The Siouan Indians A Preliminary Sketch - Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1893-1894, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 153-204 by W. J. McGee Edition 1, (October 23, 2006) CONTENTS THE SIOUAN STOCK DEFINITION EXTENT OF THE STOCK TRIBAL NOMENCLATURE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS PHONETIC AND GRAPHIC ARTS INDUSTRIAL AND ESTHETIC ARTS INSTITUTIONS BELIEFS THE DEVELOPMENT OF MYTHOLOGY THE SIOUAN MYTHOLOGY SOMATOLOGY HABITAT ORGANIZATION HISTORY DAKOTA-ASINIBOIN ¢EGIHA ʇƆIWE’RE WINNEBAGO MANDAN HIDATSA THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN TRIBES GENERAL MOVEMENTS SOME FEATURES OF INDIAN SOCIOLOGY THE SIOUAN INDIANS A PRELIMINARY SKETCH(1) BY W.J. McGEE THE SIOUAN STOCK DEFINITION EXTENT OF THE STOCK Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families found in North America above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were confined to the tenth of the territory bordering Pacific ocean; the remaining nine-tenths of the land was occupied by a few strong stocks, comprising the Algonquian, Athapascan, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, Siouan, and others of more limited extent. The Indians of the Siouan stock occupied the central portion of the continent. They were preeminently plains Indians, ranging from Lake Michigan to the Rocky mountains, and from the Arkansas to the Saskatchewan, while an outlying body stretched to the shores of the Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters and warriors and grouped in shifting tribes led by the chase or driven by battle from place to place over their vast and naturally rich domain, though a crude agriculture sprang up whenever a tribe tarried long in one spot. No native stock is more interesting than the great Siouan group, and none save the Algonquian and Iroquoian approach it in wealth of literary and historical records; for since the advent of white men the Siouan Indians have played striking rôles on the stage of human development, and have caught the eye of every thoughtful observer.