Lakota Indians: The Great Plains Native Americans Tracy Stiers ANT 348: Native American Anthropology Professor Kyle Lubsen September 24, 2015

“Being Lakota is being a specific kind of human being, defined by a set of relations to specific places” (Kurkiala,M.,Pg.451 par. 5)

Migration The three Bands Sioux Tribe Dakota Nakota Possibly from Asia (Treuer, A., 2013) Migrated from east to the plains (Treuer, A., 2013) The story of the Lakota (Kurkiala, M., 2002) “The Black Hills were never conquered by the Lakotas, they were born there”(Kurkiala, M., 2002)

“The Buffalo maiden brought us and put us in a cave in the Black Hills. We’re like supernatural beings, we could float through the rock and we came out to soon. We are called the Tantaka people, which means Buffalo People. And when we came out we got tricked. And we came out to early, and we lost the ability to fly, the ability to communicate with spirit and things like that. But we still had our spirituality and our language and our own identity” (Sacred spirit: The Lakota Sioux, past and present, Films on Demand).

Religion The Settlers Competition Beliefs challenged (Johnson, D. 1956) Lands belong to all Animistic beliefs The Ghost Dance (Greene, J. A., 2015) US Government Destruction “But we still had our spirituality and our language and our own identity.” (Sacred Spirit: The Lakota Sioux, past and present, Films on Demand)

U.S. Government Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (Treuer, A., 2013) Two major battles (Treuer, A., 2013) Little Bighorn Wounded Knee Massacre

Western Shoshone Tribe Southern Great Basin Their creator the Coyote (Oswalt, W. H., 2009). Bear River Massacre (Treuer, A.,2013). Fort Bridger Treaty No matter how they resisted or how hard to keep their land in the end the government found a way to make them conform their ways.

Kinship/Social Lakota and Cahuilla Multi layered culture (Purzyeki, B., 2004) Bands Clans Tiospaye Individuals Bi-lateral social structure

Marriage Lakota and Cahuilla “Ideally all marriages were exogamous. A man could not marry any girl with whom he had a common grandparent” (Hassrick, R., 1944, pg Par. 3). Information about the Cahuilla marriages as described by Oswalt, W. H. (2009).

Political Lakota and Cahuilla Net and Paha (Oswalt,W., 2009) tiyospaye, had a leader (Standing Rock website) Tribal Council (Standing Rock Webiste) All decisions made by consensus agreement

Economics “Economic opportunity is defined by maintaining good social relationships, not by performing according to an abstracted clock” (Pickering, K. 2004, pg. 92. Par 2).

Contemporary Issues The student school dropout rate is at about 70% 80% of the adults are unemployed High Suicide rates 80% of the adults are alcoholics All statistics gathered from: A hidden America-children of the plains [Video file]. (2011). In Films On Demand.

Conclusion “I think a lot of Native people love this country. Not necessarily America but they love this land” (Unknown, Sacred spirit: The Lakota Sioux, past and present, 1999)

References Churchill, W. (1990). The black hills are not for sale: A summary of the Lakota struggle for the 1868 treaty territory. The Journal of Ethnic Studies, 18(1), 127. Retrieved from Fiennes, M., & McDonald, P. (Directors). (1999). Sacred spirit: The Lakota Sioux, past and present [Motion picture]. Films on Demand. Greene, J. A. (2015). Ghost Dance. In Academic World Book. Retrieved from Hassrick, R. (1944). Teton Dakota Kinship System. American Anthropologist, 46(3), Johnson, D. M. (1956). Ghost Dance: Last Hope of the Sioux. Montana: The Magazine of Western History, (3). 42 Kurkiala, M. (2002). Objectifying the Past: Lakota Responses to Western Historiography. Critique Of Anthropology, 22(4), 445.

References Moon, P. (1995). Lakota Indians. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from indians.html The History and Culture of the. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2015, from Treuer, A. (2013). Atlas of Indian nations. National Geographic Society. Oswalt, W. H. (2009). This land was theirs: A study of Native North Americans (9th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Purzycki, B. G. (2004). Comparison of the Traditional and Contemporary Extended Family Units of the Hopi and Lakota (Sioux): A Study of the Deterioration of Kinship Structures and Functions Whelan, M. K. (1993). Dakota Indian economics and the nineteenth-century fur trade. Ethnohistory, 40(2), 246.