Oglala

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Former tribal areas of the Sioux groups (green): the Lakota (including the Oglala), the neighboring Nakota ( Yanktonai and Yankton ) as well as Dakota tribes and today's reservations (orange)

The Oglala are a North American Indian tribe and belong to the Lakota of the Sioux language family . The name Oglala ('Scatter Their Own') roughly means who squander their belongings , probably in the sense of generosity. The Oglala are the most populous (over 46,000 registered tribal members in 2013) and best-known tribe of the Lakota, which played a key role in the Plains Indians ' struggle for freedom .

No Lakota tribe has been written more about than the Oglala. They were the first Lakota to advance west and crossed the Missouri as early as 1780 to settle between this river and the Black Hills . Their offspring can be found today predominantly in the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota .

The Oglala are one of seven Lakota tribes; the other six tribes are called Brulé , Hunkpapa , Minneconjou , Sans Arc , Sihasapa and Two Kettles . In the middle of the 19th century their tribal area was in western Nebraska , where they, like almost all Indians of the Plains, lived mainly from buffalo hunting and lived as nomads in tipis .

Groups of the Oglala

The Oglala are often referred to as the Southern Lakota together with the Brulé and are divided into the following groups:

Oglala girl in front of a tipi, photo by John CH Grabill (1891)
  • Oyúȟpe Thiyóšpaye
    • True Oyúȟpe ( Oyúȟpe - 'Broken Off', leading group)
    • Wakȟáŋ ('Holy')
    • Makȟáiču
  • Oglála Thiyóšpaye
    • True Oglála
    • Čhaŋkȟahuȟaŋ
    • Hokayuta
    • Húŋkpathila
    • Itéšiča ('Bad Face')
    • Payabya ('Shove Aside')
    • Waglúȟe
  • Khiyáksa Thiyóšpaye
    • True Khiyáksa
    • Kuinyan
    • Tȟaphíšleča ('Spleen', 'Melt')

history

American bison

The first information about the Oglala comes from Lewis and Clark in 1806, when they visited the tribe between Cheyenne and Bad River on the Missouri as northern neighbors of the Brulé and numbered only 450 members. 20 years later, however, there were reports of 1,500 members because some groups of the Brulé, Sihasapa and Yanktonai had joined the Oglala. Around 1825 they inhabited both banks of the Bad River between the Missouri and the Black Hills. Their most important trading center ( rendezvous ) was at the mouth of the Bad River in the Missouri, where they could exchange furs for consumer goods. Around 1835 they moved southwest to the upper reaches of the North Platte River to appropriate the rich hunting grounds of the Pawnee . In the early 1850s, the pushing development boundary (engl. Frontier ) to the territory of the Lakota West and led to the first conflict with the whites.

In the late summer of 1854 there was the Grattan massacre between a US unit under Lieutenant John Grattan and the Oglala and Brulé warriors, in which 29 soldiers lost their lives. This event was called the Grattan Massacre by the American press and was part of a large-scale anti-Indian press campaign in the United States at the time. It was the first armed conflict between the US Army and Indians in the west.

Red cloud war

Portrait of Red Cloud in 1880

Gold was found in Montana in 1862 , so the Bozeman Trail was built , which led across the Indian hunting grounds to the gold fields. Because the Indian attacks against gold prospectors and settlers were rampant, the army built a chain of forts along the Bozeman Trail in 1865 after the end of the civil war . In the Red Cloud War (1866–1868), named after the Oglala chief Red Cloud (Red Cloud), allies Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho mainly attacked these forts. The climax of the conflict was the Fetterman Skirmish , when 81 soldiers under Captain William J. Fetterman were killed by Oglala warriors under Crazy Horse . After two years of bitter fighting, the Americans withdrew in resignation. In 1868 the Americans offered Red Cloud in Fort Laramie a contract that guaranteed the Indians the area around the Powder River including the Black Hills. Red Cloud signed and promised never to fight the whites again. He kept his word until his death and remained the only Indian leader in the west to win a war against the US Army.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

Site of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The contract lasted for eight years. Soon, however, rumors of gold discoveries in the Black Hills were circulating. In 1874, prospectors came to the holy mountains under the protection of the US Army. This breach of contract brought the war back to the northern plains. On December 9, 1875, all Indians living outside of reservations were asked to report to one of the Indian agencies in order to assign reservations to them too. The Lakota, led by Sitting Bull , Crazy Horse, and Gall , resisted and continued to inflict heavy losses on US soldiers. In June 1876, scouts discovered a large Indian camp on the Little Bighorn River in Montana. The Seventh US Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was the first to arrive and immediately attacked the Indian forces. The united Lakota and Northern Cheyenne under their chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse inflicted a crushing defeat on the attackers in the Battle of Little Bighorn . Custer's regiment was wiped out to the last man.

In the winter of 1876/77, however, the glory of the victory at Little Bighorn faded in view of the constant attacks by the white soldiers, the famine and the bitter cold. On May 8, 1877, Crazy Horse surrendered to the Army at Fort Robinson , Nebraska. He had realized that his people, weakened by the cold and hunger, could no longer fight and was soon stabbed to death in a scuffle by military guards. The hopeless situation in the United States forced Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa warriors to flee to Canada. There he tried in vain for asylum and land rights and in 1881 returned to the USA with resignation. He lived on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota until his death in 1890.

Wounded knee

Chief Spotted Elk (also called Big Foot in literature ) dead in the snow at Wounded Knee (December 29, 1890)

Desperate about their hopeless situation, the last free tribes turned to a religious movement, the ghost dance . A prophet named Wovoka appeared among the Paiute and proclaimed the expulsion of the whites, the return of the buffalo and the traditional way of life. Many Lakota also sought refuge in spirit dance. The authorities feared a new uprising by the Indians and declared hostile anyone who was caught outside a reservation. A group of half-starved Minneconjou with their chief Big Foot were arrested in the freezing cold in December 1890 by a unit of the US Army and forced to set up camp on Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The soldiers camped around the Indian camp and positioned their Hotchkiss cannons . The following morning the soldiers searched the tipis for weapons. A shot was released, the soldiers panicked and shot the defenseless prisoners with cannons. Around 200 Sioux lost their lives in the Wounded Knee massacre, including Chief Spotted Elk or Big Foot. 25 US cavalrymen also died, mostly killed by bullets from their own men , who missed their targets in the resulting chaos. This bloodbath marked the end of the Indian Wars in the American West.

Todays situation

Today, every December 29th, the victims of the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek by descendants of the Lakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota are commemorated. In 1973, the Pine-Ridge-Oglala gained renewed attention by occupying the village of Wounded Knee . The 2000 census found that 22,157 Oglala lived in the Pine Ridge Reservation - however, estimates range as high as 35,000 tribesmen. A well-known contemporary Oglala is Billy Mills , who became Olympic champion in the 10,000m in 1964.

The violent persecution of the tribe, the ostracism of their culture and the complete deprivation of the traditional livelihoods have led to a cultural uprooting that makes it extremely difficult for individuals to identify with their people. Apathy, resignation and depression are the result of this story. 60% of the Lakota live below the officially established poverty line. Unemployment is 85% and the alcoholic rate is believed to be just as high. The Pine Ridge Reservation has the highest incidence of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer in the United States, as well as a staggeringly high rate of suicide and infant mortality. It is the order of the day that up to 40 people have to live in a living space of 50 m².

75 percent of the households on Pine-Ridge make a living from various forms of subsistence farming, such as hunting small game, collecting traditional food or (less often) some horticulture. In addition to self-sufficiency, these products are also sold to other Lakota families or in the towns around the reserve.

Today's tribes of the Oglala

Today, the Oglala, along with members of other Sioux tribes, belong to the following two federally recognized tribes :

United States - South Dakota

  • Oglala Sioux Tribe (also Oglala Lakota Nation , the Pine Ridge Reservation (Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke or Oglala Oyanke) with the administrative seat Pine Ridge and an area of ​​approx. 11,000 km², is located in the southwest of South Dakota on the border with Nebraska , the White River flows through it in West and forms the border in the north, in the extreme northwest it borders on the Cheyenne River, the reservation is considered the poorest area of ​​land in the USA, the unemployment rate in the reservation is 85%, the memorial and the site of the massacre are located in the reservation from Wounded Knee as well as parts of the Badlands National Park , tribal group: Lakota, tribes: Oglala, some Upper Brulé (Heyata Wicasa Oyate - 'Highland People'), approx. 35,000 to 40,000 tribal members (whites and Indians, of which approx. 50% Sioux ), live in the reserve, one third of the reserve residents state Lakȟótiyapi as their mother tongue)
  • Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Sicangu Oyate (also Sičháŋǧu Oyate , Sicangu Lakota or Upper Brulé Sioux Nation , the Rosebud Indian Reservation with the administrative seat Rosebud , covers about 3,571 km² in the extreme south of South Dakota and borders on the South Dakota-Nebraska Border, in the east the Keya Paha River and in the west the Little White River flow through the reservation, tribal group: Lakota, tribes: Upper Brulé (Heyata Wicasa Oyate - 'Highland People'), Brulé of the Platte, some Oglala and some with Dakota- Ponca descent, who today identify as Ponca , total tribe members (whites and Indians): 20,481 (of which 18,443 Sioux), of which 10,869, including 9,809 Sioux, live in the reservation)

See also

literature

  • Raymond J. DeMallie (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 13: Plains. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 2001, ISBN 0-16-050400-7 .
  • Dee Brown: Bury my heart at the bend of the river. Verlag Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, 1972, ISBN 3-455-08873-2 .
  • Benjamin Capps: The Indians. Series: The Wild West. Time-Life Books (Netherland) BV, 1980.
  • John Gattuso (Ed.): APA-Guides USA Indian Reservations. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag GmbH, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-575-21425-5 .
  • John Gattuso (Ed.): APA-Guides USA The Wild West. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag GmbH, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-8268-1449-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oglala History
  2. John Gattuso (ed.): APA Guides USA The Wild West. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag GmbH, Munich 1996. P. 45 ff.
  3. John Gattuso (Ed.): APA Guides USA Indian Reservations. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag GmbH, Munich 1992. p. 48.
  4. Kathleen Pickering: Alternative Economic Strategies in Low-Income Rural Communities: TANF, Labor Migration, and the Case of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation *. Department of Anthropology Colorado State University, In: Rural Sociology. Volume 65, No. 1, March 2000, p. 160 ( ( page no longer available , search in web archives: anthropology.colostate.edu ) PDF).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / anthropology.colostate.edu
  5. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Homepage of the Oglala Lakota Nation (Oglala Sioux Tribe) )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.oglalalakotanation.org
  6. ^ Homepage of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe
  7. Mary Bakeman: Legends, Letters, and Lies: Readings About Inkpaduta and the Spirit Lake Massacre. P. 168, ISBN 978-0-915709-77-9 .