- 
 plied despite strife and imported disease. 
 
 The horse was acquired by the prairie tribes toward the end of the 
 last century. Carver (17GG-1768) describes the methods of hunting 
 among the "Naudowessie'' without referring to the horse,- though he 
 gives their name for the animal in his vocabulary,^ and describes their 
 mode of warfare with "Indians that inhabit still farther to the west- 
 ward a country which extends to tlu; South Sea," having "great plenty 
 of horses."^ Lewis and Clark (ISOJ— 1806) mention that the "Sioux of 
 the Teton tribe . . . frequently make excursions to steal horses" 
 from the Mandan,'' and make other references indicating that the horse 
 
 ' " The American Bisons. Livinj; and Extinct, " by J. A. Allen ,- ilemoirs of the Geol. Survey of Ken- 
 tucky, vol. I, pt. ii, 1876, map; also pp. 55, 72-101, et al. 
 
 •Oj). cit., p. 283 et 86(1. 
 
 !'Ibi(l., p. 435. 
 
 'Ibid., p. 294. 
 
 ^''History of the E.^pedition under the Coraraiind of Lewis and Clark," etc, by Elliott Couea, 1893 
 vol. I, p. 175. It is noted that in winter tlic Mandan kept their horses in their lodges at night, and, 
 fed them on Cottonwood branches. Ibid., pp. 220, 233, et al. 
 
174 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [fth. ans. 15 
 
 was in fairly cdiuinoii use among some of the Siouan tribes, thoii{;li the 
 auinial was ''contiiied principally to the nations inhabiting the ^reat 
 plains of the Columbia,"' anil dogs were still used for burden and 
 draft.- Grinnell learned from an aged Indian that horses came into 
 the hands of the neighboring IMegan (Algonijuian) about 1804-1800.' 
 Long's naturalists found the horse, ass, and nude in use among the 
 Kansa and other tribes/ and described the mode of capture of wild 
 horses by the Osage;'' yet when, two-thirds of a ceutury after Carver, 
 Catlin (18.>2-is;i9) and Prince ^Maximilian (18.53^34) visited the Siouan 
 territory, they found the horse establislied and in common use in the 
 chase and in war.'' It is significant that the Dakota word for horse 
 (.suk-taij'-ka or suij-ka'-wakaij) is composed of the word for dog 
 (sni)'-ka), with an atlix indicating greatness, sacredness, or mystery, 
 so that the horse is literally '-great mysterious dog,'" or ''ancient sacred 
 dog," and that several terms for harness and other appurtenances cor- 
 respond witii those used for the gear of the dog when tised as a draft 
 animal." This terminology corr()i)orates the direct evidence that the 
 dog was domesticated by the Siouan aborigines long before the advent 
 of the horse. 
 
 Among the Sionan tribes, as among other Indians, amusements 
 absorbed a considerable part of the time and energy of the old and 
 young of both sexes. Among the young, the gambols, races, and 
 other sports were chiefly or wholly diversional, and commonly mim- 
 icked the avocations of the adults. The girls jilayed at the building 
 and care of houses and were absorbed in dolls, wliile the boys played 
 at archery, foot racing, and mimic hunting, which soo7i grew into 
 the actual chase of small birds and animals. Some of the sjjorts of the 
 elders were unorganized diversions, leaping, racing, wrestling, and 
 other spontaneous expressions of exuberance. Certain diversions were 
 controlled by more jx'rsistent motive, as when the idle warrior occui)ied 
 liis leisure in meaningless ornamentation of his garment or tii)i, or 
 spent hours of leisure in esthetic modification of his weai)on or cere- 
 monial badge, and to this purjjoseless activity, which engendered 
 design with its own progress, the incii)ient graphic art of the tribes 
 was largely due. The more important and characteristic s])orts were 
 organized and interwoven with social organization and belief so as 
 commonly to take the form of elaborate cei'euionial, in which dancing, 
 feasting, fasting, symbolic painting, song, and sacrifice played impor- 
 tant i)arts, and these organized s])orts were largely fiducial. To many 
 
 > Coucs, Exjiedition of I.ewis und Clark, vol. iii. \i. 839. 
 
 'Ibid., vol. I, p. 140. 
 
 ^•'TIic Story of the Indian. " 1895, p. 237. 
 
 * Jnmc»' "Account," op. oit., vol. I, pp. 126, 148; vol. ii. p. 12 et al. 
 
 •Il.id, vol. Ill, p. 107. 
 
 *"Lott*T8 and Xot«s," op. cit., vol. i, pp. 142 (wbero the manner of laesoing wild horaca is men- 
 tioned), p. 231 et al. ; "Travels," op. oit., p. 149 et al. (The Crow were said to have between 9,000 and 
 10.000 head. p. 174.) 
 
 'Kentinj: in I.ons's Expedition, op. clt., vol. II, appendix, p. 152. Riggs' "Bakola- English Diction- 
 ary," Cont. X. A. Elh., vol. vii, 1890. 
 
MCGEE] CEREMONIES GAMES MUSIC 175 
 
 of the early observers the observauces were iiotliiiig more than iiieau- 
 ingless muuimeries; to some they were sacrilegious, toothers sortile- 
 gious; to the more careful students, like Carver, whose notes are of 
 especial value by reason of the author's clear insight into the Indian 
 character, they were invocations, expiations, propitiations, expressing 
 profound and overpowering devotion. Carver says of the "Xaudo- 
 wessie," "They usually dance either before or after every meal; and 
 by this cheerfulness, probably, render the Great Spirit, to whom they 
 consider themselves as indebted for every good, a more acceptable 
 sacrifice than a formal and unanimated thanksgiving;''' and he pro- 
 ceeds to describe the informal dances as well as the more formal cere- 
 monials preparatory to joining in the chase or setting out on the 
 warpath. The ceremonial observances of the Siouau tribes were not 
 different in kind from those of neighboring contemporaries, yet some 
 of them were developed in remarkable degree — for example, the bloody 
 rites by which youths were raised to the rank of warriors in some of 
 the prairie tribes were without parallel in severity among the aborig- 
 ines of America, or even among the known primitive peoples of the 
 world. So the sports of the Siouau Indians were both diversional and 
 divinatory, and the latter were highly organized in a manner reflecting 
 the environment of the tribes, their culture status, their belief, and 
 especially their disposition toward bloodshed; for their most charac- 
 teristic ceremonials were connected, genetically if not immediately, 
 with warfare and the chase. 
 
 Among many of the Siouan tribes, games of chance were played 
 habitually and with great avidity, both men and women becoming so 
 absorbed as to forget avocations and food, mothers even neglecting 
 their children; for, as among other primitive peoples, the charm of 
 hazard was greater than among the enlightened. The games were not 
 specially distinctive. aTid were less widely differentiated than in certain 
 other Indian stocks. The sport or game of chungke stood high in favor 
 among the young men in many of the tribes, and was played as a game 
 partly of chance, partly of skill; but dice games (played with plum 
 stones among the southwestern prairie tribes) were generally iireferred, 
 especially by the women, children, and older men. The games were 
 partly, sometimes wholly, diversional, but generally they were in large 
 part divinatory, and thus reflected the hazardous occupations and low 
 culture-status of the people. One of the evils resulting from the advent 
 of the whites was the introduction of new games of chance wliicli tended 
 further to pervert the simple Siouan mind; but in time the evil brought 
 its own remedy, for association with white gamblers taught the ingenu- 
 ous sortilegers that there is nothing divine or sacred about the gaming 
 table or the conduct of its votaries. 
 
 The primitive Siouan music was limited to the cliant and rather 
 simple vocal melody, accompanied by rattle, drum, and flute, the drum 
 among the northwestern tribes being a skin bottle or bag of water. 
 
ITfi THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.aicis 
 
 Tlie music of tlie Oiiialia and some other tribes has been most appre- 
 ciatively studied by Miss Fletcher, and her memoir ranks aiiiony the 
 Indian classics.' In {general the Siouan music was tyi)ical for the 
 aboriginal stocks of the northern interior. Its dominant feature was 
 rhythm, by which the dance was controlled, though melody was inchoate, 
 while harmony was not yet develojjcd. 
 
 The germ of painting was revealed in the calendars and the seed of 
 sculpture in the carvings of the Siouan Indians. The pictographic 
 paintings comprised not only recognizable but even vigorous represen- 
 tations of men and animals, depicted in form and color tliough without 
 perspective, while the calumet of catliuite was sometimes chiseled into 
 striking verisimilitude of human and animal forms in miniature. To 
 the collector these representations suggest fairly developed art. though 
 to the Indian they were mainly, if not wholly, symbolic; for everything 
 indicates that the primitive artisan had not yet broken the shackles of 
 fetichistic symbolism, and had little conception of artistic portrayal for 
 its own sake. 
 
 INSTITiriDNS 
 
 Among civili/.eil jieoijU's, institutions are crystallized in statutes 
 about nuclei of common law or custom: ann)ng peo]iles in the prescrip- 
 torial (-nlture-stage statutes are unborn, and \ai-ions mnemonic devices 
 are employed for hxing and perpetuating institutions; and, as is usual 
 in this stage, the devices involve associations which appear to be 
 essentially arbitrary at the outset, though they tend to become natural 
 through the survival of the fittest. A favorite device for perpetuating 
 institutions among the primitive peoples of many districts on dittereut 
 continents is tlie taboo, or prohibition, which is commonly fiducial but 
 is often of generiil ai)i)li<Mtion. This device finds its best development 
 in the earlier stages in the development of belief, and is normally con- 
 nected with totemism. Another device, which is remarkably wide- 
 spread, as .shown by Morgan, is kinship nomenclature. This device rests 
 on a natural and easily ascertained basis, though its ai)i)lications are 
 arbitrary and vary widely from tribe to tribe ami from culture-status 
 to (nilturcstatus. A third device, which found inudi favor among the 
 Ameri(^an aborigines and among some other primitive peoples, may be 
 called ordinaiion, or the arrangement of individuals and groups classi- 
 fied from the prescri]>torial point of view of Self. Here, and Now. with 
 respect to each other or to some dominant personage or group. This 
 device seems to have grown out of the kin name system, in which the 
 Ego is the basis from which relation is reckoned. It tends to develop 
 into fetlerate organization on the one hand or into caste on the other 
 hand, according to the attendant conditions.- There are various other 
 
 i"A study of Omaha Indian Masic, by Alice C. Fletcher ■ . aide<l by Franci.i La Flesche, 
 with A report on the slrnrtural peculiarities of the niusic, by John Comfort Fillmore. A. U. ;" Arch, 
 and Elb. papcre of the Peabody Museum, vol. I. >"o. 5, 1893, pp. i-vi : 7-1 Si (=231-382). 
 
 'Ordiiiation.iiH the term is here used, eomprebends recinientation as defined by Powell, yet relates 
 csperially to the nietluxl of reekoniug from the constantly recofinizcd but ever varying st.imlpoint of 
 preseriptorial culture. 
 
McoEEj SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 177 
 
 devices for fixing and perpetuating institutions or for expressing the 
 laws embodied tlierein. Some of these are connected witli thaumaturgy 
 and sbamanism, some are connected with tlie powers of nature, and 
 the several devices overlap and interlace in puzzling fashion. 
 
 Among the Sionan Indians the devices of taboo, kinnames, and ordi- 
 nation are found in such rehition as to throw some light on the growth 
 of primitive institutions. Wliile tlie.v blend and are measurably 
 involved with thaumaturgic devices, there are indications that in a 
 general way the three devices stand for stages in tlie development of 
 law. Among the best known tribes tlie taboo pertained to the clan, 
 and was used (in a much more limited way than among some other 
 peoples) to connnenmrate and perpetuate the clan organization; kin- 
 names, which were partly natural and thus normal to the clan organiza- 
 tion, and at the same time partly artittcial and thus characteristic of 
 gentile organization, served to commemorate and perpetuate not only 
 the fanuly relations but the relations of the constituent elements of 
 the tribe; while the ordination expressed in the camping circle, in the 
 phratries, in the ceremonials, and in many other ways, served to com- 
 memorate intertribal as well as intergentile relations, and thus to pro- 
 mote peace and harmonious action. It is significant that the taboo 
 was less potent among the Siouan Indians than among some other 
 stocks, and that among some tribes it has not been found; and it is 
 especially significant that in some instances the taboo was apparently 
 inversely related to kin-naming and ordination, as among the Biloxi, 
 where the taboo is exceptionally weak and kin naming exceptionally 
 strong, and among the Dakota, where the system of ordinatitui attained 
 perhaps its highest American development in domiciliary arrangement, 
 while the taboo was limited in function; for the relations indicate that 
 the taboo was archaic or even vestigial. It is noteworthy also that 
 among most of the Siouan tribes the kin name system was less elaborate 
 than in many other stocks, while the system of ordination is so elabo- 
 rate as to constitute one of the leading characteristics of the stock. 
 
 At the time of the discovery, most of the Siouan tribes had apparently 
 passed into gentile organization, though vestiges of clan organization 
 were found — e. g., among the best-known tribes the man was the head 
 of the family, though the tipi usually belonged to the woman. Thus, as 
 defined by institutions, the stock was just above savagery and Just 
 within the lower stages of barbarism. Accordingly the governmental 
 functions were hereditary in the male line, yet the law of heredity was 
 subject to modification or suspension at the will of the group, commonly 
 at the instance of rebels or usurpers of marked prowess or shrewdness. 
 The property regulations were definite and strictly observed ; as among 
 other barbarous peoples, the land was common to the tribe or other group 
 occupying if, yet was defended against alien invasion ; the ownership 
 of movable property was a combination of communalism and individu- 
 alism delicately adjusted to the needs and habits of the several tribes — 
 13 ETii V2 
 
178 THE SIOUAX INDIANS 
 
 in general, evanescent property, such as food and fuel, was shared in 
 comiiioii (subject to carefully regulated individual claims), while perma- 
 nent ])roperty, such as tipis, dogs, api)arel, weai)oiis, etc, was held by 
 individuals. As among other tribes, the more strictly i)ersoual property 
 was usually dcstrojx'd on the death of the owner, though the real reason 
 for the custom — the prevention of dispute — was shrouded in a mantle 
 of mysticism. 
 
 Although of ])rimary iinijoitance in shaping the career of the Siouan 
 tribes, the marital institutions of the stock were not sjiecially distinctive. 
 Marriage was usually et^ected by negotiation through jiareuts or elders; 
 among some of the tribes the bride was purchased, while among others 
 there was an interchange of jjresents. Polygyny was common; in sev- 
 eral of the tribes the bride's sisters became subordinate wives of the 
 husband. The regulations i-oncerning divorce and the ])unishment of 
 infidelity were sonu'what variable among the different tribes, some of 
 whom furnished temporary wives to distinguished visitors, (jcnerally 
 there were sanctions for marriage by elopement or individual choice. In 
 every tribe, so far as known, gentile exogamy i)revailed — i. e., marriage 
 in the gens was forbidden, under j)ain of ostracism or still heavier pen- 
 alty, while the gentes intermarried among one another; in some cases 
 intermarriage between certain tribes was regarded with special favor. 
 There seems to have been no system of marriage by cai)ture, though 
 captive women were usually espoused by the successful tribesmen, and 
 girls were sometimes abducted. In general it would appear that inter- 
 gentile and intertribal marriage was i)racticcd and san<-tioned by the 
 sages, and that it tende<l toward harmony and federation, and thus 
 contributed unich toward the increase and diffusion of the great Siouan 
 stock. 
 
 As set forth in some detail by Dorsey, the ordination of the Siouan 
 tribes extended beyond the hierarchic organization into families, sub- 
 gentes, gentes, tribes, and confederacies; there were also ])hratries, 
 sometimes (perhaps typically) arranged in pairs: there were societies 
 or associations established on social or fiducial bases; there was a gen- 
 eral arrangement or classification of each group on a military basis, 
 as into soldiers and two or more classes of noucoinbatants, etc. 
 Among the Siouan peoples, too, the individual brotherhood of the 
 David-.Ionathan or Damon- Pythias tyjie was characteristically devel- 
 oiu'd. Thus the corporate institutions were interwoven and sujjer- 
 imposed in a manner nearly as c()m])lex as that Ibiiiul in the national, 
 state, municipal, and minor institutions of civilization: yet the ordi- 
 nation jireserved by means of tiie camping circle, the kinship system, 
 the simple series of taboos, and the elaborate symbolism was aiii)ar- 
 ently so complete as to meet every social and governmental demand. 
 
 iiKi.iicrs 
 
 TlIK DKVKLUPMKNT <1K X1VT1I01.IU.Y 
 
 As explained by Powell, philosophies and beliefs may be seriated in 
 four stages: The first stage is hecastotheism; in this stage extra- 
 natural or mysterious potencies are imputed to objects both animate 
 
MCGEE] PHILOSOPHIES AND BELIEFS 17'.) 
 
 and iiiiiniinate. The second stage is zootheism; within it the powers 
 of animate forms are exaggerated and amplified into tlie reahn of tlie 
 supernal, and certain auinials are deified. The third stage is that of 
 ]jliysitheism, in which the agencies of nature are personified and 
 exalted unto omnipotence. The fourth stage is that of psychotheisiii, 
 which includes the doiuain of spiritual concei)t. In general the devel- 
 opment of belief coincides with the growth of abstraction; yet it is to 
 be remembered that this growth represents increase in definiteness of 
 the abstract concepts rather than augmentation in iuiml)ers and kinds 
 of subjective impressions, i. e., the advance is in quality rather than 
 in quantity; indeed, it would almost appear that the vague and indefi- 
 nite abstraction of hecastotheisin is more pervasive and prevalent than 
 the clearer abstraction of higher stages. Appreciation of the funda- 
 mental characteristics of belief is essential to even the most general 
 iiuderstaiidmg of the Indian mythology and philosophy, and even after 
 careful study it is difficult for thinkers trained in the higher methods 
 of thought to understand the crude and confused ideation of the 
 primitive thinker. 
 
 In hecastotheism the believer finds mysterious properties and poten- 
 cies everywhere. To his mind every object is endued with occult 
 power, moved by a vague volition, actuated by shadowy motive rang- 
 ing capriciously from malevolence to benevolence; in his lax estima- 
 tion some objects are more potent or more mysterious than others, the 
 strong, the sharp, the hard, and the swift-moving rising superior to 
 the feeble, the dull, the soft, and the slow. Commonly he singles out 
 some special object as his personal, family, or tribal mystery-symbol 
 or fetich, the object usually representing that which is most feared or 
 woi'st hated among his surroundings. Vaguely realizing from the 
 memory of accidents or unforeseen events that he is depeixlent on his 
 surroundings, he invests every feature of his environment with a 
 capricious humor reflecting his own disposition, and gives to each and 
 all a subtlety and inscrutability corresponding to his exalted estima- 
 tion of his own craft in the chase and war; and, conceiving himself to 
 live and move only at the mercy of his multitudinous associates, he 
 becomes a fatalist — kismet is his watchword, and he meets defeat and 
 death with resignation, just as he goes to victory with complacence; 
 for so it was ordained. 
 
 Zootheism is the oftspriug of hecastotheism. As the iirimitive 
 believer assigns special potency or mystery to the strong and the swift, 
 he gradually comes to give exceptional rank to self-moving animals; 
 as his experience of the strength, alertness, swiftness, and courage of 
 his animate enemy or prey increases, these animals are invested with 
 successively higher and higher attributes, each reflecting the mental 
 operations of the mystical huntsman, and in time the animals with 
 which the primitive believers are most intimately associated come to be 
 regarded as tutelary daimons of supernatural power and intelligence. 
 At first the animals, like the uiiditt'erentiated things of hecastotheism, 
 
18*) THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. ass. 13 
 
 are rej^arded iu fear or awe by reason of their strength and ferocity, 
 and this regard grows into an incipient worsliip in the form of sacrifice 
 or other ceremonial ; meanwliile, inanimate things, and m due season 
 rare and unimportant animals, are neglected, and a half dozen, a dozen, 
 or a score of the well-known animals are exalted into a hierarchy of 
 petty gods, headed by the strongest like the bear, the swiftest like the 
 deer, the most majestic like the eagle, the most cunning like the fox 
 or coyote, or the most deadly like the rattlesnake. Commonly the 
 arts and the skill of the mystical huntsman iminove from youth to 
 adolescence and from generation to genciation, so that the later ani- 
 mals aiJjiear to be easier snared or slain than the earlier; moreover, the 
 accounts of conflicts between men and animals grow by repetition 
 and are gilded by imagination as memory grows dim; and for these 
 and other reasons the notion grows up that the ancient animals were 
 .stronger, swifter, slier, statelier, deadlier than their modern representa- 
 tives, and the hierarchy of petty gods is exalted into an omnipotent 
 thearchy. Eventuallj% in the most highly developed zootheistic sys- 
 tems, the leading beast-god is regarded as the en ator of the lesser 
 deities of the earth, sun, and sky, of the mythic under- world and its 
 real counterpart the ground or mid-world, as well as the visionary 
 u]iper-world, of men, and of the ignoble animals ; sometimes the mo.st ex- 
 alted beast-god is worshiped esj)ecially by the great man or leading class 
 and incidentally by all, while other men and grou])S choose the lesser 
 beast-gods, according to their rank, for special worship. In hecasto- 
 theism the potencies revered or worshii)ed are polymorphic, while their 
 attributes reflect the mental operations of the believers; in zootheism 
 the deities worshii)ed are zoomorphic, and their attributes continue to 
 reflect the human mind. 
 
 Phy.sitheism, in its turn, si)rings from zootheism. Through contem- 
 plation of the strong the idea of strength arises, and a means is found 
 for bringing the bear into analogy with thunder, with the sun, or with 
 the avalanche bearing mountain ; through contemplation of the swift the 
 concept of swiftness is engendered, and comparison of the deer with 
 the wind or rushing river is made easy; through contemi)lation of the 
 deadly stroke of the rattlesnake the notion of death-dealing ])ower 
 assumes shape, and conniari.son of the snake bite and the lightning 
 stroke is made possible; and in every case it is inevitably perceived 
 that the agency is stronger, swifter, deadlier than the animal. At 
 tirst the agency is not abstracted or dissociated from the jiarent 
 zootheistic concept, and the sun is the mightiest animal as among many 
 l)eoi)les, the thunder is the voice of the bear as among different wood- 
 land tribes or the flapping of the wings of the great aiu'ient eagle as 
 among the Dakota and (|'egiha, while lightning is the great serpent of 
 the sky as among the Zuili. Subse(iuently the zoic concept fades, and 
 the constant association of human intellectual qualities engenders an 
 anthropic concept, when the sun becomes an anthro])omori)hic deity 
 (perhaps bearing a dazzling mask, as among tin- Zunij, and thunder is 
 
MC'EK] PHILOSOPHIES AND BELIEFS 1!^1 
 
 tlie nimhling of quoits pitclieil by the shades of old-tiiiie giants, as 
 among different American tribes. Eventually all tlie leading agencies 
 (if nature are personified in antbropic form, and retaiii tbe Imman attri- 
 butes of caprice, love, and bate wbicb are found in tbe minds of tbe 
 believers. 
 
 Psycbotbeism is bornof pbysitbeism as tbe antbroponiorpbic element 
 in tbe concept of natural agencj- gradually fades; but since none of 
 tbe aborigines of tbe I'uited States bad passed into tbe bigber stage, 
 tbe mode of transition does not require consideration. 
 
 It is to lie borne in mind tliat tbrougbout tbe course of development 
 of belief, from tbe beginning of becastotbeism into tbe borderland of 
 psycbotbeism, tbe dominant cbaracteristicis tbe vague notion of mys- 
 tery. At tirst tbe mystery pervades alltbings and extends in all direc- 
 tions, representing an indefinite ideal world, wbicb is tbe counterpart 
 of tbe real world with the addition of human (pialities. (Tradually the 
 mystery segregates, deepening with respect to animals and disappearing 
 with respect to inanimate things; and at length tbe slowly changing 
 mysteries shape themselves into semiabstractions having a strong 
 anthropic cast, while tbe remainder of the earth and tbe things thereof 
 gradually become real, though they remain under tbe spell and domin- 
 ion of tbe mysterious. Thus at every stage the primitive believer is a 
 mystic — a fatalist in one stage, a beast worshiper in another, a thau- 
 maturgist in a third, yet ever and tirst of all a mystic. It is also to be 
 borne in mind (and tbe more firmly because of a widespread misappre- 
 hension) that the primitive believer, up to tbe highest stiige attained 
 by the North American Indian, is not a psychotheist, much less a mon- 
 otheist. His '' Great Spirit" is simply a great mystery, jierhaps vaguely 
 anthropomorphic, ofteuer zoomorpbic, yet not a spirit, wbicb be is 
 unable to conceive save by reflection of tbe white man's conceijt and 
 inquiry; and his departed spirit is but a shade, much like that of the 
 ancient Greeks, the associate and often tbe inferior of animal shades. 
 
 While tbe four stages in development of belief are fundamentally 
 distinct, they nevertheless overlap in such manner as apparently, and 
 in a measure really, to coexist and blend. Culture progress is slow. 
 In biotic development tbe effect of beneficial modification is felt imme- 
 diately, and tbe modified organs or organisms are stimulated and 
 strengthened cumulatively, while the unmodified are enfeebled and 
 paralyzed cunuilatively through inactivity and quickly pass toward 
 atrophy and extinction. Conversely in demotic develoiiment, which 
 is characterized by the persistence of the organisms and by tbe elimi- 
 nation of tbe bad and tbe preservation of tbe good among (jualities 
 only, there is a constant tendency toward retardation of progress; for 
 in savagery and barbarism as in <'ivilization, age commonly produces 
 conservatism, and at the same time brings responsibility for tbe con- 
 duct of old and young, so that modification, howsoever beneficial, is 
 
182 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etu. anx. 15 
 
 lut'asiiialily licld iu check, and so that the progress of eacli generation 
 buds ill th<! siiringtinie of j-oiith yet is not ])ermitted to fruit until tiie 
 winter of old age approaches. Accordingly the mean of deuiotic i)rog- 
 ress tends to lag far behind its foremost advances, and modes of 
 action and especially of thought change slowly. Thisisesi)ecially true 
 of beliefs, which, during each generation, are largely vestigial. So the 
 Stages in the evolution of mythohjgic philosophy overlap wulely; there 
 is probably no tribe now living among whom zootheism has not yet 
 taken root, though hecastotheisni has been found dominant among 
 ditterent tribes; there is i)robably no people in the zootheistic stage 
 whoare completely divested of hecastotheistic vestiges; and one of the 
 curious features of even the most advanced psychotheism is the occa- 
 sional outcrop]iing of features inherited from ;ill of the earlier stages. 
 Yet it is none tlic less important to discriminate the stages. 
 
 'IiiE SiocAN Mythology 
 
 It was partly through pioneer study of the Siouan Indians that the 
 ])opular fallacy concerning the aboriginal "Great Spirit*' gained cur- 
 ren<;y ; and it was i)artly through the work of Dorsey among the (^"egiha 
 and Dakota tribes, lirst as a missionary and afterward as a linguist, 
 that the early error was corrected. Among these tribes the creation 
 and control of the world and the things thereof are ascribed to 
 "wa ka"-da" (the term varying somewhat from tribe to tribe), just as 
 among the Algouquian tribes omnipotence was assigned to " ma-ui-do' 
 ("Manito the flighty" of "Hiawatha"'); yet in(|uiry shows that 
 waka"da assumes various forms, and is rather a quality than a definite 
 entity. Thus, among many of the tribes the sun is waka"da — not the 
 waka"da or « waka"da, but simply waka"da: and among the same 
 tribes the moon is waka"da, and so is thunder, lightning, the stars, the 
 winds, the cedar, and various other things; even a man, especially a 
 shaman, might be waka"da or a waka"da. In addition the term was 
 applied to mythic monsters of the earth, air, and waters; according to 
 some of the sages the ground or earth, the mythic underworld, the 
 ideal upper-world, darkness, etc, were waka"da or waka"das. So, too, 
 the fetiches and the ceremonial objects and decorations were waka"da 
 among dilferent tribes. Among some of the groups various animals 
 and other trees besides the specially waka"da cedar were regarded as 
 waka"das; as already noted, the horse, among the prairie tribes, was 
 the waka"da dog. In like manner many natural objects and ])laces of 
 striking character were considered waka"da. Tims tlic term was 
 applied to all sorts of entities and ideas, and was used (with or with- 
 out inliectional varnitions) indiscriminately as substantive and adjec- 
 tive, and with slight modilii-ation as verb and adverb. .Manifestly a 
 term so jjrotean is not susi-eptible of translation into the more highly 
 differentiated language of civilization. Manifestly, too, the idea 
 expressed by the term is indelinite, and can not justly be rendered into 
 ''spirit,'' mucli less into "Oreat Spirit;" though it is easy to under- 
 
McotE] SIGNIFICANCE OF WAKA^'DA 1R3 
 
 staud bow the supcrticial iiKiuiier, domiiuited by (U-liiiite spiritual 
 concept, liaiidicapped by niifamibaiity with the Indian tongue, misled by 
 iguoranee of the vague ]>resciiptorial ideation, and perhaps deceived 
 by crafty native informants or mischievous interpreters, came to adopt 
 and j)erpetiiate the erroneous interpretation. The term may be trans- 
 lated into ''mystery" perhaps more satisfactorily than into any other 
 single English word, yet this rendering is at tlio same time much too 
 limited and much too definite. As used by the Siouan Indian, waka"da 
 vaguely connotes also "power," "sacred,'' "ancient," "grandeur," 
 "animate," "immortal," and other words, yet does not express with 
 any degree of fullness and clearness the ideas conveyed by these terms 
 singly or collectively — indeed, no English sentence of reasonable length 
 can do justice to the aboi'igiual idea expressed by the term waka"da. 
 
 While the beliefs of many of the Siouan tribes are lost through the 
 extinction of the tribesmen or transformed through acculturation, it is 
 fortunate that a Large body of information concerning the myths and 
 ceremonials of several ])rairie tribes has been collected. The recoi'ds 
 of Carver, Lewis and Clark, Say, Catlin, and Prince Maximilian are of 
 great value when interpreted in the light of modern knowledge. More 
 recent researches by Miss Eletcher ' and by Dorsey - are of especial 
 value, not only as direct sources of information but as a means of 
 interpreting the earlier writings. From these records it appears that, 
 in so far as they grasped the theistic concejit, the Siouan Indians were 
 polytheists; that their mysteries or deities varied in rank and power; 
 that some were good but more were bad, while others combined bad 
 and good attributes; that they assumed various forms, actual and 
 imaginary; and that their dispositions and motives resembled those 
 found among mankind. 
 
 The organization of the vague Siouan thearchy appears to have 
 varied from group to group. Among all of the tribes whose beliefs 
 are known, the sun Mas an important waka"da, perhaps the leading one 
 irotentially, though usually of less immediate consideration than cer- 
 tain others, such as thunder, lightning, and the cedar tree; among 
 the Osage the sun M'as invoked as "grandfather," and among various 
 tribes there were snu ceremonials, some of which are still maintained; 
 among the Omaha and Ponka, according to Jliss Fletcher, the mythic 
 thunder-bird plays a prominent, perhaps dominant role, and the cedar 
 tree or pole is deified as its tangible representative. The moon was 
 waka"da among the Osage and the stars among the Omaha and Ponka, 
 yet they seem to have occupied subordinate positions; the winds and 
 the four quarters were apjiarently given higlier rank ; and, in individual 
 cases, the mythic water-monsters or earth-deities seem to have occu- 
 pied leading positions. On the whole, it may be safe to consider the 
 
 •Several of tbese are summarized in "The emblematic use of tlio tree iu tbe Dakota group," 
 Science, n s., vol iv, 1896, pp. 475-487. 
 
 ^XotablyA .Stuily of Siouau Cults," Sev.-nth Aimual lleport of (he Hureaii of Ktbnol.i-j for 
 1889-00 (1S94), pp. 351-54-1. 
 
184 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etii.ans.15 
 
 siiii as the iSioiiau arch-mystery, with the mythic thunder-bird or 
 family of tliuiider bird.s as a sort of mediate link between the mysteries 
 and men, jiossessing less power but displaying more aciivity in human 
 affairs than the remoter waka^da of the heavens. Under these control- 
 ling waka"das, other members of the series were vaguely and variably 
 arranged. Somewhere in the lower ranks, sa<'red animals — especially 
 sports, such as the white bulfalo cow — were placed, and still lower 
 came totems ami shamans, which, according to Dorsey, were reverenced 
 rather than worshiped. It is noteworthy that this thearchic arrange- 
 ment corresponded in many respects with the hierarchic social organi- 
 zation of the stock. 
 
 The Siouan thearchy was invoked and adored liy means of forms 
 and ceremonies, as well as through orisons. The set observances were 
 highly elaborate; they comprised dancing and chanting, fea.stiug and 
 fasting, and in some cases sacritice and torture, the shocking atrocities 
 of the Mandan and ^Mmitari rites being especially imiuessive. From 
 these great collective devotions the ceremonials graded down through 
 war dance and hunting-feast to the terpsichorean grace extolled by 
 Carver, and to individual fetich worship. In general the adoration 
 e.Ni)icssed lear of the evil rather than love of the good — but this can 
 hardly be regarded as a distinctive feature, much less a iieculiar one. 
 
 Some of the mystery jilaces were especially distinctive and note- 
 worthy. Foremost among them was the sacrerl jiipestone rpiarry near 
 Big Siou.\ river, whence the material for the waka"da calumet was 
 obtained; another was the far-famed Minne-waka" of North Dakota, 
 not inaptly translated ''Devil's lake;" a third was the mystery-rock or 
 medicine-rock of the Maiidan and Ilidatsa near Yellowstone river; and 
 there were many others of less importance. About all of these jilaces 
 l)ictures()ue legends and myths clustered. 
 
 The Siouan mytlmlogy is especially instiucrive. jiarlly becau.se so 
 well recorded, partly because it so clearly reflects the habits and 
 customs of the tribesmen and thus gives an indirect reflection of a 
 well-marked environment. As among so many i)eoples. the sun is a 
 ])rominent element : the ice-monsters of the north and the rain-myths 
 of the arid region are lacking, and are replaced by the freipient thun- 
 der and the trees shaken by the storm-winds; the mythic creatures are 
 shaped in the image of the indigenous animals and birds; the mytiis 
 center in the local rocks and waters; the mysterious thearchy corre- 
 si)onds with the tribal hierarchy, and the attributes ascribed to the 
 deities are those characteristic of warriors and hunters. 
 
 Considering the mythology in relation to the stages in develo]»ment 
 of mythologic philosophy, it appears that the dominant beliefs, such as 
 those pertaining to the sun and the winds, represent a crude iihysithe- 
 ism. while ve.stiges of hecastotheism crop out in the object-worship 
 and place-worship of the leading tribes and in other features. At the 
 
»:<-Gi;h) STATUS OF SIOUAN MYTHOLOGY 1S5 
 
 same time well iiuirked zootheistic features are found in the mytliic 
 tliunderbirds and in tlie more or less complete deirteatiou of various 
 animals, in the exaltation of the horse into the rank of the nij'tliic don 
 father, and in the animal forms of the water-monsters and earth lieinjis; 
 and the living ai)plication of zootheism is I'ound in the animal fetiches 
 and totems. On the whole, it seems .just to assign the Siouan mythol- 
 ogy to the ujjper strata of zootheism, just verging on physitheism, with 
 vestigial traces of hecastotheism. 
 
 SOMATOLOGY 
 
 The vigorous avocations of the chase and war were reflected in fine 
 stature, broad and deep chests, strong and clean limbs, and sound con- 
 stitution among the Siouan tribesmen and their consorts. The skin 
 was of the usual coppery cast characteristic of the native American; 
 the teeth were strong, indicating and befitting a largely carnivorous 
 diet, little worn by sandy foods, and seldom mutilated; the hands and 
 feet were commonly large and sinewy. The Siouan Indians were 
 among those who impressed white pioneers by the parallel placing of 
 the feet; for, as among other walkers and runners, who rest sitting and 
 lying, the feet assumed the pedestrian attitude of approximate paral- 
 lelism rather than the standing attitude of divergence forward. The 
 hair was luxuriant, stiff, straight, and more uniformly jet black than 
 that of the southerly stocks; it was worn long by the women and most 
 of the men, though partly clipped or shaved in some tribes by the war- 
 riors as well as the worthless dandies, who, according to Catlin, spent 
 more time over their toilets than ever did the grande dame of Paris. 
 The women were beardless and the men more or less nearly so; com- 
 monly the men plucked out by the roots the scanty hair springing on 
 their faces, as did both sexes that on other i>arts of the body. The 
 crania were seldom deformed artificially save through cradle accident, 
 and while varying considerably in capacity and in the ratio of length to 
 width were usually mesocephalic. The facial features were strong, yet 
 in no way distinctly unlike those found among neighboring peoples. 
 
 Since the advent of white men the characteristics of the Siouan 
 Indians, liketiiose of other tribes, have been somewhat modified, partly 
 through infusion of Caucasian blood but chiefly through acculturation. 
 With the abandonment of hunting and war and the tardy adoption of 
 a slothful, semidependent agriculture, the frame has lost something 
 of its stalwart vigor; with the adaptation of the white man's costume 
 and the incomplete assimilation of his hygiene, various weaknesses and 
 disorders have been developed; and through imitation the ei-stwhile 
 luxuriant hair is cropped, and the beard, nmde scanty thi-ough genera- 
 tions of extirpation, is commonly cultivated. Although the accul- 
 tural condition of the Siouan survivors ranges from the essentially 
 lirimitive status of the Asiniboin to the practical civilization of the 
 representatives of several tribes, it is fair to consider the stock in a 
 
1^6 THE SIOUAX INDIANS [eth. ass. 15 
 
 state of tnuisition fnim barbarism to civilization; and many of the 
 tribesmen are losinjr tiie characteristics of activity and somatic devcl- 
 oi)ment normal to i)rimitive life, while they have not yet assimilated 
 the activities and acquired the somatic characteristics normal to peace- 
 ful sedentary life. 
 
 Briefly, certain somatic features of the Siouan Indians, past and 
 present, may be traced to their causes in custom and exercise of func- 
 tion; yet by far the f;reater number of the features are common to the 
 American jieople or to all maidiind, and are of ill-understood sisniti- 
 cance. The few features of known cause indicate that si)ecial somatic 
 characteristics are determined largely or wholly by industrial and other 
 arts, which are primarily shaped by en\-iroiimcnt. 
 
 HABITAT 
 
 Excepting the Asiniboin, who are chiefly in Canada, nearly all of 
 the Siouan Indians are now gathered on the reservations indicated on 
 earlier ])ages, most of these reservations lying within the aboriginal 
 territory of the stock. 
 
 At the advent of white men, the Siouan territory was vaguely detined. 
 and its limits were found to vary somewhat from exploration to exjtlo- 
 ration. This vagueness and variability of hai>itat grew out of the char 
 acteristics of the tribesmen. Of all the great stocks south of the 
 Arctic, the Siouan was perhajjs least given to agriculture, most influ 
 eiiced by hunting, and most addicted to warfare; thus most of the 
 tribes were but feebly attached to the soil, and freely followed tiie move- 
 ments of the feral fauna as it shifted with climatic vicissitudes or was 
 driven from place to ])lace by excessive hunting or by tires set to 
 destroy the undergrowth in the interests of the chase: at the same 
 time, the borderward tribes were alternately driven and led back and 
 forth through strife against the tribes of neighboring stocks. Accord- 
 ingly the Siouan habitat can be outlined only in approximate and 
 somewhat arbitrary fashion. 
 
 The dilliculty in deflning the priscan home of the Siouan tribes is 
 increased by its vast extent and scant peopling, by the length of the 
 period intervening between discovery in the east and comi)lcte explora 
 tion in the west, and by the internal changes and migrations which 
 occurred during this ])eriod. The task of collating the records of 
 exploration and jjioneer observation i'oncerning the Siouan and other 
 stocks was undertaken by Powell a il'w years ago. and was tbund to i)e 
 of great magintiule. It was at length successfully accomplished, and 
 the respective areas occu])ied by the several stocks were approximately 
 mapi)eil.' 
 
 As shown (in I'oweH's map. tlie chiel' part of tlie Siouan area com- 
 prised a single body covering most of the region of the Great jilaius, 
 
 ' Sovunlli Aiiiiiial Keport of llif Bureau of Etlinology, for lgii5-*6 ilS'JU, pp. I-UJ, anil ni«p. 
 
McoEE] FORMER HABITAT 1S7 
 
 stretcliiiig from the Kouky moinitaiiis to tlie ^Mississippi and Irom tlie 
 Arkausas-Eed river divide nearly to the Saskatcliewaii. with an arm 
 crossing the jNIississippi aud extending to Lake :\[ichigan. In addition 
 there were a few outlying bodies, the largest and easternmost bordering 
 the Atlantic from Santee river nearly to Capes Lookout and Hatteras, 
 and skirting the Appalachian range northward to the Potomac; the 
 next considerable area lay on the Gulf coast about Pascagouhi river 
 and bay, stretching nearly from the Pearl to the Jlobile; and there were 
 one or two unim|)ortaut areas on Ohio river, which were ttunporarily 
 occupied by small groups of Siouan Indians during I'ccent times. 
 
 There is little probability that the Siouan habitat, as thus outlined, 
 ran far into the prehistoric age. As already noted, the Siouan Indians 
 of the plains were undoubtedly descended from the Siouan tribes of the 
 east (indeed the Mandan had a tradition to that etfect) ; and reason has 
 been given for supposing that the ancestors of the prairie hunters fol- 
 lowed the straggling bu&alo through the cisMississippi forests into 
 his normal trans-Mississippi habitat and spread over his domain save 
 as they were held in check by alien huntsmen, chiefly of the warlike 
 Caddoan and Kiowan tribes; and the buffalo itself was a geologically 
 recent — indeed essentially post glacial — animal. Little if any definite 
 trace of Siouan occui)ancy has been found in the more ancient prehis- 
 toric works of the Mississippi valley. On the whole it appears probable 
 that the prehistoric development of the Siouan stock and habitat was 
 exceptionally rajiid, that the Siouan Indians were a vigorous and virile 
 people that arose quickly nnder the stimulus of strong vitality (the 
 acquisition of which need not here be considered), coupled with excep- 
 tionally favorable opportunity, to a power and glory culminating about 
 the time of discovery. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 The demotic organization of the Siouan peoples, so far as known, is 
 set forth in considerable detail in Mr Dorsey's treatises' and in the 
 foregoing enumeration of tribes, confederacies, and other linguistic 
 groups. 
 
 Like the other aborigines north of Mexico, the Siouan Indians were 
 organized on the basis of kinship, and were thus in the stage of tribal 
 society. All of the best-known tribes had reached that plane in organ- 
 ization characterized by descent in the male line, though many vestiges 
 aud some relatively unimportant examples of descent in the female line 
 have been discovered. Thns the clan system was obsolescent and the 
 gentile system fairly developed; i. e., the people were practically out 
 of the stage of savagery and well advanced in the stage of barbarism. 
 
 'Chiefly " Omaha Sireiolojry," Thin! Ami. Rep. Bur. Elli.. for 1881-82 (ISW), pp. 205-370; ",\ study of 
 Siouan cults," Eluveutk Ann. Ki-p. Bur. Eth., for 18(!9-90 (1894), pp. 351-544, aud that iiriutid ou tbo 
 following pagea. 
 
188 THE SIOUAN INDIANS Ieth.asn.15 
 
 Confederation for defense and offen.se was fairly defined and was 
 strengtlit'iicd by inlerniarriajie between tribes and }ieute.sand the i)robi- 
 bition of iuarria;,''e within the gen-s; yet the organization was such as to 
 maintain tribal aiitononij" in considerable degree; i.e., the social struc- 
 tnre was such as to facilitate nnion in time of war and division into 
 small gronps adapted to hunting in times of ])eace. No indication of 
 feudalism has been found in the stock. 
 
 Tiie government wa.s autocratic, largely by military leaders sometimes 
 (particularly in peace) advised by the elders and i)riests; the leadership 
 was determined primarily t)y ability — prowess in war and the chase and 
 wisdom in the council, — and was thus hereditary only a little further 
 than characteristics were inherited; indeed, excepting slight recogni- 
 tion of the divinity that doth hedge about a king, the leaders were 
 practically selfchosen, arising gradually to the level determined by 
 their abilities. The germ of theocracy was fairly developed, and ajipar- 
 ently burgeoned vigorously during each period of peace, oidy to be 
 checked and withered iluring the ensuing war when the shamans and 
 their craft were forced into the background. 
 
 During recent years, since the tribes began to yield to the doniina- 
 tion of the peace-loving whites, the government and election are deter- 
 mined chiefly by kinship, as ajipears from Dorsey's researches; yet 
 definite traces of Un- nnlitant organization apjiear, and any man can 
 win name ami rank in his gens, tribe, or confederacy by bravery or 
 generosity. 
 
 The institutional coniu'(!ti(ui between the Siouan tribes of tlie i)lains 
 and those of the Atlantic slope and the (lulf coast is completely lost, 
 and it is doubtful whether the several braiu-hes have ever been united 
 in a single confederation (or "nation," in the language of the ]iioneers). 
 at least since the division in the Api)alachian region perhaps five or 
 ten centuries ago. Since this division the tril)es have separated widely, 
 and some of the bloodiest wars of the region in the historic period have 
 been between Siouan tribes; the most extensive union posses.sing the 
 slightest claim to federal organization was the great Dakota confed- 
 eracy, which was grown into instability and partial disruption: ;ind 
 most of the tribal unions and coalitions were of temporary character. 
 
 Although highly elaborate (iierhai)S because of this character), the 
 Siouan organization was highly unstable; with every shock of conflict, 
 whether intestine or external, some autocrats were displaced or slain; 
 and after each important event — great battle, ei)idemic, emigration, or 
 destructive flood — new combinations were formed. The undoubtedly 
 rapid development of the stock, especially after the i)assage of the 
 Mississipi)i, indicates growth by coiniuest and assimilation as well as 
 by direct propagation (it is known that the Dakota and perhai)s other 
 groups adopted aliens regularly); and. doubtless for this reason in 
 part, there was a strong tendeiu-y toward ditferentiatioii ami di(dn>tomy 
 in the demotic growth. In some groups the history is too vague to 
 indicate this tciulency with certainty; in others the tendency is clear. 
 
M<'«EE] CONTRAST BETWEEN CERTAIN STOCKS 189 
 
 Perhaps the best example is Ibuiul in the (|'e,ij;ilia, which divided into two 
 great branches, tlie stronger of which threw otf minor Ijranehes in the 
 Osage and Kansa, and afterward separated into theOnialiaand Tonka, 
 ■while the feebler l)rancli also ramified widely; and only less notable is 
 the example of the Winnebago trnnk, with its three great branches in 
 the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri. This strong divergent tendency in itself 
 suggests rapid, i)erhaps abnormally rapid, growth in the stock; for it 
 outran and jiartially concealed the tendency toward convergence and 
 ultimate coalescence which characterizes demotic phenomena. 
 
 The half-dozen eastern stocks occui)ying by far tlie greater part of 
 North America contrast strongly with the half-hundred local stocks 
 covering the Pacific coast; and none of the strong Atlantic stocks is 
 more characteristic, more sliar]dy contrasted with the limited groups of 
 the western coast, or better uiiderstood as regards organization and 
 development, than the great Siouan stock of the northern interior. 
 There is promise that, as the demology of aboriginal America is pushed 
 forward, tlie records relating to the Siouan Indians and esi)ecially to 
 their structure and institutions will aid in explaining why some stocks 
 are limited and others extensive, why large stocks in general charac- 
 terize the interior and small stocks the coasts, and why the dominant 
 peoples of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were successful in dis- 
 placing the preexistent and probably more primitive peoples of the 
 Mississippi valley. While the time is not yet rii)e for making final 
 answer to these inquiries, it is not premature to suggest a relation 
 between a peculiar development of the aboriginal stocks and a peculiar 
 geographic conformation: In general the coastward stocks are small, 
 indicating a provincial shorelaud habit, yet their population and area 
 commonly increase toward those shores indented by deep bays, along 
 which maritime and inland industries naturally blend; so (confining 
 attention to eastern United States) the extensive Muskhogean stock 
 stretches inland from the deep-bayed eastern Gulf coast; and so, too, 
 three of the largest stocks on the continent (Algonquian, Inxpioiau, 
 Siouan) stretch far into the interior from the still more deei)ly indented 
 Atlantic coast. In two of these cases (Iroquoian and Siouan) history 
 and tradition indicate expansion and migration from the land of bays 
 between Cape Lookout and Cape May, while in the third there are 
 similar (thougli perhaps less definite) indications of an inland drift 
 from the northern Atlantic bays and along the Laureutiau river and 
 lakes. 
 
 HISTORY' 
 DAKOTA-ASINIBOIN 
 
 The Dakota are mentioned in the Jesuit delations as early as Ifi.'W-lO; 
 the tradition is noted that the ( )Jibwa, on arriving at the Great Lakes in 
 Hu early migration from the Atlantic coast, encountered representatives 
 
 'Taken chit'lij from notes .ind niaimsrripta iirepared by Mr Do 
 
190 THE SIOL'AN IXDIAXS [eth. antc. 15 
 
 of the jireat confederacy of the plaius. In 1641 the French voyageurs 
 met the J'otawatonii Indians tiying from a nation called Xadawessi 
 (enemies); and the Frenchmen adopted the alien name for the warlike 
 prairie triV)es. By 1(158 the Jesuits had learned of the existence of 
 thirty Dakota villages west-northwest from the Pntawatomi mission St 
 ^lichel; and in lOSi) they recorded the presence of tribes a])parently 
 rejircsentiiig the Dakota confederacy on the upper Mississippi, near 
 the month of the St Croix. According to Croghan's History of Western 
 rennsylvaiiia, the "Sue'' Indians occupied the country southwest of 
 l-ake vSujierior about 1759; and Dr T. S. Williamson, ''the father of the 
 Dakotaniission/' states that the Dakota must have resided about the 
 confluence of the Mississippi and the -Minnesota or St Peters for at 
 least two hundred years ])rior to ISOO. 
 
 According to traditions collected by Dorsey, the Teton took posses- 
 sion of the Ulack Hills region, which had i)reviously been occupied by 
 the Trow Indians, long belore white men came; and the Yankton 
 and Yanktonnai, which were found on the Missouri by Lewis and Clark, 
 were not long removed from the region about Minnesota river. In 1SG2 
 the Santee and other Dakota tribes united in a formidable outbreak 
 in which more tlian 1.000 whites were massacred or slain in battle. 
 Through this outbreak and the consequent governmental action toward 
 the control and .settlement of the tribes, much was learned concerning 
 the characteristics of the peoi)le, and various Indian leaders became 
 known; Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, American 
 Horse, and Eveu-his-horse-is-feared (commonly miscalled 3Ian-afraul-t)f- 
 his-liorses) were among the famous Dakota chiefs and warrioi's, nota- 
 ble representatives of a i)assing race, whose names are prominent in 
 the history of the country. Other outbreaks occurred, the last of note 
 resulting from the ghost-dance fantasy in 1890-91, which fortunately 
 was quickly suppressed. Yet, with slight interru])tions, the Dakota 
 tribes in the United States were steadily gathered on reservations. 
 Some SOO or more still roam the prairies north of the international 
 boundary, but the great body of the confederacy, numl)ering nearly 
 28,000, are domiciled on reservations (already noted) in Minnesota, 
 Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. 
 
 The separation of the Asiniboin from the Wazikute gens of the 
 Y'anktonai ai)|i:irently occurred before the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, since the Jesuit relation of 1G58 distinguishes between the 
 Pcmalak or Guerriers (undoubtedly the Dakota proper) and the Assini- 
 poualak or Guerriers de pierre. The Asiniboin are undoubtedly the 
 Essanape (Essanapi or Assinapi) who were next to the Makatapi 
 (Dakota) in tlie Walam Olum record of the Lenni-Lenapeor Delaware. 
 In Hi80 Hennepin located the Asiniboin northeast of tlie Issati (Isau- 
 yati or Santee) who were on Knife lake (]SIinnesota); and the Jesuit 
 map of 1081 placed them on Lake of the-Woods, then called "L. Assi- 
 uepoualacs.'' La Hontan chiimed to have visited the Eokoro (Arikara) 
 
McfiEE] ASINIliOIN AND (/T.GIHA HISTORY IDl 
 
 in 1689-90, wben the Essanape were sixty leagues above; and I'eriofs 
 Memoire refers to the Asinilioin as a Sioux tribe wliiib, in the sev- 
 enteentli c-entnry, seceded from their nation and took refuge anions' the 
 rocks of Lake-of-the-Woods. Chauvignerie hicated sonie of the tribe 
 south of Onnipigan (Winnipeg) lake in 17.'5G, and they were near Lake- 
 of-the- Woods as hite as ITOti, when they were said to have 1.500 war- 
 riors. It is well known that in 1829 they occupied a considerable 
 territory west of the Dakota and north of Missouri river, witli a p()i)u- 
 lation estimated at 8,000; and Drake estimated their number at 10.000 
 before the smallpox epidemic of 18;{8, which is said to have carried off 
 4,000. From this blow the tribe seems never to have fully recovered, 
 and now numbers probably no more than 3.000, mostly in Canada, 
 where tliey continue to roam the plains they have occniiied for half a 
 century. 
 
 (/EGUIA 
 
 According to tribal traditions collected by 1 >orsey, the ancestors of 
 the Omaha, I'onka, Kwapa, Osage, and Kausa were originally one 
 l^eople dwelling on Ohio and Wabash rivers, but gradually working 
 westward. The flrst separation took place at the mouth of the Ohio, 
 when those who went down the Mississippi became the Kwapa or Down- 
 stream People, while those who ascended the great river became the 
 Omaha or Up-stream People. This separation must have occurred at 
 least as early as I.jOO, since it preceded De Soto's discovery of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The Omaha group (from whom the Osage, Kausa. and I'onka were 
 not yet separated) ascended the Mississi))pi to the mouth of the 3Iis- 
 souri, where they remained for some time, though war and hunting 
 parties explored the country northwestward, and the body of the tribe 
 gradually followed these pioneers, though the Osage and Kausa were 
 successively left behind. Some of the pioneer parties discovered the 
 pipestone quarry, and many traditions cling about this landmark. Sub- 
 sequently they were driven across the Big Sioux by the Yankton Indians, 
 who then lived toward the confluence of the Minnesota and IMississippi. 
 The group gradually ditt'erentiated and tinally divided through the sep- 
 aration of the Ponka, probably about the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. The Omaha gathered south of the ^Missouri, between the 
 mouths of the Platte and Niobrara, while tlie Ponka imshed into the 
 Black Kills country. 
 
 The Omaha tril)e remained within the great bend of the Missouri, 
 opposite the mouth of the Big Sioux, until white men came. Their 
 hunting ground extended westward and southwestward, chiefly north 
 of the Platte and along the Elkhorn, to the territory of the Ponka and 
 the Pawnee (Caddoan); and in 1760 Carver met their hunting ])arties 
 on Minnesota river. Toward the end of the eighteenth century they 
 were nearly destroyed by smallpox, their number having been reduced 
 from about 3,500 to but little over 300 when they were visited by Lewis 
 
192 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. ans. 15 
 
 and Clark, tiieii- famous chief Blackbird being one of those carried off 
 by the epidemic. Subseiiuently they inci'eased in numbers; in 1800 
 their i>oi)ulation was about 1,200. They are now on reservations, mostly 
 owning land in severalty, and are citizens of the United States and of 
 the state of Nebraska. 
 
 Although the name Ponka did not appear in history before 1700 it 
 must have been used for nmny generations earlier, since it is an archaic 
 designation connected with the social organization of several tribes and 
 the secret societies of the Osage and Kansa, as well as the Ponka. In 
 1700 the Ponka were indicated on De I'lsle's maj). though they were 
 not then segregated territorially from the Omaha. They, too, suffered 
 terribly from the smallpox epidemic, and when met by Ijewis and Clark 
 in 1.S04 numbered only about 200. They increased rapidly, leaching 
 about 600 in 1S29 and some 800 in 1S42; in 1S71, when they were first 
 visited by Dorsej-, they numbered 747. Up to this time the Ponka and 
 Dakota were amicable; but a dispute grew out of the cession of lands, 
 and the Teton made annual raids on the Ponka until the enforced 
 removal of the tribe to Indian Territory took place in 1877. Through 
 this warfare, more than a (juarter of the Ponka lost their lives. The 
 displacement of this tribe from lands owned by them in fee simple 
 attracted attention, and a commission was appointed by President 
 Hayes in 18S0 to inquire into the matter; the commission, consisting 
 of Clenerals Crook and Miles and ^lessrs William Stickney and Walter 
 Allen, visited the Poidca settlements in Indian Territory and on the 
 2S"i(jbrara and eft'ected a satisfactory arrangement of the affairs of the 
 tribe, through which the greater iiortiim (some COO) remained in Indian 
 Territory, while some 22r) kept their reservation in Nebraska. 
 
 When the (/'egiha divided at the mouth of the Ohio, the ancestors 
 of the Osage and Kansa accompanied the main Omaha body up the 
 ^lississippi to the mouth of Osage river. There the Osage separated 
 from the group, ascending the river which bears their name. They 
 were distinguished by Maniuette in 1073 as the -'Ouchage" and 
 "Autrechaha,"' and by Penicaut in 1719 as the •'Iluzzan,"' ''Ous."and 
 "Wawha."' According to Croghan, they were, in 1759, on "White 
 creek, a branch of the Mississippi." with the ''Grand Tuc;" but" White 
 creek " (or White water) was an old designation for Osage river, and 
 "(Irand Tuc" is, according to Mooney, a corruption of '-Grandes Eaux," 
 or Great Osage; and there is accordingly no sufticient reason for sup- 
 posing that they returned to the Mississippi. Toward the close of the 
 eighteenth century the Osage and Kansa encountered the Comanche 
 and i)eihaps other Shoshonean ]ieopIes, and their course was turned 
 southward; and in 1817, according to Brown, the Great Osage and 
 Little Osage were chiefly on Osage and Arkansas rivers, in four vil- 
 lages. In 1829 Porter described their country as beginning 2.") miles 
 west of the Missouri line and running to the Mexican line of that date, 
 being 50 miles wide; and he gave tlieir number as .").0(»0. According to 
 
Mc«EE] ^EGIHA HISTORY 193 
 
 Sclioolcraft, they numbered 3,758 in April, 1853, but this was after tlie 
 reuidval of an important branch known as Black Dog's band to a new 
 locality farther down Verdigris river. In 1850 the Osage occupied at 
 least seven large villages, besides numerous small ones, on Neosho and 
 Verdigris rivers. In 1873, when visited by Dorsey, they were gathered 
 on their reservations in what is now Oklahoma. In 1890 they num- 
 bered 158. 
 
 The Kaiisa remained with' the Up stream People in their gradual 
 ascent of the Missouri to the mouth of the Kaw or Kansas, when they 
 diverged westward; but they soon came in contact with inimical 
 peoples, and, like the Osage, were driven southward. The date of this 
 divergence is not fixed, but it must have been after 1723, when Bourg- 
 niont mentioned a large village of "Quans" located on a small river 
 flowing northward thirty leagues above Kaw river, near the Missouri. 
 After the cession of Louisiana to the United States, a treaty was made 
 with the Kansa Indians, who were then on Kaw river, at the mouth of 
 the Saline, having been forced back from the Missouri by the Dakota; 
 they then numbered about 1,500 and occupied about thirty earth lodges. 
 In 1825 they ceded their lands on the Missouri to the Government, 
 retaining a reservation on the Kaw, where they were constantly sub- 
 jected to attacks from the Pawnee and other tribes, through which large 
 numbers of their warriors were slain. In 184G they again ceded their 
 lauds and received a new reservation on Neosho river in Kansas. This 
 ■was soon overrun by settlers, when another reservation was assigned 
 to them in Indian Territoiy. near the Osage country. By 1S90 their 
 IJopixlation was reduced to 214. 
 
 The Kwapa were found by De Soto in 1541 on the ^lississinpi above 
 the mouth of the St Francis, and, according to Marquette's map, they 
 were partly east of the Mississippi in 1G73. In 1(!81 La Salle found 
 them in three villages distributed along the Mississippi, and soon after- 
 ward Toiity mentioned four villages, one (Kappa=LTjia(ipaqti, "Real 
 Kwapa") on the Mississippi and three (Toyengan=Ta"wa"-jiiia, "Small 
 Village"; Toriiuau=Ti-uadfiman, and Osotonoy=Uzatiuwe) inland; 
 this observation was verified by Dorsey in 1883 by the discovery that 
 these names are still in use. In early days the Kwapa were known as 
 '■Akansa,'' or Arkansa, first noted by La Metairie in 1082. It is prob- 
 able that this name was an Algonquian designation given because of 
 confusion with, or recognition of affinity to, the Kansa or Ka°ze, the 
 prefix "a" being a common one in Algonquian appellations. In 1687 
 J(nitel located two of the villages of the tribe on the Arkansas and 
 two on the jNIississippi, one of the latter being on the eastern side. 
 According to St Cosme, the greater part of the tribe died of smallpox 
 in October, 1090. In 1700 De Tlsle i)laced the principal "Acansa" 
 village on the southern side of Arkansas river; and, according to 
 Gravier, there were in 1701 five villages, the largest, Imaha (Omaha), 
 being higliest on the Arkansas. In 1805 Sibley placed the "Arkensa" 
 15 ETH 13 
 
194 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.ann. 15 
 
 iu three villages on the southern side of Arkansas river, about 12 miles 
 above Arkansas post. Thoy flainied to be the original proprietors of 
 the country bordering the Arkansas for 300 miles, or up to the conflu- 
 ence of the Cadwa, above which lay the territory of the Osage. Sub- 
 sequently the Kwapa afliliatcd with the Caddo Indians, though of 
 another stock; according to Porter they were in the Caddo country iu 
 1S29. As reservations were established, the Kwapa were re-segregated, 
 and in 1877 were on their reservation in northwestern Indian Terri- 
 tory; but most of them afterward scattered, chiefly to the Osage 
 country, where in 1890 they w'ere found to number 232. 
 
 XOIWK'KE 
 
 The aiu^estry and prehistoric movements of the tribes constituting 
 this gToup are involved in considerable obscurity, though it is known 
 from tradition as well as linguistic atlinity that they siuung from the 
 "Winnebago. 
 
 Since the days of Manjuette (1073) the Iowa have ranged over the 
 country between the 3Iississippi and Missouri, up to the latitude of 
 Oneota (formerly upper Iowa) river, and even across the Missouri 
 about the mouth of the Platte. Chauvigaerie located them in 1736 
 west of the Mississijjpi and (jjrobably through error in identiflcation of 
 the waterway) south of the Missouri; and in 17(il Jefferys placed them 
 between ^Missouri river and the headwaters of Des Moines river, above 
 the Oto and below the Maha (Omaha). In 1805, according to Drake, 
 they dwelt on Des Moines river, forty leagues above its mouth, and 
 numbered 800. In 1811 Pike found them in two villages on Des Moines 
 and Iowa rivers. In 1815 they were decimated by smallpox, and 
 also lost heavily through war against the tribes of the Dakota confed- 
 eracy. In 1829 Porter placed them on the Little Platte, some 15 miles 
 from the Missouri line, and about 1853 Schoolcraft located them on 
 Nemaha river, their principal village being near the mouth of the 
 Great Xenmha. In 1848 they sull'ered another epidemic of smallpox, 
 by which 100 warriors, besides women and children, were carried oft", 
 'As the country settled, the Iowa, like the other Indians of the stock, 
 were collected on reservations which they still occui)y in Kansas and 
 Oklahoma. According to the last census their population was 273. 
 
 The ^lissouri were first seen by Tonty about l(i70: they were located 
 near the Mississippi on ^larquette's map (1673) under the name of 
 Ouemessourit, probably a corruption of their name by the Illinois 
 tribe, with the characteristic Algonquian ])re(ix. The name Missouri 
 was first used by Joutel in 1687. In 1723 P>ourgmont located tlieir 
 principal village 30 leagues below Kaw river and 60 leagues below 
 the chief settlement of the Kansa; according to Croghan, they were 
 l0(-atcd on ^lississippi river opposite the Illinois country in 1759. 
 Althougli the early locations arc somewhat indefinite, it seems certain 
 that the tribe Ibrmerly dwelt on the Mississippi about the mouth of 
 
MCGEE) XOIWE'rE and \YiyNEBAGO HISTORY 195 
 
 the Missouri, aud tliat they gradually asceuded the latter stream, 
 remaining for a time between Grand and Chariton rivers and establish- 
 ing a town on the left bank of the Missouri near the mouth of the 
 Grand. There they were found by French traders, who built a fort ou 
 an island quite near their village about the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. 8oon afterward they were conquered and dispersed by a 
 combination of Sac, Fox, and other Indians; they also suffered from 
 smallpox. On the division, five or six lodges joined the Osage, two or 
 three took refuge with the Kansa, and most of the remainder amalga- 
 mated with the Oto. In 180.5 Lewis and Clark found a part of the 
 tribe, numbering about .300, south of Platte river. The only known 
 survivors in 1829 were wi(h the Oto, when they numbered no more 
 than SO. In 1842 their village stood on the southern bank of Platte 
 river near the Oto settlement, and they followed the latter tribe to 
 Indian Territory in 1882. 
 
 According to Winnebago tradition, the j^.iiwe're tribes separated from 
 that " People of the parent speech '' long ago, the Iowa being the first 
 and the Oto the last to leave. In 1G73 the Oto were located by Mar- 
 fiuette west of Missouri river, between the fortieth and fortyfirst 
 parallels; in KiSO they were 130 leagues from the Illinois, almost oppo- 
 site the mouth of the 3Iiskoncing (Wisconsin), and in 1C87 they were 
 on Osage river. According to La Ilontan they were, in 1090, ou Oton- 
 tas (Osage) river; and iu IGDS Hennepin placed them ten days' journey 
 from Fort Creve Canir. Iberville, iu 1700, located the Iowa aiid Oto 
 with the Omaha, between Wisconsin and Missouri rivers, about 100 
 leagues from the Illinois tribe; and Charlevoix, in 1721, fixed the Oto 
 habitat as below that of the Iowa and above that of the Kansa on the 
 ■western side of the ^Missouri. Dupratz mentions the Oto as a small 
 nation on Missouri river in 1758, and Jelierys (17G1) described them 
 as occupying the southern bank of the Pauls (Platte) between its mouth 
 and the Pawnee territory; according to Porter, they occupied the same 
 position in 1829. The Oto claimed the land bordering the Platte from 
 their village to the mouth of the river, and also that on both sides of the 
 Missouri as far as the liigyemaha. In 1833 Catliu found the Oto and 
 Missouri together in the Pawnee country; about 1841 they were gath- 
 ered in four villages on the southern siile of the Platte, from 5 to IS 
 miles above its mouth. In 1880 a part of the tribe removed to the Sac 
 and Fox reservation in Indian Territory, where they still remain; iu 
 1882 the rest of the tribe, with the remnant of the Missouri, emigrated 
 to the Ponka, Pawnee, and Oto reservation in the present Oklahoma, 
 ■where, in 1890 they were found to number 400. 
 
 ■\;\'INNEBAUO 
 
 Linguistically the Winnebago Indians are closely related to the 
 j^oiwe're on the one side and to the Mandau on the other. They were 
 first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation of 1630, though the earliest 
 
196 THE SIOUAN INDIAN'S [eth. ass. 15 
 
 known use of the name Winnebajro oct-iirs in tlie Relation of 1(540; 
 Xicollt't found them on Green bay in l()3!t. Accordiuj^ to Shea, the 
 "Winnebajjfo werealmost annihihited by the Illinois (Alf^oncjuian) tribe in 
 early days, and the historical group was made up of the survivors of 
 the early battles. Chauvignerie ]daeed the Winnebago on Lake Supe- 
 rior in 173G, and Jeflerys referred to them and the Sac as living m*ar 
 the head of (ireen bay in 17G1; Carver mentions a Winnebago village 
 on a small island near the eastern end of Winnebago lake in 1778. 
 I'ike enumerated seven Winnebago villages existing in 1811: and iu 
 1822 the poi)ulation of the tribe was estimated at 5,8U0 i including 900 
 warriors) in the <'ountry about Winnebago lake and extending thence 
 southwestward to the Mississii)iii. By treaties in ISL'o and 1S3- they 
 ceded their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox rivers for a reservation 
 on tlie Mississippi above the Oneota; one of their villages in 1832 was 
 at Prairie la Crosse. They suffered several visitations of smallpox; 
 the third, which occurred in 1830, carried off more than a ([Uarter of 
 the tribe. A part of the people long remained widely distributed over 
 their old country east of the Mississippi and along that river in Iowa 
 and Minnesota; in 1840 most of the tribe removed to the neutral ground 
 in the then territory of Iowa; iu 184C they surrendered their reserva- 
 tion for another above the ^linnesota, and in 18.50 they were removed 
 to Blue Earth, Minnesota. Here they were mastering agriculture, when 
 the Sioux war broke out and the settlers demanded their removal. 
 Those who had taken up farms, thereby abandoning tribal rights, were 
 allowed to remain, but the others were transferred to Crow creek, on 
 Missouri river, whence they soon escaped. Their privations and suHer- 
 ings were terrible; out of 2,000 taken to Crow creek only 1,200 reached 
 the Omaha reservation, whither most of them fled. They were assigned 
 a new reservation on the < )malia lands, where they now remain, occupy- 
 ing lands allotted in severalty. In 1890 there were 1,215 Winnebago 
 on the reservation, but nearly an equal number were scattered over 
 Minnesota, Iowa. Wisconsin, and Michigan, where they now live chiefly 
 by agriculture, with a strong jjredilection for hunting. 
 
 The Man<lan had a vague tradition of emigration from the eastern 
 part of the country, and Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, and 
 others found traces of Mandan house-structures at various points 
 along the Missouri; thus they api)car to have ascended that stream 
 before the advent of the (/'egiha. During the historical period their 
 movements were limited; they were first visited in the up])er .Missouri 
 country by Sieur de la ^'erendrye in 1738. About 1750 they established 
 two villages on the eastern side and seven on the western side of 
 the Missouri, near the mouth of Heart river. Here they were assailed 
 by the Asiniboin and Dakota and attacked by smalljjox. and were 
 greatly reduced j the two eastern villages consolidated, and the people 
 
MCGEE] M AND AN AND HIDATSA HISTORY 107 
 
 migrated np the Missouri to a poiut 1,430 miles above its moutli (as 
 subsequently detenuiued by Lewis and Clark); the seven villages were 
 soon reduced to five, and these people also ascended the river and 
 formed two villages in the Arikara country, near the ^Mandan of the 
 eastern side, where they remained until about 17G(>, when they also 
 consolidated. Thus the once powerful and populous tribe was reduced 
 to two villages which, in 1804, were found by Lewis and Clark on 
 opposite banks of the Missouri, about 4 miles below Knife river. Here 
 for <i time the tribe waxed and promised to regain the early prestige, 
 reaching a population of 1. GOO in 1S;>7 ; but m that year they were again 
 attacked by smallpox and almost annihilated, the survivors numbering 
 only 31 according to one account, or 125 to 145 according to others. 
 After this visitation they united in one village. When the Hidatsa 
 removed from Knife river in 1S45, some of the Mandan accompanied 
 them, and others followed at intervals as late as 1858, when only a few 
 still remained at their old home. In 1872 a reservation was set apart 
 for the Hidatsa and Arikara and the survivors of the Mandan on Mis- 
 souri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota and Montana,- but in 188G the 
 reservation was reduced. According to the census returns, the Mandan 
 numbered 252 in 1890. 
 
 There has been much confusion concerning the definition and desig- 
 nation of the Hidatsa Indians. They were formerly known as ilinitari 
 or Gros Ventres of the ilissouri, in distinction from the (iros A'entres 
 of the plains, who belong to another stock. The origin of the term 
 Gros Ventres is somewhat obscure, and various observers have pointed 
 out its inapplicability, especially to the well-formed Hidatsa tribesmen. 
 According to Dorsey, the French pioneers probably translated a native 
 term referring to a traditional buffalo jiaunch, which occupies a promi- 
 nent place in the Hidatsa mythology and which, in early times, led to 
 a dispute and the separation of the Crow from the main group some 
 time in the eighteenth century. 
 
 The earlier legends of the Hidatsa are vague, but there is a definite 
 tradition of a migration northward, about 17G5, from the neighborhood 
 of Heart river, -where they were associated with the ^Mandan, to Knife 
 river. At least as early as 179G, according to Matthews, there were 
 three villages belonging to this tribe on Knife river — one at the mouth, 
 another half a mile above, and the third and largest 3 miles from the 
 mouth. Here the people were found by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and 
 here they remained until 1837, when the scourge of smallpox fell and 
 many of the jieople perished, the survivors uniting in a single village. 
 About 1845 the Hidatsa and a part of the Mandan again migrated up 
 the Missouri, and established a village 30 miles by land and 60 miles 
 by water above their old home, within what is now Fort Berthold res- 
 ervation. Their i)opulation has api>arently varied greatly, i^artly by 
 
198 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. A.vy. 15 
 
 reason of the ill definition of the tribe by ditlereut einiiiierators, paitly 
 by reason of the inroads of smallpox. In isOO they uumbi'n'd jJ2. 
 
 The Crow people are kuown by the Hidatsa as Kiliatsa ^They-refiised- 
 thepaunch), according to Matthews; and Dorsey points out that their 
 own name, Absarukc, does not mean " crow," but refers to a variety of 
 hawk. Lewis ami Clark found the tribe in four bands. In 1S17 Brown 
 located them on Yellowstone river. In 1S21) they were described by 
 Porter as ranging along Yellowstone river on the eastern side of the 
 Eocky mountains, and numbered at 4,000; while in 1834, according to 
 Drake, they occupied the southern branch of the Y'ellowstoue, about 
 the fortysixth parallel and one hundred and fifth meridian, Avith a 
 liopulation of 4,500. In 1842 their nundier was estimated at 4,000, and 
 they were described as inhabiting the headwaters of the Yellowstone. 
 They have since been duly gathered on the Crow reservation in Mon- 
 tana, and are slowlv adopting civilization. In 1800 they numbered 
 2,287. 
 
 THE EASTERN AND SOITIIEKN TKIBES 
 
 The history of tlic Mouakan, Catawba, Sara, Pedee, and Santee, and 
 incidentally that of the Biloxi, has been carefully reviewed in a recent 
 jjublication by Mooney,' and does not require repetition. 
 
 GENEKAL irO^T33IENTS 
 
 On reviewing the records of explorers and pioneers and the few tra- 
 ditions which have been preserved, the course of Siouan migration and 
 development becomes clear. In general the movements were westward 
 and northwestward. The Dakota tribes have not been traced far, 
 though several of them, like the Yanktonnai, migrated hundreds of 
 miles from the period of first observation to the end of the eighteenth 
 century; then came the Mandan, according to their tradition, and as 
 they ascended the ."Missouri left traces of their occupancy scattered 
 over 1,000 miles of migi-ation; next the (fegiha descended the Ohio 
 anil passed from the cis-3Iississippi forests over the trans-Mississippi 
 plains— the stronger branch following the JIaudau, while the lesser at 
 first descended the great river and then wt>rked up the Arkansas into 
 the butValo country until checked and diverted by antagonistic tribes. 
 So also the j^oi we're, first recorded near the ^Mississippi, pushed 300 
 miles westward; while the Winnebago gradually emigrated from the 
 region of the Great Lakes into the traiis-^Iississii)pi country even 
 before their movements were aliected by contact with white men. In 
 like manner the Uidatsa are known to have llowed northwestward 
 many scores of miles; and the Asiniboin swept more rapidly across the 
 plains from the place of their rebellion against the Y'anktonnai. on the 
 Mississippi, before they found final resting place on the Saskatchewan 
 
 > Sioaan Tribes of the East, 1894. 
 
MCGKE] SIOUAN MIGRATIONS 109 
 
 plains 500 or 800 miles away. All of tlie movements were eonsistent 
 and, despite intertribal friction and strife, measurably liarmonious. The 
 lines of movement, so far as tliey can be restored, are in full accord 
 witli tbe lines of linguistic evolution traced by Hale and Dorsey and 
 Gatscliet, and indicate that some five liundred or possibly one thousand 
 years ago the tribesmen pushed over the Appalachians to the Ohio and 
 followed that stream and its tributaries to the Mississippi (though there 
 are faint indications that some of the early emigrants ascended the 
 nortljeru tributaries to the region of the Great Lakes) ; and that the 
 human flood gained volume as it advanced and expanded to cover 
 the entire region of the plains. The records concerning the movement 
 of this great human stream find support in the manifest reason for the 
 movement: the reason was the food quest by which all primitive men 
 are led, and its end was the abundant fauna of the prairieland. with the 
 bufllalo at its head. 
 
 While the early population of the Siouan stock, when first the hunts- 
 men crossed the .Appalachians, may not be known, the lines of migra- 
 tion indicate that tlie jjeople increased and multiplied amain during 
 their long Jouruey. and that their numbers culminated, desidte external 
 c(jnflict and internal strife, about the beginning of written history, 
 when the Siouan population may have been 100,000 or more. Then 
 came war against the wliites and the still more deadly smallpox, 
 whereby the vigorous stock was checked and crippled and the popula- 
 tion gradually reduced; but since the first shock, which occurred at 
 different dates in different parts of the gTeat region, the Sionan people 
 have fairly held their own, and some branches are perhaps gaining in 
 strength. 
 
 SOME FEATURES OF INDIAN SOCIOLOGY 
 
 ■ As shown by Powell, there are two fundamentally distinct classes or 
 stages in human society — (1) tribal society and (2) national society. 
 National society characterizes civilization ; primarily it is organized on 
 a territorial basis, but as enlightenment grows the bases are multi- 
 plied. Tribal society is characteristic of savagery and barbarism; .so 
 far as known, all tribal societies are organized on the basis of kinship. 
 The transfer from tribal society to national society is often, perliaps 
 always, through feudalism, in whicli the territorial motive takes root 
 and in which the kinship motive withers. 
 
 All of the American aborigines north of ilexico and most of those 
 farther southward were in the stage of tribal society when the conti- 
 nents were discovered, th<mgh feudalism was apparently budding in 
 South America, Central America, and parts of Mexico. The partly 
 developed transitional stage may, for the present, be neglected, and 
 American Indian sociology may be considered as representing tribal 
 society or kinship organization. 
 
 tifC. 
 
200 THE SIOTJAN INDIANS [eth.ass.15 
 
 The fmulamental principles of tribal oigauizatiou through kinship 
 have been formulated by Powell; they are as follows:' 
 
 I. A body of kiiulreil constitutinf; a, distinct l)ody politic is divided into groups, 
 the males into ;;roups of lirothers and the females into groups of 8i.sters, on distinc- 
 tions of generations, regardless of degrees of consanguinity; and the kinship terms 
 nsed express relative age. In civilized society kinships are classified on distinctions 
 of sex, distinctions of generations, and distinctions arising from degrees of consan. 
 guinity. 
 
 II. When descent is in the female line, the brother-group consists of natal brothers, 
 together with all the niatertcrato male cousins of whatever degree. Thus mother's 
 sisters' sous and mother's mother's sisters' daughters' sons, etc, are included in a 
 group with natal brothers. In like manner the sister-group is composed of natal 
 sisters, together with all materterate female cou.sius of whatever degree. 
 
 III. When dc-icent is in the male line, the brother-group is romposeil of natal 
 brothers, together with all patruate male cousins of whatever degree, and the sister- 
 group is composed of natal sisters, together with all patruate female cousins of 
 whatever degree. 
 
 IV. The son of a member of a lirotlier-group calls each one of the group, father; 
 the father of a member of a briithei-gri)up calls each oue of the group, son. Thus a 
 father-group is coextensive with the brother-groui> to which the father belongs. A 
 brother-group may also constitute a father-group and grandfather-group, a son- 
 grouj) and a grandson-group. It may also be a patruate-group and an avuiiculate- 
 group. It may also be a patruate cousin-group and an a\ninculate cousin-group; 
 and in general, every member of a brother-group has the same consanguiueal relation 
 to persons outside of the group as that of every other member. 
 
 Two postulates concerning primitive society, adopted by various eth- 
 nologic students of other countries, have been erroneously applied to 
 tlie Ainericau aborigines; at the same time they have been so widely 
 acce])ted as to demaiid consideration. 
 
 Tlio first jiostulate is that primitive men were originally assembled 
 in chaotic hordes, and that organized society was developed out of the 
 chaotic mass by the segregation of groups and the differentiation of 
 functions within each group. Xow the American aborigines collect- 
 ively represent a wide range in development, extendnig from a condi- 
 tion about as primitive as ever observed well toward the verge of 
 feudalism, and thus otl'er opjiortunities for testing the postulate; and 
 it lias l)een found that when higher and lower stages representnig any 
 portion of the developmental succession are conii)arcd, the social organ- 
 izations of the lower grade are no less dehuite, perhaps more definite, 
 tlian those pertaining to the higher grade; so tliat when tlie liistory of 
 demotic- growth among the American Indians is traced backward, the 
 organizations are found on the whole to grow more definite, albeit more 
 siiiii)Ie. When the lines of development revealed through research are 
 projected still fartlier toward their origin, they indicate an initial con- 
 dition, directly antithetic to tlie postulated horde, in which the scant 
 population was segregated in small di.screte bodies, probably family 
 groups; and that in each of these bodies there was a definite organiza- 
 tion, while eixch group was practically independent of, and probably 
 
 ' Thinl Aimunl Kejiort uf the liuruau at Ethnology, for 1881-82 (1884), pp. lliv-silv. 
 
MCGEE] BEGINNING OJ' MARRIAGE 201 
 
 inimical to, all other groups. The testimony of the observed institu- 
 tions is corroborated by the testimony of language, which, as clearly 
 shown by Powell,' represents progressive combination rather than con- 
 tinued dittereutiation, a process of involution rather than evolutiim. 
 It would appear that the original definitely organized groups occasion- 
 ally met and coalesced, whereby changes in organization were re(iuired; 
 that these compound groups occasionally coalesced with other groups 
 both simple and compound, whereby they were ehiborated in structure, 
 always with some loss in detiniteness and permanence; and that grad- 
 ually the groups enlarged by incorporation, while the composite organ- 
 ization grew complex and variable to meet the ever-changing condi- 
 tions. It would also appear that in some cases the corporeal growth 
 outran the structural or institutional growth, when the bodies — clans, 
 gentes, tribes, or confederacies — split into two or more fragments which 
 continued to grow independently ; yet that in general the progress of 
 institutional development went forward through incorporation of peoples 
 and diftereiitiation of institutions. The same process was followed as 
 tribal society passed into national societj^; and it is the same process 
 which is today exalting national society into world society, and trans- 
 forming simple civilization into enlightenment. Thus the evolution of 
 social organization is from the simple and definite toward the complex 
 and variable; or from the involuntary to the voluntary; or from the 
 environment-shaped to the environment-shaping; or from the biotic to 
 the demotic. 
 
 The second jiostulate, which may be regarded as a corollary of the 
 first, is that the primary conjugal condition was one of promiscuity, 
 out of which different forms ot marriage were successively segregated. 
 Xow the wide range in institutional development exemplified by the 
 American Indians aS'ords unprecedented opportunities for testing this 
 postulate also. The simplest demotic unit found among the aborigines 
 is the clan or mother-descent group, in which the normal conjugal rela- 
 tion is essentially monogamous,'' in which marriage is more or less 
 strictly regulated by a system of prohibitions, and in which the chief 
 conjugal regulation is commonly that of exogamy with respect to the 
 clan; in higher groups, more deeply affected by contact with neighbor- 
 ing peoples, the simple clan organization is sometimes fijuiid to be 
 modified, (1) by tlie adoption and subsequent conjugation of captive 
 men and boys, and, doubtless more profoundly, (L*) by the, adoption 
 and polj'gamous marriage of female captives; and in still more highly 
 organized grouiis the mother-descent is lost and polygamy is regular 
 and limited only by the capacity of the husband as a provider. The 
 second and third stages are commonly characterized, like the first, 
 
 'Notaljly in "Relation of primitive peoples to environment, illustrated by American examples," 
 Smithsonian Report for 1896, pp. G23-638, especially p. 635. 
 
 ^Neither space nor present occasion warrants discassion of the curious aphrodisian cults found 
 among many peoples, usually in the barbaric stage of development ; it may be noted merely that this 
 is an aberrant branch from the main stem of institutional growth. The subject is touched briefly in 
 "The beginuiu;; of marriage," American Anthropologist, vol. l.x, pp. 371-383, 'Sov., 1806. 
 
202 THE SIOUAN INDIANS |eth. ann. 15 
 
 by established proliib.'tions and by dau exogamy; tbough with the 
 advance in organization amicable relations witli certain other groups 
 are usually established, whereby the germ of tribal organization is 
 ini|(lante(l and a system of interclan marriage, or tribal endogamy, is 
 developed. With further advance the mother descent group is trans- 
 formed into a father-descent group, when the clan is rejdaced by the 
 gens; and polygamy is a common feature of the gentile organization. 
 In all of these stages the conjugal and cousanguineal regulations are 
 aflected by the militant habits cliaracteiistic of primitive groujis: more 
 warriors than women are slain in battle, and tliere are more female 
 captives than male; and thus the polygamy is mainly or wholly 
 polygyny. In many cases civil conditions combine with or i)artially 
 replace the militant conditions, yet tiie tendency of conjugal develop- 
 ment is not changed. Among the Seri Indians, probably the most 
 I^rimitive tribe in North America, in which the demotic unit is the 
 clan, there is a rigorous marriage custom under which the would-be 
 groom is required to enter the family of the girl and demonstrate (1) 
 his capacity as a provider and (2) his strength of character as a man, 
 by a ja'ar's probation, before he is finally accepted — the conjugal the- 
 ory of the tribe being monogamy, tliongh the practice, at least during 
 recent years, has, by reason of conditions, passed into polygyny. 
 Among several other tribes of more jjrovident and less exclusive habit, 
 the fir.'^t of the two conditions recognized by the Seri is met by rich 
 presents (representing accumulated i)roperty) from the groom to the 
 girl's family, the second condition being usually ignored, the clan 
 organization remaining in force; among still other tribes the first con- 
 dition is more or less vaguely recognizeil, though the voluntary present 
 is commuted into, or replaced by, a negotiated value exacted by the 
 girFs family, when the mother descent is commoidy vestigial; and in 
 the next stage, which is abundantly exem])lified. wife-purchase pre- 
 vails, and the clan is replaced by the gens. In this succession the 
 development of wife-iiurchase and the decadence of mother-descent 
 may be traced, and it is significant that there is a tendency first toward 
 jiartial enslavement of the wife and later toward the multiplication of 
 wives to the limit of the husband's means, and toward transforming 
 all, or all but one, of the wives into menials. Thus the lines of devel- 
 oi)ment under militant and civil conditions are essentially ])arallel. It 
 is possible to jiroject these lines some distance backward into the 
 unknown of the exceedingly primitive, when they are found to define 
 small discrete bodies — ;just such as are indicated by the institutional 
 and linguistic lines — probably family groups, which must have been 
 essentially, and w(>re perhaps strictly, monogamous. It would ap])ear 
 that in the.so groups mating was either between distant members 
 (under a law of attraction toward the remote ami repulsion from the 
 near, which is shared by maidvind and the higher animals), or the result 
 of accidental meeting between nubile members of different groups; 
 that in tlie second case and sometinu's in the first the conjugation 
 
MCGEE] CLASSIFICATION OF TRIBAL SOCIETY 203 
 
 produced a new monogamic family; and that sometimes in the lirst case 
 (and possibly in the second) the new group retained a more or less 
 definite connection with the parent group — this connection constituting 
 the germ of the clan. In passing, it may be noted merely that this 
 inferential origin of the lines of institutional development is in accord 
 with tlie habits of certain higher and incipiently organized animals. 
 From this hypothetic beginning, primitive marriage may be traced 
 througli tlie various observed stages of monogamy and polygamy and 
 concubinage and wife-subordination, through savagery and barbarism 
 and into civilization, with its curious combination of exoteric monog- 
 amy and esotei'ic promiscuity. Fortunately the burden of the proof 
 of this evolution does not lujw rest wholly on the evidence obtained 
 among the American aborigines; for "Westermarck has recently re- 
 viewed the records of observation among the primitive peoi)les of many 
 lands, and has found traces of the same sequence in all.' Thus the 
 evolution of marriage, like that of other hunum institutions, is from 
 the simple and definite to the comjilex and variable; i. e., from approx- 
 imate or complete mouogamy through polygamy to a mixed status of 
 undetermined signification; or from tlie mechanical to the spontaneous; 
 or from the involuntary to the voluntary; or from the provincial to the 
 cosmopolitan. 
 
 As imidied in several foregoing paragraphs, and as clearly set forth 
 in various publications by Powell, tribal society ialls into two classes 
 or stages — (1) clan organization and (2) gentile organization, these 
 stages corresponding respectively to savagery and barbarism, strictly 
 defined. 
 
 At the time of discovery, most of the American Indians were in the 
 up])er stages of savagery and the lower stages of barbarism, as defined 
 by organization ; among some tribes descent was reckoned in the female 
 line, though definite matriarchies have not been discovered; among 
 several tribes descent was and still is i-eckoned in the male line, and 
 among all of the tribes thus far investigated the patriarchal system is 
 found. 
 
 In tribal society, both clan and gentile, the entire social struc^ture is 
 based on real or assumed kinship, and a large part of the demotic 
 devices are designed to establish, perpetuate, and advertise kinship 
 relations. As already indicated, the conspicuous devices in order of 
 development are the taboo with the prohibitions growing out of it, 
 kinship nomenclature and regulations, and a system of ordination by 
 which incongruous things are brought into association. 
 
 Among the American Indians the taboo and derivative i)rohiliiti(ms 
 are used chiefly in connection with marriage and clan or gentile organ- 
 ization. Marriage in the clan or gens is prohibited ; among many tribes 
 a vestige of the inferential primitive condition is found in the curious 
 
 1 The History of Human Marriagt- ( London, 1891), especially chapters iv 
 
204 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etii. .en.-. 15 
 
 proliibition of commuuicatioiis between chiklreii-iu-law and parentsin- 
 law: tlie clan taboos are commonly connected with the tutelar beast- 
 god, perhaps represented by a totem. 
 
 The essential feature of the kinship terminology is the reckoning 
 from ego. whereby ea(;h individual remembers his own relation to every 
 other member of the clan or tribe; and commonly the kinship terms 
 are classitic rather than descriptive (i. e., a single term expresses the 
 relation which in English is expressed by the phrase "My elder 
 brother's second son's wife"). The system is curiously complex and 
 elaborate. It was not discovered by the earlier and more superficial 
 observers of the Indians, and was brought out chiefly by ^lorgan, who 
 detected numerous striking examples among dillerent tribes; l)ut it 
 would ap])ear that the system is not equally complete among all of the 
 tribes, probably because of immature development in some cases and 
 because of decadence in others. 
 
 The system of ordination, like that of kinship, is characterized by 
 reckoning from the ego and by adventitious associations. It may have 
 been developed Irom the kinship system through the need for recogni- 
 tion and assignment of adopted captives, collective property, and other 
 things i)ertaining to the group; yet it bears traces of intluence by the 
 taboo system. Its ramifications are wide: In some cases it emiihasizes 
 kinship by assigning members of the family group to fixed positions 
 about tlie cami) fire or in the house; this function develops into the 
 placement of family grou)is in fixed order, as exem])lified in the Iro- 
 quoiau long-house and the Siouan camping circle; or it develops into a 
 curiously exaggerated direction concept culminating in the cult of the 
 Four (^larters and the Uere, and this ])repares the way for a (juinary, 
 decimal, and vigesiTual numeration; this last branch sends off anotlier 
 in which the cult of the Six Quarters and the Here arises to prepare 
 the way for the mystical numbers 7, 13, and 7x7, whose vestiges come 
 dowu to civilization ; both the four-quarter and the six-quarter associa- 
 tions are sometimes bound up with colors; and there are numberless 
 other ramifications. Sometimes the function and development of these 
 cuiious concepts, which constitute perhaps the most striking charac- 
 teristic of prescriptorial culture, are obscure at first glance, and hardly 
 tt) be discovered even through prolonged research; yet, so far as they 
 have been detected and interpreted, they arc esjiecially adapted to fix- 
 ing demotic relations; andthrougli them the manifold relations of indi- 
 viduals and groups are crystallized and kept in mind. 
 
 Thus the American Indians, including the Siouan stock, are made up 
 of families organized into clans or gentes, and combined in tribes, 
 sometimes united in confederacies, all on a basis of kinship, real or 
 assumed; and the organization is shaped and perjietuated by a series 
 of devices pertaining to the plane of prcscri])torial culture, whereby 
 each member of the organization is constantly reminded of his position 
 in the group. 
 
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