Tribe: Lakota

Nation: Sioux

Language Family: Siouan

The Sioux Tribes were the inventors of LaCrosse.

CULTURE

The Lakota are one of three tribes that make up the Sioux Nation. The Lakota live in North and South Dakota and were once nomads that occupied the prairie lands of the American Great Plains Region. In the 1500s, Spanish Explorers left horses in America that migrated and repopulated in the Great Plains. The Lakota herded and domesticated these horses and used the horses to hunt buffalo. The Lakota lived in tipis, which were an early type of tent, so that they could quickly pack up when ever they needed and follow the buffalo herds.

Click on the picture to see how the Lakota used the buffalo.

The buffalo, or Tatanka, was a sacred animal to the Lakota because it gave the Lakota life. They processed the buffalo's meat for food. They used the buffalo's hide to cover their tipis, for clothes, and to make their shoes called moccasins. They Lakota even used the buffalo to make utensils, bowls, tools, and weapons. The buffalo made their survival possible. They felt that it was disrespectful and wrong to allow any part of the buffalo to go to waste.

The buffalo was a symbol of self-sacrifice to the Lakota and their respect for the buffalo played a big role in the values they held. They believed in being generous and helping those in need. Family was important to the Lakota. Men were the providers. They hunted the buffalo and defended the family. Women managed the domestic duties. They raised the children, cooked the food, and made the clothes and tools.

The Lakota were monotheistic, which means they believed in only one god, Wakan Tanka. They worshiped using music and dances. When someone they loved died, they would spend a long time mourning, or grieving for that person. Though the Lakota were generous to each other, they were fierce warriors. War heroes were held in high regard. Acts of bravery in battle brought honor to a man's family. The Lakota were a proud tribe. They were respected and revered by neighboring Native American Nations.

Click on the dots to see Lakota Artifacts!

HISTORY

In the mid 1700s, fur became the fashion in Europe, and European fur traders flooded into the west to make their fortune. The tribes of the Sioux nation already traded with each other every Spring and welcomed the European fur traders. The Lakota traded for horses, guns, and other goods and by the 1800s, they dominated the Great Plains in North and South Dakota.

When more foreigners poured into America for the Gold Rush in the 1840s, they brought diseases that wiped out large numbers of the Sioux. To make matters worse, European had begun to build homesteads on Lakota lands. They hunted buffalo with no regard for anything but the hides. They would leave buffalo caucuses laying on the open plains for scavenging animals. The buffalo population was quickly depleting. The Lakota, along with all the other Native American tribes were angry and wanted the Europeans to leave.

The United States government began to fear what would happen if they provoked the Lakota any further. So in the early 1850s, the Sioux and the US signed the Fort Laramie Treaty to establish peace. The Sioux Nation agreed to allow people to travel through their land and allow the government to build roads and railroads without attacks. The U.S. government agreed to protect the Sioux from U.S. citizens who tried to harm them and pay the Sioux for roads and railroads built through Sioux lands. Over the next two decades, the U.S. government violated the treaty over and over. Americans flooded into Sioux lands in search of gold and land to settle. The government did nothing to help and did not pay the Sioux the money they promised. Lakota leaders, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Gall declared they would attack army forts on Sioux lands until the settlers and army left.

In 1868, another treaty was proposed by the United States that would require all Sioux to move to a reservation in return for government protection. A few leaders signed out of fear. Other leaders like Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Gall refused and continued to live as they were off of the reservation. When gold was discovered in 1874, the U.S. government tried to buy the land from the Sioux, but the Sioux refused. When the U.S. attacked the Sioux at the Battle of Rosebud, the Sioux defended themselves against a much bigger U.S. Army with better weapons. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Sioux took out Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all of his 7th Cavalry troops.

The Sioux stood their ground against the U.S. until 1890, when police attempted to arrest Sitting Bull for doing the Ghost Dance and shot him when he resisted. As a result, a fight broke out between a Sioux man and a U.S. soldier. U.S. soldiers opened fire and massacred 300 Lakota Sioux. Most of these Sioux were women and children who posed no threat to the U.S. Army.

TODAY

Today, many Lakota Sioux have assimilated into the American society. There are about 70,000 Lakota Sioux living on reservations. Reservations are ran like towns with their own constitutions by a tribal council. Most of these reservations are impoverished and have an unemployment rate of 80 - 90%. The average income is less than $4,000 a year. The average household income in America is around $56,000. Lakota living on reservations only make 7% of the what the average American household brings in a year.

There are Lakota activist who are trying to establish a legal claim to lands taken from them in the late 1800s. In 1980, the U.S. offered the Lakota $122 million as compensation for the Black Hills land. The Lakota refused the money saying that taking it would give up their legal right to claim the land as theirs. The dispute is still being argued today.

The Lakota Sioux living on reservations make $52,000 less than the national annual household average.

The Lakota Sioux have their own schools for Lakota children.

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