OTE0DI]CTI0?(. 



The nation of the Sioux Indians, or Dakotas, as they call themselves, is supposed to number about 

 twenty-Jive thousand. They are scattered over an immense territory, extending from the Mississippi river 

 on the east to the Black Hills on the west, and from the mouth of the Big Sioux river on the south to 

 Devil's Lake on the north. Early in the winter of 1837, they ceded to the United States all their land 

 lying on the eastern side of the Mississippi ; and this tract at present forms the settled portion of Minnesota. 

 During the summer of 1851, the Commissioner of Indian Afl'airs, with Gov. Ramsey of Minnesota, 

 negotiated with the Dakotas of the Mississippi and Minnesota or Saint Peter's Valley, for all their land 

 lying east of a line running from Otter-tail Lake through Lake Traverse {Lac Travers) to the junction of 

 the Big Sioux river with the Missouri ; the Indians retaining for their own settlements a reservation on 

 the upper Minnesota, twenty miles wide and about one hundred and forty long. This purchase includes 

 all the wooded lands belonging to the Dakotas, and extends, especially on the south side of the Minnesota 

 river, some distance into the almost boundless Prairie of the West. Beyond this, the Indians follow the 

 buifaloes, which, although evidently diminishing in numbers, still range in vast herds over the prairies. 

 This animal furnishes the Indian with food and clothing, and a house, and, during the summer, with the 

 " hois de vache " for fuel. In the winter these sons of the prairie are obliged to pitch their tents at or in 

 the little clustei-s of wood, which here and there skirt the margins of the streams and lakes. 



Their name, the Dakotas say, means leagued or allied ; and they sometimes speak of themselves as 

 the 'Oceti sakowii),' Seven council fires. These are the seven principal bands which compose the tribe 

 or nation ; viz. : 



1. The Mdewakai)toi)\var)s, Village of the Spirit Lake. Their name is derived from a former resi- 

  dence at Mdewakai) {Spirit or Sacred Lake), Mille Lacs, which are in the country now claimed by the 



Ojibwas. They are divided into seven principal villages, three of which are still on the western bank of 

 the Mississippi, and the others on or near the Minnesota, within twenty-five or thirty miles of Fort Snelling. 

 This portion of the Dakota people have received annuities since the year 1838 ; and their number, as now 

 enrolled, is about two thousand. They plant corn and other vegetables, and some of them have made 

 a little progress in civilization. 



2. The Walipekutes, Leaf-shooters. It is not now known from what circumstance the Wahpekutes 

 received their name. They are at present a roving band of about five or six hundred, laying claim to the 

 country on Cannon river, the head waters of the Blue Earth, and westward. 



3. The Wahpetoqwaqs, Village in the Leaves, probably obtained their name from the fact that 

 formerly they lived only in the woods. The old home of this band is about the Little Rapids, which 

 is some forty-five miles by water from the mouth of the Minnesota river. About three hundred still reside 

 there ; but the larger part of the band have removed to Lac-qui-parle and Big Stone Lake. In all, they 

 number about one thousand or twelve hundred souls. They all plant com, more or less ; and at Lac-qui- 

 parle, one of the Mission stations occupied by the American Board of Commissionei-s for Foreign Missions, 

 they have made some progress in learning to read and write their own language, and have substituted, to 

 some extent, the use of the plough for the hoe. 



4. The Sisitoijwaijs, Village of the Marsh. What the meaning of 'sisi ' is, we have not been able to 

 ascertain satisfactorily, as we do not find it in any other combination in the language as now used. But 

 Mr. Joseph Renville, now deceased, who was half Dakota, and considered as the highest authority in 



