Splitting wood and carrying wood, relaxing, cooking, partying, and doing daily chores. You realize t

1
The Sioux Indians

• Splitting wood and carrying wood, relaxing,
  cooking, partying, and doing daily chores. You
  realize that you are doing the same movements,
  gestures that Sioux Indians did hundreds of years
  before you.

By Ainara January, 2003
2
Topics of Research

• Homes and Villages
• Food
• Clothing
• Location and Environment
• Weapons for Hunting and Fighting
• Customs, Beliefs, and Religion
• Roles of Men
• Roles of Women
• Leadership and Government
• Arts and Crafts
• Interactions with Europeans
• Bibliography

3
Homes and Villages

• Tipis were funnel shaped, had a flap on top where
  smoke could escape, and were made from buffalo
  hide.

4
Homes and Villages

• Women were responsible for packing and
  transporting a tipi. Several women together
  could take apart, organize, and set up a tipi in
  minutes.

5
Homes and Villages
.

• The Sioux were never in a permanent spot. They
  did not grow vegetables and rarely built
  permanent structures.

6
Food

• The Sioux ate buffalo meat. They also ate meat
  from other game they hunted. They gathered
  fruits and vegetables too.
• With the horse, the Sioux nation flourished
  because of the continuous supply of buffalo.

7
Food

• Bear meat was very tasty, and bear grease was
  essential in making pemmican, paints, and
  ointments for rubbing babies and others down in
  cold weather.
• Women collected the wild rice that grew in
  abundance in the shallow lakes, made maple syrup
  in the spring, and tended their small fields of
  vegetables.

8
Food

• Buffalo meat was cut in strips and hung on frames
  to harden and dry. After a couple of days when
  it became hard, it was called jerky. It could
  be eaten in different ways.

9
Food

• As soon as a few buffalo were killed, and after
  the appropriate prayers were said, the Sioux
  women filled buffalo-horn cups full of the warm
  nourishing buffalo blood, and gave it to the
  children to drink.

10
Clothing

• The Sioux ceremonial costumes for the Horse
  Dance, a prayer for rain, were original. The
  procession consisted of four young women dressed
  in buckskin dresses dyed scarlet.
• Another kind of war shirt was rare in that the
  quilled strips differed in color. The one over
  the left shoulder was green and the right
  shoulder was red.

11
Clothing

• Most Sioux clothing was made from buffalo hide.
  They wore leggings, shirts, dresses, vests,
  moccasins, and gloves.
• The unique Sioux war shirt was decorated with
  hand painted designs, as well as with quills and
  various types of beads.

12
Clothing

• Both Sioux men and women were artistic and had an
  eye for beauty. The women made beautiful and
  simple clothing.
• Hides were made in two ways. One way made hard
  leather known as rawhide. The other way was soft
  leather. Both could be used for making moccasin
  soles, drums, rattles, and parfleches.

13
Location and Environment

• The Sioux once lived in the area of Minnesota,
  North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Some
  also lived beside the Mississippi River and also
  in Manitoba, Canada.
• In present day, the Sioux live in reservations in
  Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South
  Dakota.

14
Location and Environment

• A reservation is land reserved for Native
  Americans.
• By 1830, the prairie land to the east of the
  Dakotas was being separated into states. The
  Missouri and Osage tribes were forced out of
  their lands.

15
Location and Environment

• On April 29, 1868, the Sioux signed a treaty,
  accepting to live in a reservation in the
  territory of the Dakotas.
• Lewis Clark assured the Sioux Indians that the
  whites had no intention of establishing colonies
  on the barren plains.

16
Weapons for Hunting and Fighting

• Young boys were taught to handle bows and arrows.
  They played rough war games to prepare for war
  against enemies.
• By the time a boy was adolescent he was ready to
  be a brave and enthusiastic warrior.

17
Weapons for Hunting and Fighting

• War was a way to power and wealth. Most warriors
  became a chief by distinguishing themselves in
  war.
• The Sioux objective was to promote danger and to
  tempt death.

18
Weapons for Hunting and Fighting

• Most of the Sioux wars were not dangerous. The
  main ideal was to trap horses from enemy rivals
  and to win honors.
• Hunters and warriors were respected based on the
  number of times they had accomplished brave
  deeds.

19
Customs, Beliefs, and Religion

• Sioux religious beliefs were extremely personal.
• The Sioux God was Wakan Tanka, also named
  Grandfather Spirit or the Great Mystery Power.
• The Sioux believed that the Great Mystery Power
  had no beginning or end, but was in all of
  nature.

20
Customs, Beliefs, and Religion

• Lacrosse playing among the Sioux was a popular
  sport. Sports and games were an important role
  of tribal life.
• Young Sioux girls usually received dolls and toy
  tipis to play with sometimes. In addition, they
  were invited to take part in bodily active
  sports.

21
Customs, Beliefs, and Religion

• Another major part of the Siouxs religion was
  the Sacred Pipe.
• A dream catcher-on your right

22
Roles of Men

• The men tracked game in the forest and captured
  fish in the streams.
• Often a hunter would wear a buffalo skin to
  disguise his own scent and sneak near the herd.

23
Roles of Men

• Tribal life was based on the talent to move
  rapidly and efficiently.
• Sometimes the men would hunt bear, deer, or other
  game.

24
Roles of Women

• The women worked in canoes collecting wild rice.
  They spent a lot of their time working on quilts.
• They were very active participants in the social
  and religious life of the Sioux.

25
Leadership and Government

• A famous Sioux chief was Crazy Horse. He was a
  young man when he earned his job as a military
  genius among the Sioux.
• The Sioux council existed of forty-four elected
  chiefs. They decided future plans and the Sioux
  policy.

26
Leadership and Government

• Bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom were
  four qualities every single Sioux citizen was
  expected to work at achieving. Chiefs were
  expected with these qualities in mind.
• Because chieftainships werent inherited, any
  young man who showed leadership skills could hope
  to become a chief.

27
Leadership and Government

• In some cases, an outstanding son of a chief was
  elected to succeed his father or grandfather.
• Four men elected out of the forty-four served as
  higher authority. This was a position of great
  honor, respect, and dignity.

28
Arts and Crafts

• Buffalo horns were converted into cups and
  spoons. Bowstrings and sewing equipment were
  made from sinew, which is the muscle next to the
  buffalos backbone.
• Porcupine quills were dyed with natural vegetable
  dyes, using original patterns. Afterwards, Sioux
  incorporated glass beads introduced by the white
  man.
• A native shield-

29
Arts and Crafts

• Sioux women made the quilts. They used many
  distinct colors. The pieces were made of
  different patterns.
• Star quilts were very important to the Sioux. A
  quilt was a warm blanket for a bed. They were
  often thick and padded.

30
Arts and Crafts

• Men took advantage of their artistic skills to
  paint pictures of their warring and hunting
  exploits on their tipis.
• Little boys and girls dressed like their parents
  although at first little boys wore only long
  shirts.

31
Interactions with Europeans

• The white men had many reasons for moving west.
  Missionaries, fur traders, and other people all
  came to work with the Indians.
• The Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians who were often at
  war with the Sioux named them nadowe-is-iw
  which meant adder or snake. The French shortened
  it to Sioux its present day name.

32
Interactions With Europeans

• In 1890, the U.S. Army and the Sioux fought
  again. This is known as the battle of Wounded
  Knee.
• A treaty was signed between the Sioux and the
  white men. A treaty is a legal document between
  two nations. But gold was discovered in the
  Black Hills, and the treaty was broken.

33
Bibliography

• Bleeker, Sonia. The Sioux Indians, New York,
  William Morrows Company, 1962
• Brooks, Barbara. The Sioux, Vero Beach, Florida,
  Rourke Publications, Inc.,1989

34
Bibliography

• Landau, Elaine. The Sioux, New York, A First
  Book, 1991
• Lund, Bill. The Sioux Indians, Mankato,
  Minnesota, Capstone Books,1991