The Origins of
Siouxland
The
Ihanktunwan DaNakota
For over sixty million years the
Ihanktunwan DaNakota (today sometimes referred to as “Yankton Dakota”;
misnomer “Sioux”), lived upon their homelands now referred to as “western
and northern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, and southern Minnesota”, their
ancient territories ranging from present day Council Bluffs, IA, to Pierre,
SD, to Lacrosse, WI. Today’s large cities and communities, filled with
“Americans” that now dot the plains in prime river locations, were always
home to hundreds of thousands of Ihanktunwan and other populated Indigenous
communities.
The DaNakota Nation Citizenry prior to
the mid 1800’s had adequate land area to periodically move their Bison Hide
Tipi Lodges, allowing fresh grass to re-grow beneath. This ingenious and
respectful movement kept the Ihanktunwan families and communities strong and
healthy, as it prevented illness and disease, such as the common cold,
‘black mold’, flu virus, and various other airborne contamination plaguing
American homes today. The Ihanktunwan lived peacefully as did all colors and
nations of Grand Mother Earth prior to the “pyramid hierarchy” system (which
began 10,000 years ago with the invention of money, domesticated animals,
greed, and ‘god’), which eventually destroyed all female and male balanced
societies - except for the remaining surviving Red Nations still clinging to
their Way of Life today.
The “boundaries” of the DaNakota were
well understood by all their neighboring nations, and all visitors were
“guests” – considered “relatives”, free and “welcomed” to travel across and
camp without problem. Visitors, even including the immigrant “white man”
were welcome upon DaNakota homelands, despite contrary rumors in inaccurate
school textbooks insinuating “uncivilized savageness” of Red Peoples. The
few sporadic instances of conflict occurred only after post 1492
contamination and found huge losses to Indigenous Peoples and minimal loss
of life to the government and their American citizenry.
The lack of correspondence between
archeologists and u.s. citizenry ignores the peacefulness and contentedness
of the Red People prior to the “columbus era” (1492 to the present). Fences,
forts, catapults and other weapons of mass destruction were never employed
by Indigenous Peoples and are only unearthed in Europe and other corrupted
areas, leaving Red Nations free of barbaric behaviors.
Without alcohol, drugs or other
harmful contaminants into their pristine systems for millions of years until
the dreaded year of 1492, and with plenty of un-polluted fresh water, great
herds of over 100 million Bison, 100 million Elk, 100 million antelope, and
100 million Deer, there was no need to cause harm to a neighbor – let alone
a need for fences, forts, castles, or greed. In fact, the Nakota words
“wasin icuna” (takes-the-fat/best part) were put together to try to describe
the strange, foreign, greedy way of early European Americans.
The truth of “America” is rarely
exposed openly to Americans in the seemingly racist teachings of
“historians” and book-writers who continue to neglect their young through
such stereotyping and misteachings to American school children through
inncacurate textbooks, keeping their children and their society ignorant and
unaware.
Sacred
Red Stone
In the heart of Ihanktunwan DaNakota
homelands are the Sacred Red Stone Quarries in what is now called
“Pipestone, Minnesota.” A majority of Ihanktunwan who survived “The Great
Dying” today live upon what is called an “Indian reservation” near present
day “Marty, S.D.” In the past, the “reservation” served the u.s. government
as a “concentration camp” or “gulag” as land grabs, swindles, and thefts
plagued Indigenous Red Nations and Peoples during the rampant advance and
destruction caused by westward imperialism of the United States government.
The Sacred Red Stone is used only for
the Canunpa (misnomer “peace pipe”), connected to a wooden stem and filled
with “can sa sa” (the non-toxic, non-mind-altering inner bark of the Willow
tree) to initiate the beginning of, and for conducting, the Seven Sacred
Ceremonies of the Nakota Nation. The Seven Ceremonies of the Canunpa teach
appreciation and respect of Grand Father Sky and Grand Mother Earth – called
“Wakan Tanka” or “the Great Mystery of Life.” Without a fantasical and
man-made concoction of “god” (a male-dominating manner to control the masses
and allow desecration of Grand Mother Earth for personal gain and power),
the DaNakota were able to appreciate the gifts of nature without harming or
destroying them.
It is from these Sacred Red Stone
Quarries (limited and finite in quantity and to be protected from all other
uses) where the DaNakota “origin stories” bring them forth the Ihanktunwan
from within Grand Mother Earth to serve as caretakers of this spiritual and
sacred place, where the Red Stone is found nowhere else in the world.
The unique, rich, red stone perfectly
matches the brilliant red skin tone of the full-blooded Indigenous person.
This is where the term “Red Man” comes from, as the Nakota word for human or
mankind is “Wica Sa” (Man, Red; Human, Red).
The DaNakota were fine hosts to those
seeking individual harvest of the Sacred Red Stone and spiritual pilgrimage
to those stone quarries for their smoking vessels which held their Tobacco
and Inner-Willow-Bark-Shavings within their sacred Canunpa.
The
Ihanktunwan DaNakota
One of the DaNakota favorite home
sites was in the area now called “Sioux City, Iowa.” It is located along the
Big Muddy “Missouri River” near the mouth of the Big Nakota “Big Sioux”
River where Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa now border together. Over
twenty thousand Ihanktunwan lived in the immediate “Sioux City” area since
time immemorial for both their winter and summer community home sites. The
hills along the eastern edge of the Big Muddy were known as the “DaNakota”
or Nakota Hills and hold the remains of millions of DaNakota who have past
into the Spirit World during the past 60 million years. Great reverence and
solitude must be practiced when climbing these Nakota Hills, which were also
used as prime “fasting” or “Crying For A Vision” locations for the
Ihanktunwan. Today, the “white man” calls Nakota Hills the “Loess Hills” –
German language for “loose.”
The meaning of the word “Iowa” comes
from the DaNakota, who called the “Ioway” – an Indigenous Nation residing in
the southern and eastern portion of what is today called “Iowa” - the
“Ayuhba” (AH-you-khbah) or “The Sleepy Ones.” These words describe the
Ioway’s relationship with the DaNakota. It is said that the Ioway (who call
themselves Bah koje [BAH-khoh-jay]) were so humble that when they
would get tired of speaking with the Ihanktunwan during nation celebrations,
adoptions, meetings, or gatherings, they would pretend-yawn in order to
excuse themselves in a most friendly and humble fashion. This could also be
translated as “The Humble Ones.” Nations who also lived in or near “Iowa”
like the Meskwaki and Illini pronounced Ayuhba as Ahyuway or “Ioway.” But
the “Ioway” are actually the Bah koje.
The Nakota Nation of which the
DaNakota comprise the “d/n” language grouping, have the same language as the
Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota, except in instances when the “N, D, or L” sounds
are used, and the appropriate corresponding sound is implemented. As an
example, the words “Indigenous Boy” would be “Nakota Hoksina” in the
“Nakota” language, while in “Lakota”, the words would be pronounced “Lakota
Hoksila” (noting “l” replaces “n”). The Ihanktunwan use both “n” and “d” in
their unique language.
U.S.
Military Reconnaissance Mission
In 1803 – without knowledge of
Indigenous Red “Indian” Nations who lived in all areas west of the
Mississippi River, the European nation of France sold claiming and
trade/exploitation rights to the United States for the west-Mississippi area
for $11 million dollars.
This arrogant transaction, however
immoral and illegal, led to the initial military reconnaissance mission to
map out and locate Indigenous Red Nations for future destruction by u.s.
forces and occupation. The two military men hired for this job were Captains
Clark and Lewis. When coming through what is today “Sioux City”, one of
their crew, Sgt. Floyd, died from one of the many European illnesses
contaminating the pristine regions of Great Turtle Island (the “western
hemisphere”), post 1492. His remains were buried on the bluff overlooking
the Big Muddy River and a large monument today marks the approximate
location of his gravesite. Lewis would later commit suicide, unable to
handle the depression he felt due to the genocide he helped foster through
his military mission.
Smutty
Bear
In 1851, the great orator Mato
Sabiciye (pronounced “Mah-TOE Sah-BEE-chee-yeh) or “Smutty Bear”, was the
principal spokesperson for the entire Ihanktunwan DaNakota Nation. His duty
to his people was to translate the consensual group decisions of “Oyate
Omniciye” or “Circle Meetings of The People”, which included all adult men
and women of the DaNakota Nation who gathered to discuss and take action
upon important national matters.
Mato would relay - most eloquently -
during large international meetings and gatherings, exactly what all
Ihanktunwan communities instructed him to say. Mato Sabiciye made his
primary home in what is now called Sioux City and his secondary home near
the falls at Sioux Falls, SD. A third home site of Smutty Bear was the
southern shores of the Iowa Great Lakes region today called “Okoboji.”
The
1851 Treaty
Smutty Bear was given the duty of
“Itacan” or “Principal Spokesperson” for the Ihanktunwan and served during
the negotiations of the 1851 Treaty of Long Meadows, commonly
referred to by the United States as the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
Mato Sabiciye, under orders from each
community back home - along with eight other representatives of eight
distinct nations of the Great Plains Region who also followed Oyate Omniciye
“true democracy” protocol, developed an agreement called the 1851 Treaty of
Fort Laramie, with the United States government on September 17th,
1851.
The 1851 Treaty was an agreement
between the u.s. and the nine Red Nations to forever and “legally on paper”
(the legal way of the “white man”) protect Indigenous homelands from
encroachment and occupation by the United States and their citizenry.
Each representative of the nine Red
Nations was instructed by their male and female “Circle Meetings” within
their communities (actual democracy currently on the verge of extinction
upon Grand Mother Earth) to get the U.S to . sign their name on the Treaty –
which they brilliantly and successfully accomplished. The “supreme law”
Treaty was later completed through appropriate u.s. protocol (ratification)
by the senate in 1853. Because the 1851 Treaty was developed and agreed upon
in the appropriate manners of the nine nations and the United States
government system, this binding contract protected Indigenous hunting,
gathering, traveling, and living rights in perpetuity.
The document was signed on September
17, 1851 along Horse Creek in what is now called northwestern Nebraska, near
present day Morrill, Nebraska. The name of the great Mato Sabiciye – a Sioux
Cityan long before Sioux City - can be viewed and seen as the fifth name
down on the actual 1851 Treaty (see www.1851Treaty.com).
The
Fur Trade
It was very fortunate for early French
fur trappers and Americans that they were so free to move around, settle
upon, and lay claim to lands and resources of the Northern Great Plains of
Great Turtle Island (“western hemisphere”) where the DaNakota had lived for
those happy and peaceful sixty millions years or more. There was a great
desire back east for “beaver caps” and the French, along with assimilated
“Indians”, exploited the sacred beaver for monetary gain – although this
practice was previously unheard of before the “columbus era.”
In 1850, a French man, Theophile
Bruguier became the first white man to settle in what is now called “Sioux
City, Iowa.” He married into the community to the daughter of an Isanti
Dakota spokesperson (adopted through his marriage to an Ihanktunwan woman)
known as “Fighting Eagle.” Fighting Eagle is sometimes referred to as “War
Eagle”, although the DaNakota had no word for, nor carried out the barbaric
practice of “war.”
In 1852, the year just after the Great
Horse Creek Treaty was agreed upon between Indigenous Red Nations and the
United States government, a French trapper by the name of Gustav Pecaut was
trapping in Montana among the “Nakota” (“Assinaboin”), the language grouping
of the Nakota Nation who spoke in the “n” dialect. There Gustav learned to
speak the Nakota language fluently.
While moving a barge of furs down to
St. Louis via the Big Muddy River, Pecaut and two other trappers were
forced, due to poor navigation in low waters, to stop in Sioux City. Gustav
was at a point in his life that he felt the need to settle down and Sioux
City seemed to be the place to do it. He ended up staying on a farm with the
second white man to settle in Sioux City, a man by the name of “Leneaux.”
Gustav Pecaut began delivering mail
between Sioux City and Fort Pierre, Dakota Territories, in what is now
central South Dakota. Pecaut grew tired of an Englishman who moved into the
Sioux City so he moved across the river to establish Covington.
Pecaut once led a group of men on
horseback into the Black Hills to search for gold. Because it was
discouraged by the government (in a half-hearted attempt to honor the 1851
Treaty) for American citizens to enter upon 1851 Treaty Homelands, Gustav
had to lead the group first towards the confluence of the north and south
Platte Rivers. The party then moved northward and snuck into the He Sapa
(the “Black Rocky Mountains” as the Lakota called it) from the south.
Time was spent in a canyon panning for
gold with little success. On the return trip home, they encountered a group
of patrolling army soldiers who considered detaining them, but because
Gustav knew one of the officers from his Fort Pierre mail delivery service,
the officer allowed them to leave – so long as they went straight back (and
with an escort for some twenty miles in the direction of Sioux City). After
the military was out of sight, a group of Lakota riders came upon the
miners, which could have been troublesome to the group as they were
illegally trespassing upon Lakota lands, save again for Gustav – who knew
one of the Lakota riders from, once again - his time spent at Fort Pierre
and his fluency in the Nakota Language.
The friendliness and graciousness of
the Nakota Nation Citizenry and other Indigenous Red Nation peoples is not
well spoken of. Many lies were leveled against them in successful attempts
to dehumanize and defame such great and honorable peoples. Much of this
racism was due to the greed of government officials and the companies and
speculators who prayed upon good peoples.
In fact, Gustav Pecaut was himself a
victim of unethical dealings. President Abraham Lincoln, long thought to be
“honest Abe”, had influenced the Union Pacific Railroad to go though Council
Bluffs, Iowa – instead of the planned route though Sioux City, where Gustav
had invested heavily in the railroad coming through. Little did he know the
shady dealings in Washington, D.C. (dishonest Abe held speculations in
Council Bluffs, Iowa – a city itself named after a meeting with the DaNakota
between Clark and Lewis during the initial military expedition) would affect
the local Sioux City resident.
Abe Lincoln also was responsible for
the genocide and wrongful deaths of thirty-eight Santee Dakota citizens the
day after xmas in 1862. The Santee had been forced to agree with the u.s.
government’s terms of living on a “reservation” and not hunting in their old
traditional hunting grounds. But after being starved by the “white,
reservation agent” -who had been secretly selling food stuffs intended for
the Santee to his “white friends” in St. Louis Missouri instead, the
suffering and famished Santee were forced to hunt.
The Santee were immediately labeled as
“hostile” by the agent for the act of hunting off their destitute
reservation in a last desperate act of survival, as any starving person
would have resorted to regardless of any prior agreement. The newspapers
went absolutely crazy condemning the Santee – blaming the victim. The media
frenzy created mass hysteria, “allowing” for the military to commit a
ruthless and heartless physical attack upon the innocent Santee and leading
to dishonest Abe’s subsequent genocidal hanging – the largest mass hanging
in world history (see “Guinness Book of World Records”).
Even those Santee who remained
stationary upon their “reservation” (concentration camp) starving to death
were molested by the marauding government troops and vigilantes. Today,
Santee refugees in exile live primarily in Sioux City, Iowa, with their
“reservation” located an hour and a half upriver near Niobrara, Nebraska.
It was around this time that Gustav
Pecaut moved to the other side of the Big Muddy because an Englishman moved
into Sioux City and according to Pecaut, “there went the neighborhood”.
Gustav established the township of Covington, Nebraska Territory (later
renamed “South Sioux City, Nebraska”). With their approval, Pecaut laid
claim to many acres of the “Umanhan” or “Omaha Nation” of Indigenous
peoples, whose homelands and territories stretched from points between the
present day cities of Omaha, Niobrara, and North Platte, Nebraska.
In 1863, Gustav Pecaut became a
naturalized U.S. citizen of the United States in Dakota City, Dakota County,
Nebraska Territory. Today, both Red and White live together upon DaNakota
and Umanhan homelands in what is now referred to as “Siouxland.”
Well
Known Sioux Cityans
One of the most famous “Sioux Cityans”
today is Reva DeCorah Barta, who has made her home there for over 50 years.
Reva is the National Secretary for the American Indian Movement (AIM), a
group of Indigenous “American Indians” who verbally and physically protested
against the government policy of “termination of Indian tribes” (and won).
The “radical, militant” (according to media coverage) also protested against
and were successful at reestablishing freedom of spirituality (“religion”),
thereby insuring that Indigenous ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and Life
Renewal (misnomer “sweat lodge”) could be conducted without fear of arrest.
AIM also insured rights to “supreme law” Treaties through their great
efforts during the 1960’s and 70’s.
Reva’s Great Grandmother, Morning
Glory Woman, (www.morninggloryfoundation.org) was the Principal Spokesperson
for the entire Ho Cank (“Winnebago”) Nation of the region now known as
“Wisconsin” during the mid 1700’s. Morning Glory Woman married a french fur
trapper, Sebrevierre DeCorah, and the two had many children together. Reva’s
father, Henry Thomas DeCorah, was a World War I war hero, watching his
father, Foster DeCorah, Killed In Action not fifty feet from him during the
infamous “Hindenburg Line Battle” in France. Foster remains are buried in a
military cemetery in France to this day.
During the mid 1800’s, many Ho Cank
were forced from their homelands due to American encroachment and genocide,
finally escaping from imprisonment from Fort Thompson, SD and finding refuge
among the Umanhan people near what is today called “Winnebago, Nebraska.”
The resourceful Ho Cank today have many businesses and organizations, such
as “Indianz.com” and “Ho Chunk, Inc.”, which enhance Ho Cank life upon their
allied Umanhan’s homelands they so generously and graciously share. Their
annual Homecoming Festivities Pow-wow are held the last full weekend of July
each year and many tourists and visitors attend the breathtaking singing and
dance performances hosted by the Ho Cank Nation Citizenry of Nebraska.
Famed Gateway Computer Company founder
Ted Waitt also started his multi-billion dollar business in Sioux City. His
brother and co-founder Norman Waitt is a Hollywood producer, with notoriety
for the production of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
Superstar NBA basketball player, Kirk
Heinrich, of the Chicago Bulls, began at Sioux City’s West High School,
winning the Iowa State Four-A Championship during his senior year there.
Pending Resolution
In 1858, government officials forced
and extorted signatures from a Yankton Dakota delegation to Washington, DC,
on a false “1858 treaty” The delegation was taken out into
the ocean on a large military ship and there, were threatened to be thrown,
or shot from a cannon, overboard, if they did not sign a paper to relinquish
lands to the u.s. gov’t.
The lands thefted were much of
northern Iowa, southwestern Minnesota, and southeastern South Dakota,
leaving the Ihanktunwan with a tiny speck of land near the Fort Randall dam,
which, when constructed, was supposed to provide free electricity to the
Ihanktunwan Citizenry in perpetuity – but did not, and remains yet another
swindle and violation of Indigenous rights.
This wrongful action of hostage-taking
and extortion, violations of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and the
1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, has yet to be corrected and the DaNakota
maintain their rights to their homelands to this very day. Article VI
states, “Treaties made with Indian nations shall be the supreme law of the
land, with the judges in every state bound thereby.” The genocide convention
act of 1988 also prevents such theft of Indigenous lands.
For more info on this history of Siouxland and
the Plight of the DaNakota, see
www.1851Treaty.com
