About the Dakota Language
The Sisituƞ-Wahpetuƞ Dakota have overcome many obstacles over the last several centuries. In addition to early wars with enemy tribes, they endured a period of intense disease and wars with euro-americans from 1812 to 1876 ending with the famous Battle of the Little Big Horn after which the last remaining free Sisituƞ-Wahpetuƞ returned to reservations in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana, or went on to Canada. Emotional hardships continued long after that, though, especially from massacres like the one inflicted on their Mniḳowoż u relatives in 1890. They continued to survive through lynchings and race-related hate crimes and indian boarding schools through the 1900s. Up until 1978, the Dakota way of spirituality was illegal, and those who were caught preserving their ancestral ways were often taken to insane asylums unjustly, and were subjected to horrifying conditions. Today, the Dakota continue to overcome difficulties associated with modern reservation life. There has recently been a major effort to revitalize the Sisiṭuƞ Daḳota dialect. Despite the hardships the Sisiṭuƞwaƞ Waḣpetuƞwaƞ Oyate endured, the culture and language is alive and growing. Ṭokatatkiya kahaƞ hinaḣ Daḳota heuƞc̣apte do! View the Cover Page. View the Introduction. View the Quick Reference. View the Bibliography. |
The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate represent two of the seven bands of the Great Sioux Nation, the Sisiṭuƞwaƞ (dwellers on the isthmus) and the Waḣpeṭuƞwaƞ (dwellers amongst the leaves). The name Sisiṭuƞwaƞ was originally Skiskiṭuƞwaƞ, from skiskita meaning “isthmus,” referring to the area between Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse (Oneroad & Skinner 2003: 59). Tribal members are also descendants of the Waḣpeḳute (leaf-shooters), Ṗabaksa (cut-head) and Bdewaḳaƞṭuƞwaƞ (spirit lake) bands. These names are sometimes shortened to Sisiṭuƞ, Waḣpeṭuƞ, and Bdewaḳaƞṭuƞ, respectively. The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate live on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeastern South Dakota, as shown in (1). The Lake Traverse Reservation has seven districts: Old Agency (Ateyapi Ṭípi), Long Hollow (Kaksiza Háƞksa), Lake Traverse (Bde Hdákiƞyaƞ), Big Coulee (Iyakaptapi), Enemy Swim (Ṭóka Nuwaƞ), Buffalo Lake (C̣aƞowanasapi Bde), and Ḣeipa.