User:Gwester/Dakota Culture and History

Dakota Culture and History

The Eastern Dakota people are often referred to as Isanti or Santee Sioux, one of the three main groups known collectively as the Sioux. The Dakota are distinguished from the other groups by their Woodlands culture, their dialect, and their history in the northern Great Plains area of North America.

Early Migrations
The Eastern Dakota settled in the land of the Upper Mississippi river, in an area that would eventually become Minnesota. This area provided them with virtually everything they needed: Forests, lakes, and rivers full of game, waterfowl, and fish. Buffalo still roamed the prairies; lush vegetation provided berries, edible roots, and wild rice. In addition, the rich soil allowed for the cultivation of small maize plots in the short summers. This ultimately led to seasonal migration, usually by way of the rivers or lakes in the region. Europeans considered the Dakota to always be wandering when in fact they were just moving with the seasons. Given their isolated location and plentiful resources, the Dakotas faced few enemies and lived as a proud, confident, resourceful people. As a result, they avoided sustained contact with the Europeans until the late 17th century. In addition, because the contact with Europeans was few and far in between, the Dakotas were minimally affected by the smallpox, malaria, and measles that affected other Native American tribes. Although this area in the upper Mississippi had many advantages, isolation also proved to be a double-edged sword. The Dakotas were aware of the European explorers and the goods they offered long before the Europeans reached Minnesota. There had been networks of trade and communication between native people that reached the far ends of the continent. Some of the items brought by Europeans, such as iron pots, knives, and guns, made it into the hands of Ojibwe or Ottowa middlemen. In 1640 Jesuit missionaries set up a mission at the juncture of Lakes Huron and Superior and would eventually be known as Sault Ste. Marie. It became a trading center for multiple tribes, especially for the Dakotas, however with no direct trade relationships with the Europeans, it became very difficult for the Dakotas to acquire guns and/or powder for themselves.

By 1736, conflict had broken out between the Dakotas and the Ojibwe. With the Dakotas, whose culture revolved around seasonal migration patterns, were well on the move prior to when the Ojibwe made the first strike. Some bands decided to move south, attracted by either the search for game or by the French trading posts. Other bands followed the buffalo, which had started a westward migration. Buffalo was of importance to the Dakota for many generations, and horses and guns (introduced by 1700) made them much easier to hunt. Once the buffalo were out of reach of hunting parties, Dakota villages followed.

By 1765, after another conflict with the Ojibwe, the Dakotas gave up their northern settlements at Leech and Red Lakes, thus allowing the Ojibwes to control the entire Minnesota lakes region. By 1768, after the conclusion of the war with the Ojibwe, the Dakota villages migrated west to the headwaters of the Minnesota and Red rivers, Big Stone lake, Lake Traverse, the Crow Wing river, Lac Qui Parle, and west to the Missouri river. The borders between tribes from this point on remained largely unchanged until 1862.

Exile
By March 1863, following the events of the US-Dakota War of 1962, the Senate passed the “Act for the Removal of the Sissestons, Wahpeton, Mdewakantons, Wahpakoota Bands of Sioux or Dakota Indians, and for the Disposition of their lands in Minnesota and Dakota." The Indians were to be transported to an unknown location somewhere outside of Minnesota.  There were many proposed reservations, such as the one proposed by Henry Sibley near Devil’s Lake in present-day North Dakota.   Other proposed reservations included Isle Royale, a rocky island in Lake Superior, as well as well-guarded reservation in Dakota Territory where, according to agent Thomas Galbraith, the Indians could exist in a state of virtual slavery.

By April, President Lincoln ordered the men convicted of murder to indefinite prison terms at Camp McClellan near Davenport, Iowa. The rest of the Dakota were then removed to a reservation on the Missouri river, eighty miles northwest of Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. The area was known as “Crow Creek” and had “good soil, good timber, and plenty of water.” By the time the Dakotas reached their new destination, Crow Creek was quite the opposite as described by the president. Isaac Heard described it as, “A horrible region, filled with the petrified remains of the huge lizards and creeping things for the first days of time. The soil is miserable; rain rarely ever visits it. The game is scarce, and the alkaline waters of the streams and springs are almost certain death.”

Origin and Creation Stories
The exact date of Indian arrival in Minnesota will likely never be known, however an ancient skeleton unearthed in Pelican Rapids in 1931 suggests that their ancestors were in the region 20,000 years ago. Evidence from other parts of the United States also suggests that the ancient Indians arrived in North America from Asia before the last southern advance of ice across Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota’s Lloyd Wilford established the groundwork for the archaeology of Minnesota between the 1930’s and 1950’s. He believed that the early history of the Dakotas could be traced back through the changing styles of pottery as well as burial of the dead. His successor, Elden Johnson, went on to excavate several village sites around the Lake Mille Lacs area thought to be occupied by bands of late prehistoric Dakota. With the exception of this study, the history of the Dakota (and Native Americans in general) people prior to European contact has been largely ignored.

Presently, there are conflicting views on the origins of the Dakota (and other divisions). Oral traditions and written history can generally agree on Minnesota being the homeland. During the period on which Native Americans and their ancestors occupied Minnesota, evidence of their presence was left all over the state. Earthworks in the form of mounds and embankments are the most common remains, however there also ancient trails, pictures painted on rocks, and village sites. In addition, weapons and implements are found in vast numbers on either the surface or by being turned up by the plow.

The area where historians are in conflict is where the Dakotas (in addition to the other divisions) originally came from. The views can be divided into three groups, each with a different geographic theme. The most common theme is that the ancestors of the Siouan people arrived from the east. They landed on a peninsula on the east coast and with the help of the Umketehi (“Underwater Panthers”), followed the c’anka duta (“Red Road”) west to Minnesota country. In the second theme, the ancestors of the Siouan people arrived in Minnesota Country from the north, a land of cold winters and lots of ice. The final view contrasts with the previous themes in that it argues that the ancestors of the Siouan people were in the Midwest region for a fairly long time. James Walker, a physician at the Pine Ridge Reservation told stories of the origins of the ancestors to the Siouan people. According to his stories, their ancestors were lured out of the underworld to the earth’s surface by passing through a cave, thought by many to be the Wind Cave in the Black Hills in the western part of South Dakota. Their children are said to be the Lakota division of the Siouan people.

Food
The Dakotas were a hunter-gatherer society when the Europeans first discovered them around 1649. This consisted of hunting animals as well as gathering different plants, fruits, and vegetables. Though both of these methods of subsistence were used to survive, however, hunting was their primary and most important source for food, and thus governed much of the life of a tribe. This is correlated with their movement to different locations according to seasons and animal migration patterns. Typically, men were designated to hunt while women and children were the gatherers, also planting vegetables and collecting fruits for the tribe.

Gathering was a primary source of food when game was scarce or unavailable. From late spring to early fall, the Dakotas picked fruit, dug for wild beans and tubers, and collected acorns along with other nuts. In the fall, wild rice was collected by women and in the spring, maple sap was tapped from trees to make sugar. Women gathered fruits (including cherries, plums, and berries), wild turnip, water lily, and Mdo (a vegetable like the sweet potato).



The major crop of the Dakota was corn, but squash, beans, and tobacco were also domesticated. Planting was done when the first wild strawberries ripened in June because this is when it was known that crops would be safe from the late spring frost. Women had the role of tilling the soil and choosing where to plant, which was usually on mounds. This was chosen based on the richness of the soil, its ease for digging, and its location. They usually also chose soil where wild artichoke would grow. Pemmican, a mixture of dried buffalo or deer meat ground into a meal mixed with some kind of fruit, was often consumed by both young and old. This is an example of multiple ingredients coming from both male and female efforts to provide for their community.

Hunting
Hunting was a seasonal endeavor and training began at an early age. Boys would practice by killing small game such as rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, small birds, and grouse; A task that could be achieved by using their small weapons. Childhood games such as foot races would also teach hunting skills, and observance of nature taught young men about animal tendencies, which would further hone their ability to track and kill game.



Going on a hunt could be very dangerous and would not guarantee any success for a tribe. The hunter never lost his sense of danger because an attack by a predator or even a human enemy was possible. As risky as this task was however, the status of a Dakota man was determined by his ability to go on such hunts and be successful. Horses, when introduced, were also used in these outings and were often heavily burdened by the weight of items they had to carry, such as meat and other important provisions.

The main deer hunt was in September, communal buffalo hunting occurred in late summer or any time a herd was spotted, waterfowl was hunted mostly in the spring, and fishing took place during all seasons. In general however, the Dakota meat diet consisted of many different animals such as deer, elk, bear, wolves, kit fox, mountain lion, beaver, muskrat, mink, rabbit, hare, and turtle. Animals hunted were honored because it was believed that they had spiritual powers. Therefore, special feasts and sacrifices were offered before going on hunting trips.

Kinship
Glenn Wasicuna, a Dakota language teacher and member of the Sioux Valley Community of Manitoba, Canada lectured on Dakota culture and when asked about the value of kinship in Dakota culture he answered simply and yet profoundly that their culture was built on the values of kinship; whether it be to family, extended family, adopted family, friends or the land that they had been given by the creator to live on. From the time that Dakota peoples accounts were being recorded by Europeans there has been evidence of a strong loyalty and devotion to those they call kin; if one is found to be trustworthy there is a bond that is built and sustains a lifetime with the Dakota people. According to Mary Wingerd’s history of Minnesota, North Country: The Making of Minnesota, Europeans originally tried to categorize the Native Americans into “nation-states”, but this idea was foreign and didn’t equate with Dakota living. On the first page of Wingerd’s book she states, “Extended kinship was the organizing principle that bound them with ties of mutual obligation." When the French came to Minnesota and started setting up their first trading ties with Native Americans one Frenchmen was quoted being surprised by, “the great ceremonies… great favor and token of friendship that the Dakotas showered." Being Dakota isn’t solely definded by genetic percentages, being Dakota is a way of living and thinking. No matter ones decent, if you are raised in a Dakota “Oyate” you are Dakota. Kinship is a word and concept that is depicted more passionately by Dakota people than any other cultural group within America’s bounds, wrapped in solidity and loyalty it is unmatched as it is defined by Dakota people.

''The following quotes are from a series of interviews conducted by students of Gwen Westerman’s Humanities class on Dakota Culture at Minnesota State University, Mankato. They were all generous enough to provide us with insightful windows into contemporary culture and these were their thoughts on kinship, as it exists in modern Dakota culture:''

Darlene St. Clair - Educator

"For me being a Dakota person today means being a good relative. Being a good relative means making relatives, to me this means creating relationships and understanding my role and responsibility to others.”

Erin Griffin -Tribal Program Liaison and artist

“For me, to be a Dakota today means to be a good relative. This requires responsibility to my family, and also my neighbors, my community, the environment and land, and all life.”

Gwen Westerman - Educator and Artist

“When we know who our ancestors were, then we also know how we are related to other Dakota people today. That is important because we have an obligation to be a good relative to those around us, especially to the members of our extended family.”

Susan Power – Novelist and Educator - Susan's novel The Grass Dancer is a wonderful depiction of Dakota lifestyles and kinship ties.

Susan and her mother (Susan Kelly Power) also wrote articles for the "Think Indian" issue of "On Second Thought" Susan and her mother's Articles in "On Second Thought"

“Native society is all about kinship, connection, relatedness. We (traditionally) never saw each other as individuals standing alone, but beings who were related to homelands, to fellow creatures who had their own important business in our shared territory, to the plants and crops and trees we lived with, to generations that had gone before us and generations yet to come. Visually, we were never the isolated dot drawn on a page, but a chain of beings, circles within circles. Names were seldom used, rather terms of relationship or place in the family (e.g., first daughter, first son, etc...). It is a worldview that is not matched in the mainstream and which makes all the difference in how we live in the world, what we prioritize.”

Mandy Nelson – Educator

“My definition of family has always differed than my non-Dakota friends. To me, it’s beyond the immediate family. My aunts are my mothers, my uncle - fathers, and my cousins are all my siblings. My 2nd cousins are my nephews/nieces. I feel as close to them as I do my biological siblings and parents. Many times it goes beyond that. Close friends become an “adopted” part of the family.” “I have always felt that our Dakota definition of kinship as being the most important of our values. Even as we become more and more submerged into today’s very busy fast-paced lifestyle and some of us move farther and farther away, we always make time for family. And, as long as we pass the importance of family down to our children and our children’s children, it will be a value that will never change.”

Traditional Dress
Traditional dress for the Dakota Indians was deer hide because it was soft, flexible and durable. They also had one piece soft soled moccasins. Ceremonial footgear was decorated with quillwork. Beadwork did not become popular with Dakota women until the late 19th century. Common Dakota motifs in dress are dragonfly's, diamond shapes with appendages, eight pointed stars, and small crosses and stars. They also had short fringes and rows of quill wrapped thongs and beaded patches. Warriors and dancers in ceremonies wore face paint, usually with red or black paints. By 1900 little traditional dress had retained after the Dakota’s exposure to European ways.

Dances
In the Dakota culture, a powwow is a celebration of life and the circle of life. The drum beat during the dances represents life and the heartbeat and pulse. It is also meant to rejuvenate ones spirit. When being Dakota was outlawed in 1862, they were able to stay alive and active with their secret powwows. Many Dakotas meet other American Indians through these traveling powwows, and it is a great gathering place. Not only do they find other Indians, but they find out who they truly are on the inside. Powwows are a sacred event that requires the participants to be Witkośni, or without alcohol or drugs. A Powwow begins with the Okawingapi, or grand entry, that includes flags and eagle staffs that are meant to represent communities and families.

Men and Women Traditional Dance
The Wićahćana Wicipi is the men's traditional dance. This is meant to be representative of when the warriors would come back to camps after hunts and wars. They would get into a circle around the fire and would act out and demonstrate their expedition and what they went through with this dance. This is the oldest dance known to the Dakota people.

The woman’s traditional dance, or Winyan Ahana Waćipi is when the women dance around the edge around the men, to honor their male ancestors. For the woman’s traditional dance, their dress is as much as part of the ceremony as their actual dancing. This dance is very graceful and the dancers must have a lot of stamina and strength.

Grass Flattening Dance
Pezi Waćipi is known as the grass flattening dance. This was used when the band was to move to a new area. Certain warriors would go ahead of the band to the new camp and do the grass dance in order to flatten the tall grasses. They would sing and dance in the tall grass to dance. This is a representation of life and for good health and good fortune. In this dance, if a dancer does something with one side of his body, he must repeat that same move with his other side. This is in order to keep balance in mind and motion, physical and spirit.

Fancy Dance
The womens fancy dance is Sina Unpi Skehan Waćipi, or fancy shawl dance. This is a more contemporary Dakota dance that involves the women wearing beautiful shawls over their backs and shoulders. It is known as a very graceful, dainty, and free floating dance that keeps the dancers close to the ground. The men have the Waboga Unpi Skehan Waćipi, or the mens fancy dance. This is one of the most physically demanding dances and originally was a dance for the rainbow dancers.

Regalia
During powwows, the dancers wear regalia. Each piece of regalia is very unique and it helps the dancers to shine during their performances. Each tribe has distinct colors and designs used in their regalia. It takes along time to make regalia, and one continues to add to it as life goes on. They were originally used to deflect arrows and spears and include mirrors. These mirrors are meant to deflect bad thoughts someone else may have about the wearer, and to keep the bad spirits away.

Traditional
The first and most important thing to remember is that traditional Dakota medicine is holistically linked to philosophy, religion and spirituality. Treatments aim to balance the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components of a person... Their physicians are chosen by the wakan, a revered spirit, at birth or at significant moment in their life. Even if a child is said to be a healer at birth their behavior as a child, and adolescent can prevent this from occurring. Healer s passed down oral information on where each herb could be found and used for. Ceremonial traditions including dances and songs are also among the healers tools. The following is a list of plants the Dakota people used in their Medicine:

Locoweed
This plant has a purple flower and was used to relieve loss of appetite.

Colorado Sage
This was used for the treatment of headaches. The plant was dried on hot coals and the ailing person would inhale the vapor.

Wild Lettuce
Treatment for disease of the kidneys

Coneflower
Stalks and leaves of this plant are used to make a tea for side pain.’ -	Root is used to make drops for the treatment of earaches.

Wild Columbine
Treatment for diarrhea

Docks
this herb was made into a salve or oral medicine for the treatment of headaches, and fever in children.

Contemporary
Today there are still healers, and still people who are called to be healers, but through technology, and progress, some of those people have to choose other forms of employment to feed their families. Also, in the modern world finding the time to search for wild herbs, track their growth, and collect the necessary amounts, is difficult. Many contemporary Dakota’s use a “hybrid” of Medicine that includes the use of Western and some traditional medicines.

1650-
Dakotas meet Europeans

Exploring the west for furs, French explorers Radisson and Groseillers canoe along the south shore of Lake Superior and meet the Dakotas, whom they call "buffalo people".

1650-1700
Ojibwe arrive in Minnesota

The Ojibwe people, who have been moving westward for generations, reach the land we now call Minnesota. They meet the forest-dwelling Dakotas for the first time.

1679
Dakota and Ojibwe Treaty

Conflict occurs between the Dakotas and Ojibwe. European trader interested in keeping peace, Daniel Du Luth, arranges a meeting where both sides strike a bargain. Dakotas allow the Ojibwe to hunt on their land and the Ojibwe agree to let traders cross Lake Superior to trade with the Dakota.

1803
Louisiana Purchase Apr 30, 1803 The French sell their claims west of the Mississippi, including much of Minnesota, to the United States.

Chaske
A captured Dakota named We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee, often called Chaska, had had his sentence commuted by President Abraham Lincoln days earlier. Yet on the day after Christmas 1862, Chaska died with the others who were hanged in the 1862 mass hanging in Mankato MN. We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee’s case was No. 3 and not listed in the execution order handwritten by Lincoln, but his fate may have been the result of mistaken identity. The man he died for was No. 121, identified by Lincoln as Chaskey-don or Chaskey-etay, who had been condemned for murdering a pregnant woman.But historians say something far more complex may have been responsible for Chaska’s death: rumor. During the raids, Chaska took a white woman, Sarah Wakefield, and her children prisoner — not an uncommon occurrence during the Dakota War.What was uncommon, however, was Wakefield’s defense of her captor at his military tribunal. Chaska defended her and her children, she said, and kept them from certain death and abuse at the hands of his fellow tribesmen. “If it had not been for Chaska,” Wakefield said, “my bones would now be bleaching on the prairie, and my children with Little Crow.”

Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman)
Charles_Eastman a Santee Sioux, was born in 1858 and lived a traditional life in Canada until the age of 15, including complete training to be a hunter-warrior in the traditions of his forefathers. After returning to the US with his father, Ohiyesa would go on to receive his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and obtain his medical degree from Boston College. He spent the rest of his life working to help his people and to promote a better understanding of the American Indian Culture.

Zitkala Ṡa (Gertrude Bonnin)
Zitkala-Sa was born on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in 1876, the same year as the Battle of the Greasy Grass( Little Big Horn). Known as Gertrude Simmons, she was the daughter of a white trader named Felker and Ellen Simmons, whose Yankton-Nakota Name was Tate I Yohin Win ( Reaches for the Wind). At the age of eight Bonnin was enticed by missonaries and her friend Judewin, to go to an Indian Boarding School in Wabash, Indiana. While attending, Earham College she developed skills as an orator, a violinist, pianist, and a singer. Bonnin’s public writings appear under her slef-given name Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird) Bonnin had to deal with the disapproval of all sides of society, and she viewed her exclusion as the price she paid for her early education. Bonnin died on January 26, 1938 in Washington DC. The legacy she leaves behind is as vast as the changes she experienced during her lifetime. As an author she transcribed oral tradition and experience, fiercely gaurding her Indian identity and defying the aims of assimilist education. She found an eloquence to articulate historical injustices with and emotional rehetoric that enchanted sympathetic readers and audiences.

Ella Deloria
Ella_Deloria, who devoted much of her life to the study of the language and culture of the Sioux (Dakota and Lakota), was born January 31, 1889, on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in southeastern South Dakota, near the present town of Lake Andes. She was the first-born child of the Reverend Philip Joseph Deloria and Mary Sully Deloria and was named Beautiful Day Woman (Anpetu Washte-win) in commemoration of the blizzard that raged the day of her birth. Deloria’s primary schooling was at St. Elizabeth’s until 1902, when she attended All Saints, an Episcopal boarding school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After winning a college scholarship, she entered Oberlin College in 1910, then transferred in 1913 to Columbia Teachers College, where she earned her bachelor of science degree in 1915. During her senior year at Columbia Teachers she met Franz Boas, professor of anthropology at Columbia University, who hired her for her ability to speak Lakota to work with his students in a course on linguistics. This experience introduced her to the formal study of American Indian languages and cultures, thereby setting in motion the course of much of the rest of her life. Deloria spent many years working to transcribe and preserve her native language,After retiring, Deloria continued to live in Vermillion, South Dakota. She suffered a stroke in summer, 1970, and died on February 12, 1971, in Tripp, S. Dak, of a pulmonary embolus.

Ta Oyate Duta
TaoyatedutaLittle_Crow- was born at the Indian settlement of Kaposia, near what is modern-day St. Paul, Minnesota. When his father died Little Crow IV became chief of the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe, around 1848. In 1851, the United States negotiated the first Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Sioux tribes and others. Taoyateduta agreed to move his people to land put aside along the Minnesota River to the west. However, the treaty ratified by the United States Senate had the paragraph setting aside this land removed. The tribe was forced to negotiate a new treaty, under threat of forcible removal to the Dakotas, this time only granting land on one side of the river. Little Crow IV attempted to conform to the customs of the United States, but by 1862 the stress put on his tribe by cheating traders and failed payment of annuities for lands purchased in the treaties, caused Little Crow IV and his tribe to take action to avoid impending death by starvation. In 1862 motivated by hunger, the Dakota/American War broke out. Little Crow IV seeing no other option agreed to lead his people in the conflict. Thought the Dakota’s saw little victories in the beginning they were eventually forced to flee to Canada. On July 3rd 1863 Little Crow IV and his son, were on land which once belonged to him, when they were shot at by the farmer who now occupied the land and his son. Little Crow’s son was able to get away but his father would not leave the field alive.

Susan Power
SUSAN POWER

Standing Rock Sioux

Novelist/Educator

Minnesota

Because I was raised in the city, Chicago, and my mother was one of the founders of the American Indian Center there, I was exposed to the traditions of many different tribes and in terms of identity I thought of myself as "Indian" first and "Dakota" second. I didn't feel specifically Dakota until I began writing my first novel, The Grass Dancer, and characters appeared to me with stories that were distinctly Dakota. My mother believes ancestors had stories they wanted told, and that they were guiding me throughout the process. I truly appreciated having been raised by a mother who remembered so much of our rich history, and our cultural practices and beliefs and values, and tried to include some of that heritage in the book, specifically the chapter titled, "Snakes," which is set in the 1800's. I began to realize that so many of my mother's practices and habits, which I thought were just her own personal tics, were actually Dakota customs which were being handed down to me. Some of these are uniquely Dakota, but many of them are true of most indigenous peoples.

Because of my writings, I've been invited to travel the world to give talks and readings, and increasingly I'm conveying the message that while Native peoples have often been a source of fascination to other people, seen as exotic and foreign in an exciting way that is pretty dehumanizing, there's also this condescension, we are supposedly the long-lost "primitives," the "simpler" race. Far from it. Just as I revere the teachings of the Buddha who taught his disciples the importance of training the mind and heart to develop a place of equilibrium, we have had spiritual traditions that teach a similar inner discipline. We have had great philosophers, spiritual leaders, epic tales to equal the literatures of other Nations, and systems of government which formed the foundation of the current American one. We are not museum objects to be mourned and exhibited, nor are we empty vessels to be filled by mainstream education. We have so much to offer the world in these troubled times, and, thankfully, there are many who are waking to this truth. I recently took part in a World Cafe event where folks representing six continents and countless countries conferenced together over the phone for three hours, talking about how we define "Community" in the 21st century. So many of these people across the globe cited the importance of indigenous values and systems in inspiring their current work. We talked about kinship in many ways: kinship within neighborhoods on a local level, global kinship, where we realize that what happens a world away eventually impacts us all, therefore, we have a real stake in each other no matter how far apart we may live, kinship across species, the debt we owe to other beings who are not human, and kinship with the land itself, the relative who is so often forgotten in modern society.

Native society is all about kinship, connection, relatedness. We (traditionally) never saw each other as individuals standing alone, but beings who were related to homelands, to fellow creatures who had their own important business in our shared territory, to the plants and crops and trees we lived with, to generations that had gone before us and generations yet to come. Visually, we were never the isolated dot drawn on a page, but a chain of beings, circles within circles. Names were seldom used, rather terms of relationship or place in the family (e.g., first daughter, first son, etc...). It is a world view that is not matched in the mainstream and which makes all the difference in how we live in the world, what we prioritize. If our single life isn't seen as the be-all and end-all of our existence, then we make different choices in how much we consume of our surrounding resources and how we treat all beings. I vividly recall one time when I was very young, maybe two years old, I sat in a patch of grass and began pulling it up by the handfuls, joyfully, and tossing it over my head like confetti. My mother stopped me as soon as she noticed and scolded me, explaining that I was harming another living being, and I had no business doing that. I took the lesson to heart.

Not all Dakota people, or other indigenous people, have been fortunate to be raised with their traditional stories and cultural/spiritual practices, but I don't feel it is too late to reclaim them, learn them, and carry them into the world. My mother and I believe that our ancestors have a deep stake in our survival and are ready to guide us, assist us, teach us, if we only acknowledge them and ask for their help. There are countless stories of Native artists and scholars who have been helped in just this way to find their way back to very old teachings and material. I'm going a step further. I want our planet to survive. I want human beings to transform our point of view so that we recognize our true relatedness, how we will stand or fall together. I speak about tribal values wherever I go, and I've written about this in my new novel, Our Lady of the New World. We all come from tribal peoples and clans originally -- some of us are closer to these roots than others and so we work to call the world back to its deepest heart, most generous spirit, and eternal wisdom. We all have a rich heritage waiting to be claimed if we just open our eyes, our ears, and our spirits.

Waziyatawin
Historian and Activist

Being a Dakota person today means having to struggle to recover all that has been stripped from us as the Original People of Minisota Makoce (Land Where the Water Reflects the Skies). It means fighting to regain our traditions–those ways systematically assaulted through the process of colonization. It means struggling to re-unite our Oyate–a nation in exile because of government policies of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and land theft. It means having to rally in defense of our homeland once again–because settler destruction is so extensive that it threatens all indigenous life. Being Dakota today means fighting for the survival of our people, our way of life, and our homeland. Being a Dakota person today also means seeing our Oyate on the cusp of rebirth. It means seeing the vindication of Dakota ways of being in contrast to the hopelessly unsustainable ways of industrial civilization. It means recognizing the time-tested wisdom and beauty of our woodland and prairie traditions. It means understanding the value and meaning of our philosophy of Mitakuyapi Owas'in. It means visioning a liberated future for our children and grandchildren in which we can live as free people within our beloved homeland once again.

Tannis Bullard
Educator and Entrepreneur

To be a Dakota today, I feel proud of the hard work and determination of the Dakota People that came before me. They fought hard to maintain the culture and traditions that we practice today. I try to balance the knowledge of the past and incorporate it into today's lifestyle. To live life according to natural law.

I think it's important that people know Dakota culture is alive and well maintained. That does not mean that all Dakota People are living a traditional life however. I would like people to have a better understanding that many people are living a unique life that is beneficial for all without having to know everything about it. I believe that one of the main reasons Dakota culture and traditions are still alive is because they haven't been commonly shared and exploited.

Ramona Stately
Educator and Artist

Long beaded earrings are always the focus of my appearance. It is one of the many ways I show myself as a proud Dakota woman. I stand, like those ancestors before me, strong in my identity as a mother, a sister, an auntie and a relative. This is who I am, and knowing it provides me with a strong inner core. Today I live in two worlds and can navigate in and out of each easily. Living with a strong sense of knowing who I am and where I come from is what it takes for me to be a balanced person in this culture and society.

It hasn’t always been this way. Since the exile of the Dakota in 1862 from our homeland, MniSota, there have been generations of Dakota people who have not been allowed to be so proud. The key to the genocidal tactics used so successfully on all native people was to destroy the one thing that made them Indian, their identity. They were removed from the land which was the spiritual mother that provided resources and medicine. Families were separated from one another and the traditional language & spiritual ceremonies banned. They were taught the white man's language and education. There was a definite period of shame that we have had to make amends with. It wasn’t until 1972 that we were given back our religious freedom and finally allowed to practice our sacred ceremonies; those that carry the oldest cultural knowledge on this continent.

Among many dichotomous values brought to this continent, the colonizer stressed his patriarchal worldview on a matrilineal Dakota people. Our women, the backbone of the nation, and the decision-makers were weakened by this opposing value. Instead of strengthening our traditional lifeways, ceremonies and decisions by consensus, we were forced to forget those ways and acclimate to new ones. Even through all of this oppression, we are still here today. We suffer from the trauma of this history and loss, our communities are sick, but reinforcing our identity is the key to our wellness.

Our traditional philosophies tell us that knowledge is for all to share, and with the exception of sacred knowledge, it is up to us to teach others. In all phases of our lives as Native people, we are the teachers. It is not surprising to see how many of our Native people are educators today. As a teacher and Program Director of the Success for the Future Indian Education Program here at ISD279, I take a great responsibility in aiding Native families in the reclamation of identity..

It is important for all people to understand the history of the land they live on. Very few people know the truth of the history of MniSota and the bloody details of the birth of Minnesota. The Dakota people know their history and understand the places in MniSota that are sacred to us. Nick Colman from the Strib summarized it nicely once by writing “Fort Snelling sits above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers and at the confluence of a troubled history: A place where the first land cession to whites was made by the Dakota people who believed it was the place of their origin and who would one day, from under the walls of the fort, be exiled from their home.”

Every time I drive by the airport or near that area, I am reminded of our creation story, and of our exile. I am always aware that very few people know that feeling or that history. If we remain ignorant about our own history, we are bound to repeat it.

Erin Griffin
Tribal Program Liaison and artist

Erin Griffin emakiyapi ye. Cante mawaste ya nape ciyuzapi ye. Dakota winyan hemaca ye. Sisituwan heciya tahan wahi. Hello my relatives. My name is Erin Griffin. I greet you with a good heart and a hand shake. I am a Dakota woman. I am an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate from the Heipa district. I currently work for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate as the Program Liaison for the Tribal Secretary. I have a M.A. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma. In my spare time I like to create bead work for my family and friends and teach those who want to learn. For me, to be a Dakota today means to be a good relative. This requires responsibility to my family, and also my neighbors, my community, the environment and land, and all life. Within this responsibility I believe I must practice humility, honesty, modesty, compassion, and sincerity. In my work, I carry these teachings with me. My ability to achieve the education I have is the result of the support of many. As I worked on my masters, I remembered my family and community that helped me to get to that place in my life. Now that I am back within my community, I am using my education to give back and to help others. As an artist I reflect this way of life in my bead work. Through designs and technique I carry on the knowledge that many have given me, as well as knowledge I have received from observing my surroundings. I believe that my ability to create bead work is a gift from my relatives and the creator; therefore, I share it openly with others. This way of life is not always easy, but it is what I strive for and it is what my elders have taught me. Dakota wicohan heca. It is the Dakota way of life.

Darlene St. Clair
Educator

For me being a Dakota person today means being a good relative. This is a very challenging goal, especially today, but it’s a role that I take very seriously. I am a teacher and everyday I think about being a good relative to my students, doing my best to help and support them in their intellectual and emotional growth. I think about the many gifts and teachings they share with me. Being a good relative means making relatives, to me this means creating relationships and understanding my role and responsibility to others. Being a good relative means honoring all that the Creator has given us and being grateful. Being a good relative means practicing humility and recognizing both my gifts and my challenges. This also entails recognizing how I depend on rest of creation. Being a good relative means being brave even when it’s hard. Being a good relative means doing my best to live my traditional values, today and everyday.

Mandy Nelson
MANDY NELSON

Santee Sioux

Educator

Minnesota

Mandy's Background

Although my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and mother spent time growing up on the reservation, I did not. But that does not mean I did not grow up with Dakota traditions and values. And yet, I feel like I was raised in two cultures at once. I spent time, growing up with my family (and as you can see below, it might differ than most people today see family), involved in Dakota traditions. But as we all know, we are shaped just as equally by our peers as our family. Because I went to a school in another town, my peers I grew up with in school were not Dakota. I picture myself wound together of two cultural threads, affecting me almost equally, allowing me to see cultural differences right away from the beginning. I learned to understand and appreciate the differences. This founded my deep love of studying different cultures and languages and studying abroad.

What does it mean to you to be a Dakota person today?

Being a Dakota person in today’s world is trying to hold on strong to your Dakota values even when being submerged in today’s society. It is particularly hard when going away to college for 7 years and being away from family. However these Dakota are the values that I was taught and I hold to the most importance, even though they might not be seen as significant to others; values such as being giving, patient, and respectful (especially of your elders).

How would you define kinship as it exists in your culture?

My definition of family has always differed than my non-Dakotan friends. To me, it’s beyond the immediate family. My aunts are my mothers, my uncle - fathers, and my cousins are all my siblings. My 2nd cousins are my nephews/nieces. I feel as close to them as I do my biological siblings and parents. Many times it goes beyond that. Close friends become an “adopted” part of the family.

Why or why not are these values of kinship something that will continue to define Dakota culture?

I have always felt that our Dakota definition of kinship as being the most important of our values. Even as we become more and more submerged into today’s very busy fast-paced lifestyle and some of us move farther and farther away, we always make time for family. And, as long as we pass the importance of family down to our children and our children’s children, it will be a value that will never change.

Glen Wasicuna
GLEN WASICUNA

Tribe- SOUIX VALLEY

Occupation- LANGUAGE TEACHER

Current Residence-SOUTH DAKOTA

“To me, being Dakota in rhis day and age means that I remained true to the Creator. ” Glen on what it means to be Dakota today.

Gwen Westerman
GWEN WESTERMAN

from Good Thunder, MN

Tribe- SISSETON WAHPETON

Occupation- EDUCATOR/ARTIST

What does it mean to you to be Dakota today? "For me, it means knowing where I belong. Not just where I came from, not where I live, but family history.  When we know who our ancestors were, then we also know how we are related to other Dakota people today.  That is important because we have an obligation to be a good relative to those around us, especially to the members of our extended family.  It also means we should be a good relative to the land."

What do you think is important to convey to people about Dakota's? "The most important thing to convey to people today is that Dakota were here long ago and we are still here today. We are teachers, doctors, mechanics, lawyers, parents, musicians, sports fans, inventors, athletes, and we are also ikce wicasta--common people.  It's also important to understand that all Dakota people are different.  Some speak our language, some live in cities, some are Christians, some are poor, some are rich, some take part in traditional ceremonies, some don't know anything about being Dakota.  Each has a different experience of what it means to be Dakota today.  I am a teacher and an artist, so much of the work I do involves telling stories--stories about our shared history, our culture, and our lives as contemporary American people.  I am also Dakota.  That means that what I know as a Dakota person is often represented in my work and in my art."

Who Created this Page
Students in Humanities 380 at Minnesota State University started this page as part of their course requirements during Spring semester 2011. The course was titled "Dakota Culture and History" and focused on historical and cultural contexts, and traditional beliefs, practices, and customs of the Dakota people. Students also learned how those traditions are expressed in literature, art, music, and dance in the lives of contemporary Dakota people. One o Their instructor was Dr. Gwen N. Westerman, Professor in English & Humanities, an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. The group of 5 students that put together this page with the help of Dr. Westerman are:

Tiffany Ranweiler from Randolph, MN. Double Majoring in Literature and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Meagan Schiebel from La Crescent, MN. Major in Literature, Minor in Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Mackenzie Dougan from Madison Lake, MN. Major in Literature, Minor in Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Raul Mejiaborja from Chaska, MN. Major in Public Relations, Minor in Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato.