MALLEEY ON THE DAKOTA CALENDAR. 9 



body invading their lands on Lake Michigan, as before mentioned, sig- 

 nifies " Men of the salt water",* confirming the tradi^pns of the Dakotas, 

 that they migrated from the Pacific coast. In this connection, it may be 

 noted that the Dakota language more nearly ai^proaches the Mongoloid 

 dialects than that of any other of the American Indians. 



The more important of the existing tribes and organized bands into 

 which the nation is now divided are as follows, being the dislocated re- 

 mains of the " Seven Great Council Fires", not only famed in tradition, 

 but known to the early white pioneers: t 



Yankton, | both derived from a root meaning " at the end", alluding 



Yanktonai, ) to the former locality of their villages. 



Sihasapa, or Blackfeet. 



Ohinonpa, or Two Kettle. 



Itazipcho, Without Bow. The French translation, Sans Arc, is, 

 however, more commonly used. 



Minneconjou, " Eeeds around the Water ", the physical features of 

 their old home. 



Sichangu, "Burnt Hip", or Brule. 



Santee, subdivided into Wahpeton, "Men among Leaves", i. e., for- 

 ests, and Sissetou, "Men of Prairie Marsh". Two other bands, now 

 practically extinct, formerly belonged to the Santee, or, as it is more 

 correctly spelled, " Isanti" tribe, from the root "Issan", " knife". Their 

 former territory furnished the material for stone knives, from the man- 

 ufacture of which they were called the " knife people". 



Ogallalla, or Oglala. The meaning and derivation of this name, as 

 well as of the one next mentioned (Uncapapa), have been the subjects of 

 much controversy. Two letters appended to this paper furnish informa- 

 tion, not before published, respecting them. 



Uncapapa, the most warlike and probably most powerful of all the 

 bands, though not the largest. Sitting Bull is its most prominent mem- 



* Some authorities prefer the translation into "dirty" or "stinking water", as 

 referring to lakes surrounded by shallow marshes or grounds impregnated with 

 sulphur (cf. the name of Lake Winnepeg); but the "Jesuit Relations" of 1659-60 

 state that the same word (there spelled Ouinipeg) is used for the sea. It is proper to 

 add that the Winnebagos themselves have no tradition beyond their residence on the 

 Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and that, though of the great Dakota family, they are 

 not certainly members of that Nation. Their name Hochengara or Hochunkcera, 

 signifies " People of the original or primitive language ". 



t Hale, Gallatin, and Riggs designate a " Titon tribe" as located west of the 

 Missouri, and as much the largest division of the Sioux; the latter authority subdivid- 

 ing it into the Sichangu, Itazipcho, Sihasapa, Minneconjou, Ohinonpa, Ogallalla, and 

 Uncapapa, seven of the tribes specified in the test, which he calls bands. The fact 

 probably is that "Titon" (from the word iintan, meaning "at or on land without trees, 

 or prairie") was the name of a tribe, but is now only an expression for all those tribes 

 whose ranges are on the prairie, and that it has become a territorial, not a tribular, 

 distinction. One of the Dakotas at Fort Rice spoke to the writer of the "hostiles" as 

 "Titons", with obviously the same idea of locality, "away on the prairie" ; it being 

 well known that they were a conglomeration from several tribes. 



