Sioux

Sioux, or Dakota, confederation of Native American peoples in the North American plains. There were 7 main Sioux tribes, including the Santee, or Dakota, of what is now Minnesota, and the Lakota, or Teton, of the western Dakotas and Nebraska. There were about 30,000 Sioux; 15,000 of these were Lakota, of whom 3,000 were Oglala. The Sioux lived in tepees, and their principal activities were buffalo hunting and raiding. Their most famous ceremony was the sun dance. First noted in the Great Lakes region, the Sioux slowly moved westward after the introduction of the horse in the 17th century, and by the 18th century they roamed the plains of the upper Midwest. They fought on the side of the British in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. In 1862 a serious revolt of the Sioux led by Little Crow occurred in Minnesota, and 800 European-Americans were massacred, but by 1867 the Sioux had given up their lands and moved to reservations in the Black Hills. The discovery of gold there brought an influx of prospectors and further trouble erupted, resulting in the Sioux's famous defeat of Gen. George Custer and his troops in the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876). After repeated revolts against European-American misrule and treachery, the Sioux were finally defeated at Wounded Knee, S.D. (1890). About 40,000 Sioux now live on reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana.