Although a large number of Indians have immersed themselves into American culture, several tribal groups carry out their daily affairs on Indian reservations. Furthermore, this particular Indian tribe speaks the Lakota language, which is a dialect of the Sioux tribal group.
The number of Lakota Indians is slightly lower than other tribal groups. Today, there are only about 70, registered Lakota Indians. Less than half of these continue to speak the ancestral language. On the open plains, mixed grasses cover rolling hills interrupted by sand hills, badlands, buttes, and canyons formed by the Missouri River and its tributaries. These people have not lived in this region long. With the acquisition of European-introduced horses and guns in quantity, the Lakota and their equestrian neighbors entered the Plains, abandoning their woodland homes and gardens in pursuit of the vast herds of American bison and other game animals, including elk and deer.
According to the winter count kept by American Horse, the first group of Oglala Lakota arrived at the Black Hills in By the s, the Lakota had acquired horses and flourished hunting buffalo on the high plains of Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakotas, and as far north as Canada. The Tetons, the largest of the Lakota tribes dominated the region. As white settlers continued to push west onto Sioux lands and multiple treaties were made and broken, the Sioux retaliated, resulting in three major wars and numerous other battles and skirmishes.
The first major clash occurred in near Fort Laramie , Wyoming, when 19 U. In retaliation, in U. The treaty, however, was not honored by the United States; gold prospectors and miners flooded the region in the s. After that battle, the Sioux separated into their various groups. The massacre by U. It was from the Dakota, that the Lakota stemmed, moving further west into the great plains. Major Sioux Battles, map courtesy the History Channel.
Fort Laramie , Wyoming : Site of Treaty of Battle of Little Bighorn , Montana , In the 19th century, the railroads hired hunters to exterminate the buffalo herds, in order to force the tribes onto reservations.
As the buffalo quickly came almost extinct, both the Dakota and Lakota were forced to accept white-defined reservations in exchange for the rest of their lands. Domestic cattle and corn were given to the Sioux in exchange for buffalo, making the Sioux dependent upon the government for food and payments guaranteed by the treaty. They believe that during the cold and snowy winter, the Lakota were well camouflaged in their dwellings.
One day, they heard noises outside and saw a big hairy white face outside, all dressed up, and wondering through the lodges. The Lakota used to keep bear fat high up in the trees where dogs and wolves could not reach it. The white man began to climb the tree and eat the bear fat, then strolled right through the camp.
Thus the Lakota word for white man is Washetrom — or the man who came into camp and stole the fat. The Lakota were early advocates of Feng Shui in the way they constructed their dwellings.
The tenth teepee pole is the one that comes up and that has to point to the Morning Star and this is the direction and the door is always facing to the east, the space which represents new life, created each and every day. Today, Lakota survival is still under threat, but not as you may belief through neither warfare, destruction of land or starvation.
The popularisation of Lakota culture, by academics, cultural analysts and the general public is causing a cultural erosion, and a romanticism of the traditions of the tribes causing inaccurate stereotypes of the few remaining direct descendent of the tribes.
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