The New Student's Reference Work/Sioux

Sioux (so͞o), a group of tribes of American Indians belonging to the Dakota family. They are the principal tribe of the family, and sometimes their name is given to the whole family. They were living near the head-waters of the Mississippi when found by the whites. In their wars with the Chippewas and the Hurons some of them were driven farther south, but in 1822 they numbeied about 12,000 and their lands stretched from the Mississippi to the Black Hills. In 1837 and in 1851 they ceded parts of their land to the United States. The failure of the government to carry out their treaties irritated the tribes, and they troubled the white settlers for years and in 1862 made a general uprising, killing nearly 1,000 whites. New Ulm, in Minnesota, a town of 1,500 people, was nearly destroyed. This rebellion ended in the imprisonment of more than 1,000 Indians and the execution of 39 of the leaders, and cost the United States $40,000,000. The Santee Sioux were placed on reservations near Yankton, S. D., where they have become peaceful farmers. After a vain endeavor to settle matters peacefully, Sitting Bull (q. v.), a young chief, and others going to Washington for the purpose, the hostile tribes gathered in northern Dakota and began the war of 1876, in which General Custer perished. Large settlements of the Sioux have been made since in South Dakota. In 1890, under a “messiah,” there was another rising of the Sioux in the northwest. They now number about 25,000. Consult Riggs's Forty Years among the Sioux.