The Siouan Indians

by W J McGee

WINNEBAGO

Linguistically the Winnebago Indians are closely related to the ʇɔiwe're on the one side and to the Mandan on the other. They were first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation of 1636, though the earliest[pg 196] known use of the name Winnebago occurs in the Relation of 1640; Nicollet found them on Green bay in 1639. According to Shea, the Winnebago were almost annihilated by the Illinois (Algonquian) tribe in early days, and the historical group was made up of the survivors of the early battles. Cbauvignerie placed the Winnebago on Lake Superior in 1736, and Jefferys referred to them and the Sac as living near the head of Green bay in 1761; Carver mentions a Winnebago village on a small island near the eastern end of Winnebago lake in 1778. Pike enumerated seven Winnebago villages existing in 1811; and in 1822 the population of the tribe was estimated at 5,800 (including 900 warriors) in the country about Winnebago lake and extending thence southwestward to the Mississippi. By treaties in 1825 and 1832 they ceded their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox rivers for a reservation on the Mississippi above the Oneota; one of their villages in 1832 was at Prairie la Grosse. They suffered several visitations of smallpox; the third, which occurred in 1836, carried off more than a quarter of the tribe. A part of the people long remained widely distributed over their old country east of the Mississippi and along that river in Iowa and Minnesota; in 1840 most of the tribe removed to the neutral ground in the then territory of Iowa; in 1846 they surrendered their reservation for another above the Minnesota, and in 1856 they were removed to Blue Earth, Minnesota. Here they were mastering agriculture, when the Sioux war broke out and the settlers demanded their removal. Those who had taken up farms, thereby abandoning tribal rights, were allowed to remain, but the others were transferred to Crow creek, on Missouri river, whence they soon escaped. Their privations and sufferings were terrible; out of 2,000 taken to Crow creek only 1,200 reached the Omaha reservation, whither most of them fled. They were assigned a new reservation on the Omaha lands, where they now remain, occupying lands allotted in severalty. In 1890 there were 1,215 Winnebago on the reservation, but nearly an equal number were scattered over Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where they now live chiefly by agriculture, with a strong predilection for hunting.

MANDAN

The Mandan had a vague tradition of emigration from the eastern part of the country, and Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, and others found traces of Mandan house-structures at various points along the Missouri; thus they appear to have ascended that stream before the advent of the ¢egiha. During the historical period their movements were limited; they were first visited in the upper Missouri country by Sieur de la Verendrye in 1738. About 1750 they established two villages on the eastern side and seven on the western side of the Missouri, near the mouth of Heart river. Here they were assailed by the Asiniboin and Dakota and attacked by smallpox, and were greatly reduced; the two eastern villages consolidated, and the people[pg 197] migrated up the Missouri to a point 1,430 miles above its mouth (as subsequently determined by Lewis and Clark); the seven villages were soon reduced to five, and these people also ascended the river and formed two villages in the Arikara country, near the Mandan of the eastern side, where they remained until about 1766, when they also consolidated. Thus the once powerful and populous tribe was reduced to two villages which, in 1804, were found by Lewis and Clark on opposite banks of the Missouri, about 4 miles below Knife river. Here for a time the tribe waxed and promised to regain the early prestige, reaching a population of 1,600 in 1837; but in that year they were again attacked by smallpox and almost annihilated, the survivors numbering only 31 according to one account, or 125 to 145 according to others. After this visitation they united in one village. When the Hidatsa removed from Knife river in 1845, some of the Mandan accompanied them, and others followed at intervals as late as 1858, when only a few still remained at their old home. In 1872 a reservation was set apart for the Hidatsa and Arikara and the survivors of the Mandan on Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota and Montana, but in 1886 the reservation was reduced. According to the census returns, the Mandan numbered 252 in 1890.

HIDATSA

There has been much confusion concerning the definition and designation of the Hidatsa Indians. They were formerly known as Minitari or Gros Ventres of the Missouri, in distinction from the Gros Ventres of the plains, who belong to another stock. The origin of the term Gros Ventres is somewhat obscure, and various observers have pointed out its inapplicability, especially to the well-formed Hidatsa tribesmen. According to Dorsey, the French pioneers probably translated a native term referring to a traditional buffalo paunch, which occupies a prominent place in the Hidatsa mythology and which, in early times, led to a dispute and the separation of the Crow from the main group some time in the eighteenth century.

The earlier legends of the Hidatsa are vague, but there is a definite tradition of a migration northward, about 1765, from the neighborhood of Heart river, where they were associated with the Mandan, to Knife river. At least as early as 1796, according to Matthews, there were three villages belonging to this tribe on Knife river—one at the mouth, another half a mile above, and the third and largest 3 miles from the mouth. Here the people were found by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and here they remained until 1837, when the scourge of smallpox fell and many of the people perished, the survivors uniting in a single village. About 1845 the Hidatsa and a part of the Mandan again migrated up the Missouri, and established a village 30 miles by land and 60 miles by water above their old home, within what is now Fort Berthold reservation. Their population has apparently varied greatly, partly by[pg 198] reason of the ill definition of the tribe by different enumerators, partly by reason of the inroads of smallpox. In 1890 they numbered 522.

The Crow people are known by the Hidatsa as Kihatsa (They-refused-the-paunch), according to Matthews; and Dorsey points out that their own name, Absaruke, does not mean " crow," but refers to a variety of hawk. Lewis and Clark found the tribe in four bands. In 1817 Brown located them on Yellowstone river. In 1829 they were described by Porter as ranging along Yellowstone river on the eastern side of the Bocky mountains, and numbered at 4,000; while in 1834, according to Drake, they occupied the southern branch of the Yellowstone, about the fortysixth parallel and one hundred and fifth meridian, with a population of 4,500. In 1842 their number was estimated at 4,000, and they were described as inhabiting the headwaters of the Yellowstone. They have since been duly gathered on the Crow reservation in Montana, and are slowly adopting civilization. In 1890 they numbered 2,287.