Siouan Tribes.
The numerous and widely scattered tribes belonging to the Siouan linguistic family formerly had a combined population which caused this to rank as the second largest stock north of Mexico, being exceeded only by the Algonquian.
All evidence tends to prove that during past centuries the many tribes who were found living west of the Mississippi when the great central valley of the continent first became known to Europeans had, within a few generations, migrated from the eastward. This is likewise indicated by certain tribal traditions. Many had undoubtedly occupied the upper parts of the Ohio Valley, and were probably the builders of the great earthworks discovered in that region. What impelled the westward movement of the tribes may never be determined. Whether they were forced to abandon their early habitat by stronger forces, by the lack of food which made it necessary for them to seek a more plentiful supply, or by reason of causes distinct from either of these can never be definitely known.
But some remained in the east; all did not join in the migration, and the native tribes encountered by the colonists living in the piedmont region of Virginia and extending southward into Carolina belonged to this linguistic family. Their villages have been mentioned in a former publication. (Bushnell, (1), pp. 92-94.)
It is more than probable that while living east of the Mississippi all reared and occupied structures similar to those of the Algonquian tribes of later generations, mat and bark covered lodges, such as continued in use by the Osage, Quapaw, and others even after they had reached their new homes, but some through necessity were compelled to adopt other forms of dwellings. Thus many were found occupying the conical skin tipi, while some had learned the art of building the large earth-covered lodges, an art which had evidently been derived from the Caddoan tribes coming from the Southwest.
dakota-assiniboin group.
The Dakota constitute the largest division of the great Siouan linguistic family. To quote from the Handbook, this group includes the following tribes, a classification which is recognized by the people themselves: "1. Mdewakanton; 2. Wahpeton; 3. Wahpekute; 4. Sisseton; 5. Yankton; 6. Yanktonai; 7. Teton, each of which is again subdivided into bands and subbands." These seven principal divisions are often referred to as the Seven Council Fires of the Dakota. The first four groups as given in this classification formed the eastern division, and their home, when first encountered by Europeans, was in the densely forested region about the headwaters of the Mississippi. The others lived westward, reaching far into the plains. The Assiniboin, in historic times a separate tribe, was originally a part of the Yanktonai, from whom they separated and became closely allied with the Algonquian Cree. Thus some of the Dakota as first known to history were a timber people, others lived where the forest and prairie joined, with a mingling of the fauna and flora of the two regions, and in later years the Oglala, the principal division of the Teton, extended their wanderings to and beyond the Black Hills, crossing the great buffalo range.
As will be shown in the sketches of the dwellings and other structures of the Dakota tribes, those who lived in the timbered region, occupying much of the present State of Minnesota, erected the type of habitation characteristic of the region, but in the villages along the Minnesota both bark and skin covered lodges were in use, and the more western villages were formed exclusively of the latter type, the conical skin tipi of the plains. There appears to have been very little variation in the form of structure as erected by the widely scattered bands.
Mdewakanton.
When preparing a sketch of the villages and village sites of the Mdewakanton, it is quite natural to begin with a brief description of the site of the village to which Father Hennepin was led captive, during the early spring of the year 1680. On the afternoon of April 11 of that year, while ascending the Mississippi with two companions, he was taken by a war party of the Sioux, and after much anxiety and suffering reached the Falls of St. Anthony, which he so named. Thence, going overland through the endless forests, they arrived at the village of their captors. Soon Indians were seen running from the village to meet them, and then it was that "One of the principal Issati chiefs gave us his peace-calumet to smoke, and accepted the one we had brought. He then gave us some wild rice to eat, presenting it to us in large bark dishes." From this place they were later taken in bark canoes "a short league ... to an island where their cabins were." (Shea, (1), pp. 224-225.)