Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-06
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
THE sIoux

dams have arrAyed themselves
against the whites, points out a bull
letin from the Washington, d. c.,
headquarters of the National Geo.
graphic Society, in regard to the
tribes which have just brought court
action against the Federal Govern
ment for hundreds of millions OF
dollars, claimed to be due them in
payment for their "cId homestead"
"It is probable that the Sioux
would win easily in a vote to deter
mine which Indian tribe is most
widely known" says the bulletin.
with the possible exception Of the
much less generally known Ojibwa,
it is the largest tribe of American
indians north of Mexico.
Keepers of the Road to the
West
but this has not been the only
factor in making us familiar with the
Sioux. The Sioux of today are plain
Indians; and although our great
great-grandfathers knew the forest
Indians of the East all too well, 1t
is the exploits of the tribes from
whom the West has hardly been won
thai lie freshest in the memory of
the living generations.
1ltO Ai1dlll OO0J vi VIC 0AOoAt wv
lay in the northwestern prairie res
gions across which led the route of
the greatest westward trek of the
pioneers, whether they were bound
to the soil of Iowa or far beyond
to Oregon and California.
FINALLY the unforgetable names
and the dramatic incidents that the
history Of the Sioux has yielded, arc
sufficient alone to give them a prom
inent place whenever Indians are the
subject of thought. Red Cloud.
Crazy Horse, Rain-in-the-Face, and
the redoubtable Sitting Bull, were
Sioux. The Sioux have had a great
er hand at furnishing our best known
geographic names than any other
division Of Indians. Dakota Min
nesota,' Nebraska Arkansas 'Oma-
hha,' Kansas Iowa and Missouri
are a few examples, most of them
the names of Sioun-sub-tribes.
Made Over BY Buffalo and Horse
"a number of students of the
lAmerican Indian agree that the stock
originated in the forest region les
the Atlantic coast. Except for rela-
lively a few in the southeastern
states, however, the main body of
the people had been pushed west
by the time the white settlers reach
ed the New World. The French
first came into contact with men,
bers of the tribe in 1910 in what is
now Wisconsin. Even then western
members of the tribe lived on the
plains where contact with the buff
falo and possession of the horse had
materially altered their culture.
The Sioux call themselves 'Da-
kotas. Sioux is a contraction of
a French corruption of an Ojibwa
word meaning little snakes or
enemies Until comparatively re-
Gently the Sioux have been consis-
tent enemies of the new Americans.
They assisted the English both dur-
ing the American Revolutionary War
and the War of 1912, and practi-
cally every advance westward which
the white settlers nave since made
has been vigorously contested by the
Sioux.
By the first great treaty between
the United States and the Sioux,
made in 1928 at Prairie du CHEN,
Wisconsin. the territory Of the Sioux
was defined as lying mainly to the
west of the Mississippi River, and
including a tremendous area cover
ing roughly one-half of the pres
ent Minnesota, two-thirds of the Da-
kotas and considerable portions of
the present States of Wisconsin, Iowa
Missouri and Wyoming.
First Big Sale in 1887
I'm 1887 came the first big sale
of territory by the Sioux when they
disposed of all claims to territory
east of the Mississippi. In 1851 they
sold the greater part of their hold
ings in Minnesota. Delay on the part
of the government in carrying out
its part of the agreement aroused
discomfort among the Indians and
in 1857 they massacred settlers near
the Minnesota-Iowa border. This
was followed in 1852 by the terrible
massacre in which nearly
1000 settlers lost their lives. AS a
result of this uprising the Sioux
were driven out Of Minnesota and
pushed farther west. For the next
six years they were continually on
the war path.
"A period of peace followed the
of 1868 which was unbroken
until white miners, attracted by the
discovery of gold, invaded the Black
Hills in the seventies. Efforts to
liluuGG lnS OlOuA u 10 OIL feSeTNd- |
tons were resisted BY Sitting Bull, |
who with thousands of followers
trekked farther westward. In 1876
his band surrounded Clusters COM
mand of several hundred United
States caValrymen on the Little Big
Horn and massacred them. Sitting
Bull escaped to Canada and soon af-
ter this all Sioux of-the United States
were living on their great reservation
embracing all of South Dakota west
Of the Missouri River as well as
areas in adjoining states.
THE history OF the Sioux from
that time onward has recorded the
reduction of their reservations. In
1889 a treaty was made reducing
the reservation by one-half, and
dividing what remained into five
smaller reservations. Sitting Bull
was pardoned. returned to the
United States and resumed life with
his people on a reservation; but in
1890-91 he took part in disturbances
of a semi-religious nature and while
resisting arrest was killed by a peace
officer. On this ccasion a different
sort of massacre took place, the vic
tins being about 800 Sioux.
Since the outbreak of 1890-91
the Sioux have not again resorted
to arrows or tomahawks or rifles in
their contests with white men. But
that they mean to keep up the fight
with the more peaceful weapons of
civilization is shown by their de-
mand for a daV in court"