According to traditions collected by Dorsey, the Teton took possession of
the Black Hills region, which had previously been occupied by the Crow
Indians, long before white men came; and the Yankton and Yanktonnai, which
were found on the Missouri by Lewis and Clark, were not long removed from
the region about Minnesota river. In 1862 the Santee and other Dakota
tribes united in a formidable outbreak in which more than 1,000 whites
were massacred or slain in battle. Through this outbreak and the
consequent governmental action toward the control and settlement of the
tribes, much was learned concerning the characteristics of the people, and
various Indian leaders became known; Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse,
Sitting Bull, American Horse, and Even-his-horse-is-feared (commonly
miscalled Man-afraid-of-his-horses) were among the famous Dakota chiefs
and warriors, notable representatives of a passing race, whose names are
prominent in the history of the country. Other outbreaks occurred, the
last of note resulting from the ghost-dance fantasy in 1890-91, which
fortunately was quickly suppressed. Yet, with slight interruptions, the
Dakota tribes in the United States were steadily gathered on reservations.
Some 800 or more still roam the prairies north of the international
boundary, but the great body of the confederacy, numbering nearly 28,000,
are domiciled on reservations (already noted) in Minnesota, Montana,
Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The separation of the Asiniboin from the Wazi-kute gens of the Yanktonai
apparently occurred before the middle of the seventeenth century, since
the Jesuit relation of 1658 distinguishes between the Poualak or Guerriers
(undoubtedly the Dakota proper) and the Assiuipoualak or Guerriers de
pierre. The Asiniboin are undoubtedly the Essanape (Essanapi or Assinapi)
who were next to the Makatapi (Dakota) in the Walam-Olum record of the
Lenni-Lenape or Delaware. In 1680 Hennepin located the Asiniboin northeast
of the Issati (Isanyati or Santee) who were on Knife lake (Minnesota); and
the Jesuit map of 1681 placed them on Lake-of-the-Woods, then called "L.
Assinepoualacs." La Hontan claimed to have visited the Eokoro (Arikara) in
1689-90, when the Essanape were sixty leagues above; and Perrot’s Mémoire
refers to the Asiniboin as a Sioux tribe which, in the seventeenth
century, seceded from their nation and took refuge among the rocks of
Lake-of-the-Woods. Chauvignerie located some of the tribe south of
Ounipigan (Winnipeg) lake in 1736, and they were near Lake-of-the-Woods as
late as 1766, when they were said to have 1,500 warriors. It is well known
that in 1829 they occupied a considerable territory west of the Dakota and
north of Missouri river, with a population estimated at 8,000; and Drake
estimated their number at 10,000 before the smallpox epidemic of 1838,
which is said to have carried off 4,000. From this blow the tribe seems
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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