The Sioux Dakota

2021 Scholarly Writing Award in the Saskatchewan Book Awards This book presents two of the most important traditions of the Dakota people, the Red Road and the Holy Dance, as told by Samuel Mniyo and Robert Goodvoice, two Dakota men from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Their accounts of these central spiritual traditions and other aspects of Dakota life and history go back seven generations and help to illuminate the worldview of the Dakota people for the younger generation of Dakotas, also called the Santee Sioux. "The Good Red Road," an important symbolic concept in the Holy Dance, means the good way of living or the path of goodness. The Holy Dance (also called the Medicine Dance) is a Dakota ceremony of earlier generations. Although it is no longer practiced, it too was a central part of the tradition and likely the most important ceremonial organization of the Dakotas. While some people believe that the Holy Dance is sacred and that the information regarding its subjects should be allowed to die with the last believers, Mniyo believed that these spiritual ceremonies played a key role in maintaining connections with the spirit world and were important aspects of shaping the identity of the Dakota people. In The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux, Daniel Beveridge brings together Mniyo and Goodvoice's narratives and biographies, as well as songs of the Holy Dance and the pictographic notebooks of James Black (Jim Sapa), to make this volume indispensable for scholars and members of the Dakota community.

This book covers the entire historical range of the Sioux, from their emergence as an identifiable group in late prehistory to the year 2000. The author has studied the material remains of the Sioux for many years. His expertise combined with his informative and engaging writing style and numerous photographs create a compelling and indispensable book. A leading expert discusses and analyzes the Sioux people with rigorous scholarship and remarkably clear writing. Raises questions about Sioux history while synthesizing the historical and anthropological research over a wide scope of issues and periods. Provides historical sketches, topical debates, and imaginary reconstructions to engage the reader in a deeper thinking about the Sioux. Includes dozens of photographs, comprehensive endnotes and further reading lists.

Authoritative discussion of Dakota Indian material culture and the social, political, religious, and economic institutions by a missionary who spent nearly twenty years learning the language and living among Indians in Minnesota.

President U.S. Grant's national Peace Policy of 1869 set in motion the South Dakota Missionary movement. The peace plan assigned one religious denomination to each Indian Reservation to 'Christianize and civilize' the Indian. When religious groups protested the government's policy of exclusion, the limitations of the policy were lifted in 1881. Soon thereafter, many denominations were allowed to establish missions where they wanted. Soon missions, churches, and schools of many different Christian affiliations dotted the reservations, often within a few miles of one another. In Lakota Sioux Missions, over two hundred historical photographs illustrate the story of the mission era, its intended policy of assimilation, the resistance to change, and eventual compromise.

Vast stretches of land in the Midwest and West were home to the Sioux. But the proud tribes fell victim to a series of broken treaties and unkept promises. Today the Sioux preserve their history as they enjoy a cultural renewal in modern America.

A new addition to the Culture and Customs of Native Peoples in America series, this book examines the traditions and contemporary culture of the Sioux Indians. The Sioux are a Native American people who live in reservations and communities within Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin, as well as certain provinces in Canada. According to U.S. Census Report data, over 150,000 individuals identify themselves as Sioux—more than any other tribe besides Cherokee, Navajo, Latin American Indian, and Chocktaw. Culture and Customs of the Sioux Indians reveals the details of the Sioux' past, such as wars and conflicts, historical tools, technology, and traditional housing. It also provides a comprehensive examination of the Sioux in the modern world, covering topics such as religion, education, social customs, gender roles, rites of passage, lifestyle, cuisine, arts, music, and much more. Readers will discover how the Sioux today merge traditional customs that have survived their tumultuous history with contemporary culture.

Briefly traces the history of the Sioux along with their customs and culture.