Name and Organization

• "Sioux" comes from "Nadowe Su," which the French explorers truncated by dropping the "Nadowe" and changing the spelling of "Su." The original meaning was "little rattle," supposedly based on the areas' rattlesnake population. However, some interpret it to mean "little snakes," giving the name a slightly more sinister tone.
  
  The Sioux tribe was made up of groups known as the Dakota and Lakota, terms that both mean "friends" or "allies." The tribe separated the Lakota and Dakota into different groups, including the Hohwoju, Hunkpapa, Itazipco, Mdewakantonwan, Minneconjou, Oglala, Oohenunpa, Santee, Sicangu, Sihasapa, Sisitonwan, Titonwan, Waqpe-kute and Waqpe-tonwon.
  
  

Clothing

• Sioux dressed for the occasion. Traditionally, men work deerskin and elk-skin leggings and breechcloths with buckskin shirts. Women would make dresses of the same material. Men, women and children all wore moccasins. During inclement weather, the whole tribe wore long robes made of thick buffalo hides. Warriors would wear large feathered warbonnets when in battle and they would paint their body with bright colors and designs. The Sioux would also paint themselves for festivities, but the designs were mostly of animals and differed greatly from the war paint.
  
  

Homelands

• The Sioux homelands were located in what is now North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota. However, they were known to move their families frequently in search of food or to avoid hostile neighbors. They had populations in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana and parts of Canada. Son of the South claims that the tribe was found as far south as the Arkansas river, which runs through Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas.
  
  

Buffalo

• Sioux Indians depended greatly on the buffalo. They used the meat to feed their families and wore their thick hides for warmth during the cold winter months. When the Sioux tribe domesticated horses, they moved closer to the Great Plains where the buffalo were plentiful. However, the buffalo hid to avoid being killed and many died from cold. By the 1850s, the buffalo population had dwindled when the Sioux increased hunting and the development of the railroad ran through their habitat.
  
  

Hostilities

• Many Native Americans had difficulties dealing with the U.S. and, before that, the invading colonists. In the War of 1812, the Sioux sided with the British and fought against the U.S. After the war, the tribe gave up all their lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S. and, in 1851, they sold another 35 million acres for $3 million. Unfortunately, the U.S. did not honor the agreements they made with the Sioux when they surrendered their lands and the Upper Sioux lashed out at local settlers, killing almost 1,000 people. The Lower Sioux, living in the plains area, also became hostile but the U.S. military quickly subdued the uprising.
  
  One of the most famous battles between the Sioux and the U.S. Army was the Battle of Little Bighorn. The government instructed George Armstrong Custer to attempt to force the Sioux out of the Black Hills, land that is now South Dakota and that the Native Americans had refused to give up. Breaking a treaty providing the Sioux with rights to their sacred land, Custer attacked the Sioux in June of 1876. In about two hours, the Indians, led by Chief Sitting Bull and the Cheyenne warrior Crazy Horse, had killed Custer and approximately 200 soldiers.