MAii.Euv] DIVISIONS OF THE SIOUAN FAMILY. 97 



stock or family embracing not only the Sioux or Dakotas proper, but the 

 Missouris, Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, Kansas, Otos, Assiniboines, Gros 

 Ventres or Minnitaris, Crows, Iowas, Mandans, and some others, has 

 been frequently styled the Dakota Family. Major Powell, the Director 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology, from considerations of priority, has lately 

 adopted the name Siouan for the family, and for the grand division of 

 it popularly called Sioux has used the term Dakota, which the people 

 claim for themselves. In this general respect it is possible to conform 

 in this paper to Major Powell's classification, but, specially in the details 

 of the "Winter Counts, the form of the titles of the tribes is that which 

 is generally used, but with little consistency, in literature, and is not 

 given with the accurate philologic literation of special scholars, or with 

 reference to the synonomy determined by Major Powell, but not yet 

 published. The reason for this temporary abandonment of scientific 

 accuracy is that another course would require the correction or anno- 

 tation of the whole material contributed from many sources, and would 

 be cumbrous as well as confusing prior to the publication, by the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, of the synonomy mentioned. 



The word "Dakota" is translated in Eiggs's Dictionary of that lan- 

 guage as "leagued, or allied." Dr. J. Hammond Tiumbull, the distin- 

 guished ethnographer and glossologist, gives the meaning to be more 

 precisely "associated as comrades," the root being found in other dia- 

 lects of 'be same group of languages for instance, in the Minitari, 

 where ddki is the name for the clan or band, and dakoe means friend 

 or comrade. In the Sioux (Dakota) dialect, cota or coda means friend, 

 and Dakota may, literally translated, signify "our friends." 



The title Sioux, which is indignantly repudiated by the nation, is either 

 the last syllable or the two last syllables, according to pronunciation, of 

 " Nadowesioux," which is the French plural of the Algonkiu name for 

 the Dakotas, " Nadowessi," "enemy," though the English word is not 

 so strong as the Indian, " hated foe" being nearer. The Chippeways 

 called an Iroquois " Nadowi," which is also their name for rattlesnake 

 (or, as others translate, adder) ; in the plural, Nadowek. A Sioux they 

 called Nadowessi, which is the same word with a contemptuous or di- 

 minutive termination ; plural, Nadowessiwak or Xadawessyak. The 

 French gave the name their own form of the plural, and the voyageurs 

 and trappers cut it down to " Sioux." 



The more important of existing tribes and organized bands into 

 which the nation is now divided are given below, being the dislocated 

 remains of the " Seven Great Council Fires," not only famed in tradi- 

 tion, but known to early white pioneers: 



Yankton and Yanktouai or Ihankto n wa n , both derived from a root 

 meaning "at the end," alluding to the former locality of their villages. 



Sihasapa, or Blackfeet. 



Oheno n pa, or Two Kettles. 



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