THE SIOUAN INDIANS 



A PRELIMINARY SKI:TCH' 



By W J McGee 



THE SIOTJAX STOCK 



DEFINITION 

 EXTENT OF THE STOCK 



Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families found in jSTorth Amer- 

 ica above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were contiued 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 Algou- 

 quian, 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 the Arkansas to the Sas- 

 katchewan, while an outlying body stretched to tbe shores of the 

 Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters 

 and wai'riors 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 white 

 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 a corruption of a term expressing 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 wnich call themselves Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota 



• Prepared aa a complemnnt and introduction to the following paper on ' ' Siouan Sociology, " by the 



late James Oweii Dorsev. 



157 



