BULL. 30] 



STSSETON 



581 



Le Sueur, and Charlevoix, and from the 

 maps publii^hed under the superinten- 

 dence of these authors, it is suthciently 

 clear that in the latter part of the 17th 

 century the principal residence of the 

 Isanyati Sioux [Mdewakanton, Wahpe- 

 ton, Wahpekute, and Sisseton] was about 

 the headwaters of Rum r., whence they 

 extended their hunts to St Croix and Mis- 

 sissippi rs., and down the latter nearly or 

 quite as far as the mouth of the Wisconsin. ' ' 

 (Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., i, 295, 1872.) 

 The first recorded mention of the tribe is 

 probably that of Hennepin (Descr. La., 

 1683), who said that in the neighbor- 

 hood of Mille Lacs were many other 

 lakes, whence issue several rivers, on the 

 banks of which live the Issati, Nadoues- 

 sans Tinthonha (Teton), Oudebathon 

 (Wahpeton) River people, Chongaske- 

 thon (Sisseton), and other tribes, all com- 

 priseil under the name Nadouessiou. 

 This locates the tribe in 1680 in the 

 vicinity of Mille Lacs, not in the region 

 of Rainy lake, as Hennepin's map appears 

 to place them. In the Prise de Possession 

 of May 1689,they are mentionedas living, 

 the greater part of them, in the neigh- 

 borhood of the ]Mdewakanton, in the 

 interior n. e. of the Mississippi. Du Luth, 

 who was in that region as early as July 

 1679, found them in the vicinity of the 

 Wahpeton. The statement that a part of 

 the tribe was in the vicinity of Mille Lacs 

 at the time of Hennepin's visit (1680) in- 

 dicates that the division into the two 

 bands had already taken place. Pike 

 states that the two divisions, the Kahra 

 and the Sisseton proper, hunted eastward 

 to the Mississippi and up that river as 

 far as Crow Wing r. Long (Exped. St 

 Peters R., 1824) names the divisions the 

 Miakechakesa and Kahra, giving as the 

 number of the latter 1,500, and that of 

 theformer 1,000. Lewisand Clark (1804) 

 located them on the headwaters of Min- 

 nesota r. Schermerhorn, following Pike, 

 said they were on the upper parts of 

 Red r. of L. Winnipeg, and that they 

 roved on the Rlississippi and also on 

 Crow Wing r., which was the bound- 

 ary between them and the Chippewa. 

 Brown (1817) gave their habitat as on 

 Minnesota r. up to Big Stone lake. 

 According to Ramsey (1849) they then 

 claimed all the lands w. of Blue Earth r. 

 to James r., S. Dak. Their principal vil- 

 lage was located near L. Traverse. In 

 1854 the distributing point of annuities 

 for the Sisseton and Wahpeton was then 

 at Yellow Medicine r. Subsequently 

 they were gathered on a reservation. 



Lewis and Clark estimated the number 

 of warriors in 1804 at 200, and a total 

 population of about 800. According to 

 Neill they numbered 2,500 in 1853. 

 The combined population of the Sisseton 



and Wahpeton at L. Traverse res. in 

 1886 was 1,496. In 1909 there were 1,936 

 of both tribes at the Sisseton agency, 

 S. Dak., and in North Dakota 980 Sis- 

 seton, Wahjjeton, and Pabaksa, repre- 

 senting bands that fled thither after the 

 Minnesota massacre of 1862. 



Two subdivisions were mentioned bv 

 Pike (1811) and Long (1824), the Miake- 

 chakesa, or Sisseton proper, and the 

 Kahra. Rev. S. R. Riggs, in a letter to 

 Dorsey (1882), gives the following bands: 

 Chanshdachikana; Tizaptan; Okopeya- 

 Amdowapuskiyapi; Basdecheshni; Ka; 

 pozha; Ohdihe. Rev. E. Ashley, in a 

 letter to Dorsey (1884), gives these, with 

 the exception of the first, named from 



LITTLE SHORT-HORN, A SISSETON 



chief Sleepyeye, and adds the following: 

 Witawaziyataotina; Itokakhtina; Kakh- 

 miatonwan; JNlaniti; Keze; Chankute. 

 Bands that can not be identified with any 

 of these are the Grail aiid Little Rock 

 bands, Mechemeton, Red Iron band, and 

 the Traverse des Sioux and Wabey bands. 

 The Sisseton made or joined in the fol- 

 lowing treaties with the United States: 

 Prairie du Chien, Mich. Ter., Julv 15, 

 1830; St Peters, Minn., Nov. 30, 'l 836; 

 Traverse des Sioux, Minn. Ter., July 23, 

 1851; Washington, D. C, June 19, 1858; 

 Feb. 19, 1867; Lake Traverse res.. Dak. 

 Ter., Sept. 20, 1872 (unratified); agree- 

 ment at Lac Traverse agency, Dak. Ter., 

 May 2, 1873. By resolution of the Sen- 



