TETON SIOUX MUSIC 



By FRANCES DENSMORE 



INTRODUCTION 

 The Teton Sioux 



A luajorily of tho songs in this nionioir were recorded among 

 Indians belonging to tlie Teton division of the Dakota (Sioux) tribe, 

 living on tho Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota. 

 Songs were recorded also among the Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux 

 living at Sisseton, S. Dak.; 12 of these are included in this volume 

 under the following numbers: 95, 96, 97, 189, 190, 234, 235, 236, 237, 

 238, 239, 240. Field work was begun in July, 1911, and continued 

 until 1914, Mr. Robert P. Higheagle acting as principal interpreter at 

 Standing Rock and revising the material collected at Sisseton, where 

 a competent interpreter could not be secured. The words of the 

 songs recorded at Standing Rock, with few exceptions, are in the 

 Teton dialect, while those recorded among the Sisseton and Wah- 

 peton Sioux are in the Santee dialect. 



Before entering on a consideration of this material, the terms 

 appUed to the tribe and its various divisions will be briefly noted. 

 ''Dakota" is the word used by these Indians in speaking of them- 

 selves; tliis word means "leagued" or ''alhed" and is used also as 

 an adjective, meaning ''friendly." ^ The latter part of the word, 

 meaning "friend," is pronounced kola by the Teton and koda by the 

 Santee. The word "Sioux" was applied to the Dakota by Indians 

 outside the tribe and by white men and has come to be the commonly 

 accepted designation, even being extended to include cognate tribes 

 kno\Mi collectively as the "Siouan family." According to J. N. B. 

 Hewitt the word "Sioux" is a French-Canadian abbreviation of the 

 Chippewa diminutive form Nadowe-is-iw-v/j (nadowe, 'an adder,' 

 'an enemy'; is, diminutive; iiv-ug, 'they are'; hence, "they are the 

 lesser enemies"). The Chippewa used this term to distinguishthe 

 Huron and Dakota from the Iroquois proper, whom they designated 

 Nadowe'wok, ' the adders ' or ' the enemies ' .- A similar interpretation 

 is given by Warren, the native historian of the Chippewa tribe.^ 



1 Riggs, Stephen R., Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language, in Smithson. Contr., iv, pp. 

 XV, 48, Washington, 1852. 



2 See Handbook of American Indians (Bull. 30. Bur. Amer. Ethn.), pt. 1, p. 376, 1907. 



3 Warren^ William W., HLstory of the Ojibways. in Coll. Minn. Hist. Soc, vol. 5, p. 72, 1885 



