Yankton (people)

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Former tribal areas of the Sioux groups: the Nakota ( Yanktonai and Yankton), the neighboring Dakota and Lakota tribes and today's reservations

The Yankton or Ihanke-towan (from Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ - 'Village at the End', Ihanke - 'Ende'; tonwan - 'Dorf': end of the village ), are a North American Indian tribe and, together with the Yanktonai, belong to the Nakota (also called Western Dakota ) who form the middle dialect and tribal group of the Sioux from the Sioux language family . Since both had their tribal areas between the Lakota in the west and the Dakota ( eastern Dakota ), they are also known as the Middle Dakota .

Originally the Yankton lived together with the other Sioux tribes in the area west of the Great Lakes , but were displaced south and west by the Anishinabe . On the migration to their new hunting grounds, they divided into three large dialect and tribal groups, namely the Dakota , Nakota and Lakota , which differed in dialect and partly in their way of life and culture.

In the past, the Assiniboine and Stoney were also counted among the Nakota and were often referred to as the Northern Nakota to distinguish them from the Southern Nakota (the Yanktonai and Yankton). However, the Assiniboine had separated from the Wazikute of the Upper Yanktonai before 1640 and had moved north to the southern Canadian Prairie Provinces, where they allied with the Plains and Woodland Cree and Anishinabe . The now hostile Sioux called the Assiniboine high - 'rebels'.

While Dakhótiyapi (Santee-Sisseton) and Lakȟótiyapi are still spoken by many Sioux today, the dialect variant of Dakȟótiyapi (Yankton-Yanktonai) has almost died out.

Yankton tribes

The Yankton were divided into several sub-tribes or groups (Thiyóšpaye, English bands ), which in turn consisted of several tiwahe (English camps or family circle):

  • Chankute
  • Chagu
  • Wakmuhaoin
  • Ihaisdaye
  • Guard unpa
  • Ikmun
  • Oyateshicha
  • Washichunchincha

Originally, seven Sioux tribes formed an alliance which they called Oceti Sakowin or Očhéthi Šakówiŋ ('The Fire of the Seven Tribes', 'The Seven Council Fires'). Among the Očhéthi Sakowin included alongside the four Eastern Dakota tribes ( Mdewakanton , Wahpekute , Sisseton , Wahpeton ) result in the Nakota belonging -Stammesgruppe Yankton (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ) and Yanktonai (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna) as well as the largest group, the Lakota (often called Teton called derived from Thítȟuŋwaŋ - 'Dwellers of the Plains').

The Mdewakanton were the leading tribe of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ until the Eastern Dakota uprising in Minnesota in 1862 , but as a result of the defeat, in which they suffered great losses in men and combat strength, their position within the Alliance had to be transferred to the largest group of the Tetons, the Oglala , resign.

Culture and way of life

Sioux tipis, painted by Karl Bodmer around 1833 .

When the Yankton reached their tribal area on the prairie in what is now southern South Dakota , northwestern Iowa and southwestern Minnesota, and north of the Missouri River , on their forced migration west , they switched from the woodland to the plains culture , but lived in fixed villages along the Rivers and, in addition to hunting, also farmed on a small scale. There they lived in earth houses , which offered better protection in the bitterly cold winters, but also stayed cool in the hot summer months. For the most part, however, they were dependent on the huge herds of bison , which provided them with food and raw materials for almost all their daily needs. Before the first horses of the Spanish from the south reached the grasslands, the prairie tribes roamed the Great Plains on foot as nomads . They lived in small, portable tipis made of three or four poles covered with bison skins sewn together. All their belongings were packed onto these poles and pulled by dogs. This device was called the travois . After the Pueblo Uprising in 1680, many Spanish settlers fled to Mexico , abandoning their horses, which were traded or stolen to the tribes on the prairies to the north. In just 75 years, the horse, called the Big Dog by the Indians , changed life and culture on the Great Plains. Horses made it possible to transport longer poles and thus larger tipis. The Indians could get from place to place faster and hunt more bison. They got more meat to eat and more skins for their clothes and tipis. These more favorable living conditions also resulted in more population growth.

After the introduction of firearms in the 18th century, the prairie tribes developed a complex, ritualized form of warfare, in which mere touching the enemy was valued more than killing and scalping . This touching an enemy in combat was called the Counting Coup and a famous Absarokee chief was called Plenty Coups .

In the Yankton area in southwest Minnesota, on the Coteau des Prairies , lies the sacred pipe quarry , an area of ​​over one square kilometer that the Indians have considered a zone of peace since ancient times. The reddish colored mineral found there, an aluminum silicate, was named catlinite after the painter George Catlin , who was the first to describe the place and to have the rock examined. The soft material is ideal for carving pipe bowls and is only hardened after prolonged contact with the air. Myths have developed around the quarry , in which it is reported that the stone got its color from Indian blood. Today the Pipestone National Monument is located at this point .

history

Early explorers encountered the Yankton and Yanktonai in the Lake Mille Lacs and Leech Lake area of ​​what is now Minnesota in the late 17th century. A map by Guillaume Delisle from 1708 shows the Yankton on the east bank of the Missouri near today's city of Sioux City in Iowa. The Yankton were not mentioned in the history books for about a century. Lewis and Clark reports indicate that their residential area extended along the Big and Little Sioux, Floyd and Des Moines Rivers around 1804. On the Missouri they had contact with traders who came up the river by boat. In the 1840s, they lived on the Vermillion River in South Dakota. In the Treaty of Washington on April 19, 1858, they had ceded almost all of their land in South Dakota to the government and moved to a reservation on the north bank of the Missouri, without any future conflicts with the white settlers. In return, they received money, food, and deliveries from the government. The American Civil War (1861–1865) led to financial difficulties and the lack of annual supplies, which triggered a famine among the Yankton. There were riots in some groups, but when the Sioux uprising broke out in Minnesota in 1862, their chief Palaneapape ('Struck A Pawnee', also Padani Apapi or Pa-Da-Ni-A-Ha-Hi - 'Struck by the Ree ') out of the conflict and warned the white settlers in good time to seek the protection of the forts. In doing so, he saved the lives of many whites. Shortly after the Dawes Act was passed in 1887, the division of the reservation into individual parcels began and ended in 1890.

Demographics

Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 700 in 1807. The Bureau of Indian Affairs reported a population of 2,500 Yankton in 1842, 3,000 in 1862, 2,530 in 1867 and 1,776 tribesmen in 1886. The 2000 census identified 4,961 Yanktons, most of whom live in the Yankton and Crow Creek Reservations.

Today's Yankton tribes

The Yankton are today organized and registered in the following two federally recognized tribes :

United States - South Dakota

  • Yankton Sioux Tribe (also Ihanktonwan Dakota Oyate , the Yankton Reservation covers approx. 1,772 km² and is located in the extreme southeast of South Dakota, in the south the Missouri River forms both the reservation and the state border with Nebraska, the administrative seat is Marty , tribal group: Nakota, Tribe: Yankton and some Yanktonai, total tribe members (whites and Indians): 15,594 (of which 4,510 Sioux), of which 6,465, including 1,396 Sioux, live in the reservation)
  • Crow Creek Sioux Tribe (the Crow Creek Reservation with its administrative headquarters in Fort Thompson covers approx. 1,092 km² and is located in the center of South Dakota along the east bank of the Missouri River, on the west bank is the Lower Brule Reservation , tribal groups: Dakota, Nakota, tribes: Mdewakanton (People of Spirit Lake), Yankton (Ihanktonwan - People of the End) as well as some Lower Yanktonai (Hunkpatina), total tribal members (whites and Indians): 22,364 (including 5,659 Sioux), of which 2,010 live, including 1,821 Sioux, on the reservation)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yankton
  2. ↑ Today it is controversial whether the Yankton and Yanktonai actually belong to the Nakota, recently they are called Western Dakota
  3. ^ Jan Ullrich: New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton) . Lakota Language Consortium, 2008, ISBN 0-9761082-9-1 , p. 2.
  4. ^ History of the Council Fires ( Memento from February 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Today it is controversial whether the Yankton and Yanktonai actually belong to the Nakota, recently they are called Western Dakota
  6. ^ Jan Ullrich: New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton), p. 2, Lakota Language Consortium 2008, ISBN 978-0-9761082-9-0 .
  7. ↑ Yankton
  8. ↑ Yanktonai
  9. ↑ Hans Läng: Cultural history of the Indians of North America. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach, 1993. ISBN 3-8112-1056-4
  10. ^ Yankton Indian Tribe History
  11. ^ South Dakota - Department of Tribal Relations ( January 15, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Homepage of the Yankton Sioux Tribe

literature

Web links