Teton Sioux: Population History, 1655-1881

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Article Title: Teton Sioux: Population History, 1655-1881

Full Citation: Kinglsey M Bray, “Teton Sioux: Population History, 1655-1881,” Nebraska History 75 (1994): 165- 188.

URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1994-Teton_Sioux.pdf Date: 1/27/2010

Article Summary: During 1780-1880 the western or Teton divisions of the Sioux emerged as the dominant military-political force on the native northern plains. Until the expanding power of the United Stats confined all Indians to reservations, the Tetons were able to dominate their neighbors and gradually extend their hunting ranges across the high plains from the Missouri Valley to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This essay demonstrates the central importance of population studies in interpreting tribal histories and to provide a framework for understanding the major trends of Sioux population from the time of European contact to the imposition of the reservation system. Cataloging Information: Names: Three Bears; Arthur J Ray; Pierre Le Sueur; William Clark; Pierre-Antoine Tabeau; Thaddeus A Culbertson; Alfred W Vaughan; K Warren; Edwin T Denig; Thomas S Twiss; Henry F Dobyns; Pierre le Moyne; Sieur d’Iberville; David Thompson; Alexander Mackenzie; Fr Louis Hennepin; Conrad E Heidenreich; Gary C Anderson; Jonathan Carver; Helen H Tanner; Zebulon Pike; William Clark; Meriweather Lewis; George E Hyde; Pierre Dorion; John S Gray; Valentine T McGillycuddy; J C R Clark; Pierre Esprit Radisson; Jean Valle; John Ewers; Stephen R Riggs; Joseph N Nicollet; Four Bears; Red-Tailed Eagle; Elk Head; Crow Feather; Keeper of the Sacred Calf Pipe; Fire Heart; John Grass; Sitting Bull; Running Antelope; One Horn; Standing Elk; Swift Bear; Pawnee Killer; Dove Eye; Spotted Tail

Place Names: Fort Laramie; Great Lakes Basin; St Louis; Great Sioux Reservation; Mississippi; Fort Pierre; North Platte; Teton; South Platte; Republican River; Yellowstone; Fort George; Grand River; Standing Rock

Keywords: “Hudson’s Bay Company” “Teton Sioux” “Arikaras” “Pawnee” “Mandan” “Hidatsas” “Omaha” “Ponca” “Oto” “Comanche” “Atsina” “Crow” “Assiniboin” “Blackfeet” “Arapaho” “Cheyenne” “Cree” “Seven Years War” Yankton” “smallpox” “epidemic” “Prairie village” “Brule” “Oglala” “Miniconjou” “Two Kettles” “Sans Arc” “Sihasapa” “Hunkpapa” “Statistical View of the Indian Nations” “Standing Rock Agency: “Sioux War” “Lower Brule Agency” “Rosebud” “Pine Ridge” “Iroquois Beaver Wars” “Chippewa” “Wazhazha” “Bluewater” “Minisa” “cholera” “calumet ceremony” Kiyksa” “Oyuhpe” “Treaty of 1868” “Spotted Tail Agency” “Red Lodge” “Orphan” “Upper Brule” “Broken Arrow” “American Fur Company” “Cheyenne River Agency” “Wakan” “Sore-backs” “Kiowa” “Sun Dance” “Bozeman Trail War”

Photographs / Images: Three Bears, Oglala; Sioux Indian women; Sioux Indian boy; Map Expansion of the Teton Sioux, 1655-1870; Table, Estimates of Sioux Population 1660-1805 and Notes; Table, Estimates of Teton Sioux Population by Tribal Divisions, 1805-1881 and Notes; Table, Reconstructed Teton Sioux Population by Tribal Divisions, 1805-1881 and Notes; Graphs, Total Sioux Population, 1655-1905, and Total Teton Population, 1801- 1881; Standing Elk, Yankton; Swift Bear, Brule; Pawnee Killer, Oglala; Graph, Brule and Oglala Population, 1801-1881; Spotted Tail; Dove Eye, Spotted Tail’s daughter; Graph, Miniconjou, Two Kettle, Sans Arc, Sihasapa, and Hunkpapa Population, 1801-1881; Running Antelope, Hunkpapa; Graph, Tribal Divisions as Percentages of Reconstructed Teton Population, 1805-1881 Population History, 1655-1881

By Kingsley Ad Bray

Introduction permitted no regular censuses. Sources During the century 1780-1880 the western are highly variable in quality, with errors or Teton divisions of the Sioux emerged arising through omission, simple misun- as the dominant military-political force on derstandings, or methodological flaws. the native northern plains. Until the ex- The sources reflect the estimators' tempta- panding power of the United States con- tions to round figures up and down, to fined all Indians to reservations, the submit to impressionistic computations Tetons were able to dominate their neigh- based on the perception that the Sioux bors, both horticultural "villagentribes vastly outnumbered their neighbors, or to and nomadic hunters, and gradually to overcompensate for errors of magnifica- extend their hunting ranges across the tion by drastically underestimating. Even high plains from the Missouri Valley to the as the period closes, when estimates were foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Al- being replaced by head counts at many though the expansionist dimension of agencies, the largest Teton divisions were Teton history has frequently been out- still being overcounted by handsome per- lined, no systematic attempt has been centages, anomalies only cleared by the made to assess the fundamental demo- rigorous census methods adopted after graphic factors involved during a period 1886. of massive population change.' The fol- Data, therefore, are difficult to assess, lowing essay hopes to demonstrate the interpret, and use. By and large, I have re central importance of population studies jected those figures outlandishly high or in interpreting hibal histories and to pro unconscionably low: sufficient examples vide a sound framework for understand- exist to constitute two distinct traditions in ing the major trends of Sioux population Sioux historiography. I have sought to ex- in the period from European contact to pose the flaws in the methodology of one the imposition of the reservation system. representative undercounting (Lewis and In basing such a history upon contem- Clark's "Statistical View of the Indian Na- porary population estimates, a cautionary tions"), and in a typical case of overesti- note must be sounded. Until late in the mating (inflated official estimates of the nineteenth century such estimates pre- 1870s), so misrepresentationsof popula- serve at best approximations of relative tion scale need not be perpetuated. accuracy. They were made by men little Methodological Note concerned with the minute breakdown of populations necessary for sophisticated In any population assessment working ratios of the principal units of enumeration demographic analysis; they purport to count peoples whose fluid, mobile society must be established. Derived from the ethnohistoric sources these units are warriors, men, people, and lodges, reflecting Kingsley Bray works as an academic bookseller in estimators' biases toward defining military Manchester, England. His 1985 Nebmska History article, "Lone Horn k Peace: A New View ofSioux- and hunting capacities. Women and chil- Three Bears, Oglala. (NSHSR~~~:~S) Crow Relafions, 1851-1858." received the 1986 dren were rarely estimated separately in James L. Sellers Memorial Award. the prereservation era. In a tabulation

165 Nebraska Historv -Summer 1994 presented by Arthur J. Ray, however, Hudson's Bay Company officialspre sented a detailed breakdown of the tribal populations (Assiniboin, Cree, Ojibwa) in the Red River area of the northeastem plains in 1815. Population was carefully tabulated by age and gender, allowing the establishment of local average ratios as follows: adult males, 27 percent; adult females,33 percent; and children, 40 percenL2 These ratios probably have high pre- dictive potential for analyzing native populations, for they agree well with the systematic head counts of surrendering Teton Sioux in 187741, which break down to these averages: adult males, 25 percent; adult females, 35 percent; and children, 40 percenL3 Ratios of persons per lodge, the unit of habitation, are more problematic. A comparison of evidence across the historic pe riod demonstrates a clear net decline in the persons per lodge ratio. In 1700 Pierre Le Sueur defined the typical occupants of a lodge as two nuclear families, approximately ten to fifteen persons. A century later William Clark similarly concluded "the lodges contain 10 to 15 persons," while PierreAntoine Tabeau suggested a ratio of "100 hommes par 40 loges, & ce calcul & assezjuste." Tabeau's experience and careful formulation merit re spect, suggesting a conversion figure for 1805 of ten persons per lodge. Again, two nuclear families would seem to be the normal residential unit, the modest de cline possibly reflecting the aftereffects of the depopulation period? Over the course of the nineteenth cen- Sioux Indian women. (NSHSG981.4-6) tury the perceived decline accelerated. A deflated figure of five persons per lodge Platte Indian agent Thomas S. Twiss re- lodge in 1805 declining to six to one by served as the basis for military rationing of flect critical thinking applied to the prob- 1870. Clearly by 1870 the typical residen- Teton camps at Fort Laramie in 1871. In lem. Upon assuming his duties he ac- tial unit was a single nuclear family. This the interim period ratios explicit or im- cepted a ratio of ten to one, but within a trend has been largely ignored by plains plied varied widely. Selecting the 1850s year he had familiarized himself with historians and ethnologists, masking im- one encounters conflicting estimates rang Teton society and reduced his assessment portant implications for the study of Teton ing from Thaddeus A. ~ulbertson'sten to to a ratio of 5.5 persons per lodge.5 society. Undoubtedly, the decline in the one, through the eight to one ratio pro- Weighing this evidence and disregard- persons per lodge ratio reflects increased posed by Upper Missouri agent Alfred W. ing local and temporary fluctuations due standards of living enjoyed by the no- Vaughan and Lt. Gouvemeur K. Warren, to visitations of disease, military reverses, madic tribes as they progressively re to Edwin T. Denig's deflationary four to and hunting variables, I have proposed a placed dog with horse traction and ac- one ratio. The observations of Upper general Teton ratio of ten persons per quired larger horse herds, more material Teton Sioux Po~ulation

through the nineteenth century, has sig- cent to 380 persons in 1904, after which nificant implications for assessing Teton their numbers began to grow again? A cultural change. comparable rate (97 percent) for the re lated Pawnee tribe is indicated for the pe Disease, Decline, and Population nod 1750-1910,when population declined Nadir: Recent.Developmentsin from approximately 20,000 to 650.8Assum- Native American Demography ing a contact population of roughly 14,000 In the last generation demographic stud- Mandans and Hidatsas, 95 percent de ies have provided a new quantitative di- population marked their decline to 756 mension to our understanding of Indian persons in 1910. Working from the Pierre history after European contact. Although le Moyne, Sieur d'lberville, estimates of scholars are still not agreed on the scale 1702 and the 1910 U.S. Census the com- of depopulation, it is understood that the bined Omaha-Ponca and Iowa-Oto tribes native societies of the New World under- declined by roughly 70 percent, the went an appalling decline after the arrival former group from approximately 7,200 of Europeans. The most important factor persons ("1,200 familiesn) to 1,980,the lat- in this depopulation was the introduction ter from 1,800 to 576.9 of Old World diseases, such as measles, These figures are problematic. The cholera, influenza, and especially small- point of depopulation onset is unclear, pox, to which Indians had no immunities. and the length of the decline period may Henry F. Dobyns has argued for an aver- exceed Dobyns's 13Byear prediction. age depopulation rate throughout the Continuing village tribe depopulation in Americas of 95 percent during a 130-year the nineteenth century probably reflected (five generation) period beginning at attrition from war. It is clear, however, that "contactnfor each tribal group. For tribes the Dobyns model fits well enough for the that survived as viable ethnic units at the village tribes; population declined by 7B end of this period, demographic condi- 98 percent during a depopulation period tions typically stabilized and the popula- comprising much of the eighteenth and

tion might begin to slowly rise. More re : nineteenth centuries. cently Dobyns has suggested that from the For the nomadic hunting tribes of the Sioux Indian boy. (NSHS-G981.4-1) sixteenth century onwards native popula: high plains, estimates of even the rough- tions across the continent were struck si- est kind are us.ually not available until af- possessions, surpluses of buffalo robes to multaneously by epidemics that spread ter 1800. Although these statistics are even trade for manufactured goods, and treaty- far in advance of the contact fr~ntier.~ more in the nature of approximations, guaranteed annuity goods. Nevertheless, Some of Dobyns's assumptions, espe they suggest a much wider variation in de such assessments should not obscure rec- cially that of a single, continent-wide rate population rates and generally a less cata- ognition that increased status and wealth of depopulation, have been questioned. strophic demographic collapse. The differences may significantly skew the av- His model was based on analysis of Comanches seem to have suffered most erage figure downward. The nouueau densely populated, sedentqsocieties in severely, declining by 85 percent in the riche of the nineteenth century sought to Mexico, Peru, and California, and its ap 1805.1910 period (from 8,000 to 1,17l).'O house multiple wives and "beloved chil- plicability to sparse, huntergatherer popu- Following them are the Atsinas, losing 80 dren" in separate tipis, indicating that lations is questionable. Nevertheless, percent of their 1805 population of 2,500 many people may have continued to live andysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth- to 510 persons by 1910; the Crows, declin- in comparatively crowded lodges. century population estimates of the farming by 70 percent (6,000 to 1,799); and the Of all the enumeration figures, lodge ing village tribes of the prairieplains sug- Assiniboins, declining by 68 percent counts are probably the most accurate. If gest rates of depopulation of the order (8,000 to 2,605). Less severe losses were we recognize the general principle of the predicted by Dobyns. sustained by the Blackfeet, losing approxi- declining ratio of persons per lodge and The Arikaras, important neighbors of mately 50 percent of their 1805 popula- accordingly adjust calculations of popula- the Teton Sioux, were said to count 4,000 tion of 9,000 to reach a 1910 nadir of tion, seemingly inconsistent divisional e. men or approximately 16,000 persons be 4,635. Arapaho numbers declined from timates reveal coherent population fore a series of epidemics that possibly 2,500 in 1805 to 1,419 in 1910 (43 per- trends. The decline in size of the typical began early in the eighteenth cenhry. cent), while Cheyenne numbers actually household unit, a process accelerating Arikara population declined by 98 per- showed little net change at about 3,000. Nebraska History -Summer 1994

Kiowa population likewise remained rela- Alexander Mackenzie's 1789 total of 620 limitations imposed upon Cree popula- tively constant at somewhat over 1,000." lodges suggests actual losses, terrible tion density, they were better able to with- This selection of nomadic tribes re enough, of almost 25 percent.14 stand repeated visitations of disease than veals greater variation in nineteenth- Close examination of plains villagers the concentrated horticultural popula- century population history from the non- and nomads reveals a wide variation in tions, while their early contact date meant horticultural people of the plains, ranging historic period population profiles. Losses that population nadir was reached before from no net loss to 85 percent depopula- compounded by military attrition were the end of the eighteenth century. Thus tion. The Plains Cree, one of the last of the worst among the settled horticultural the nineteenth century was a period of tribal groups to migrate from the north- tribes, where a number of groups suffered Cree population resurgence and of corre eastern woodlands onto the plains, show such sustained depopulation in the pe sponding range expansion at the expense signs of a phenomenal population growth riod 1700-1850 as to threaten their ethnic of neighbors still caught in the depopula- in the nineteenth century. In 1805 Plains identity. Among the nomads generaliza- tion cycle. Cree numbers did not exceed 3,000, but tion is more difficult, but the diverse gee An argument for a Sioux population by 1910 Canadian Plains Cree were al- graphical origins of these tribes, as late history follows, similar in its broad outline most 8,000 strong, a figure excluding immigrants from a number of marginal and chronology to the case of the Cree. small numbers of the tribe located in the regions, meant sharply different dates of Like the Cree, Sioux-European contact U.S. This argues for Plains Cree growth ap European contact with consequent varia- was made early, depopulation was mod- proaching 170 percent during the nine- tions in dates of population nadir. The est compared to the village tribes, and teenth century. Plains Cree is an example of a group with population nadir was reached late in the Undoubtedly this growth is partly ex- sustained European contact in the subarc- eighteenth century, leaving the nineteenth plained by a drain of Woods Cree popula- tic forest since the first half of the seven- century a period of population growth tion out of the subarctic forest to augment teenth century, a century before signifi- and territorial expansion into ranges the Plains bands. It is therefore unclear to cant European contact with many of the weakly held by tribes still enduring de . what extent localized Plains Cree growth plains natives. Because of the ecological population. To justify such a thesis, Sioux reflects absolute population growth. It seems likely that total Cree population in 1910 was near its contact level, with steady growth characterizing the nine teenth century. Cree population reached its nadir after the smallpox epidemics of 1780-82.At this time most of the plains tribes had only just entered their cycle of depopulation. Cree bands sifting onto the northeastern plains after 1785 were at a huge demographic advantage.I2 Moreover, although the Cree depopulation rate from contact to 1785 is unclear, it was almost certainly not of the order predicted by the Dobyns model. The low population density of the subarctic en- sured that even under the worst conditions of the depopulation cycle Cree losses were modest compared to the village tribes. Examining the evidence for losses during the smallpox epidemics of 1780-82, historians have cited impressionistic, retrospective estimates such as David Thompson's 50-60 percent depopulation for northern plains groups, including Cree.13Such catastrophic losses are not borne out by analysis of tribal groups. Admitting the soundness of Denig's estimate of 800 Western Cree lodges in 1780, Expansion of the Teton Sioux, 1655-1870.

168 Teton Sioux Population

population trends in the period after Euro- Table 1. Estimates of Sioux Population, 1660-1805. pean contact must be examined closely. Conversion Estimated Sioux Population Reconstruction, "Men" "Waniors" Ratio' Population Remarks 1655-1285 1660b I F! E. Radisson 7,000 1 1 1:4 1 28,000 1 accepted When French explorers entered the re 1660' M.C. de Groseilliec 4,000 gion west of the Great Lakes in the mid- t1663d N. Perrot seventeenth century, they heard reports of 8.000- 1:5 40,000- too high the Sioux, a powerful group of related 9.000 45,000 peoples occupying a domain extending 4,000families 1:6 24.000 accepted from the tip of Lake Superior deep into 300 :, the tallgrass prairies of eastern South Da- ~2,000 kota and centering on the upper Missis 4,300 1:s 21.500 acce~ted sippi River (see map). A cluster of early estimates, presented in table 1, enables the establishment of a base line Sioux 178V 1 Indian Traders population at first contact with Europeans. Computed in terms of military capac- 1805' Z.Pike ity, the early estimates broadly concurred in attributing the Sioux with between 7,000 "menn'and9,000 "warriors." Having earlier implied a ratio of four persons for every adult male, this ratio would create a minimum total Sioux population of 28,000 about 1655. The "warriors" would com- prise the majority of adult males, excluding the aged, and account for approximately onefifth of the total population. The upper limit of 9,000 warriors would create a maximum population of 45,000 at contact. Because the highest estimate is . that of Fr. Louis Hennepin, an incorrigible exaggerator, we have adopted the more conservative estimate by Pierre Esprit Radisson and propose an approximate "contact populationn of 28,000 persons. Historians have avoided attempting to estimate Sioux contact population until recently. Conrad E. Heidenreich's assess ment of 8,000.16,000 Sioux for the early seventeenth century is certainly too low, because his aggregate Sioux population for 1820 totals between 16,000 and 30,000.'5These figures would imply unique population growth for the Sioux during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, indicating that postcontact epidemics had no effect on Sioux . 11,000women, and 19,000 children-is ures of dependents, while vaccination sta- demography. too high, being based on unreliable ratios tistics skew the proportion of children up Gary C. Anderson has addressed the is- of men to women to children extrapo- wards, because they were most at risk sue of the contact Sioux population most lated from nineteenthcentury data such from continued exposure to disease. ~ystematically.'~However, his reconshuc- as annuity rolls and vaccination censuses. Having proposed a contact population tion of 38,OOkomprising 8,000 men, Annuity rolls frequently padded the fig- figure, the next important count is for Nebraska History -Summer 1994 about 1700, when the experienced trader Yankton and Teton relatives. This intensi- had been acquired and a variety of strate Le Sueur calculated the Sioux totaling fied activity is reflected in the 1786 "Me gies had been devised to combat disease. 4,000 families." Because the unit of resi- morial of Indian Traders." In attempting to Like the Crees to their north, the Sioux dence, the lodge or tipi, housed two farni- assess Sioux strength the traders asserted were now at a huge demographic advan- lies, or ten to fifteen persons, we assess an "that at various times they have seen not tage over tribes still caught in the cycle of average of six persons per family and a less than 3,000 [men] of different [Sioux] decline. In a westward advance into lands total population of approximately 24,000. tribes.n20This figure plainly represented a held by once powerful groups suffering This reconstruction receives some support minimum, because several Teton bands depletions in strength far exceeding the from the implied total of approximately remained outside the British sphere, but comparatively modest losses sustained by 2,000 tipis since Le Sueur's attribution of the rapid drop from 4,300 warriors within the Sioux, the vanguard was formed by over 1,000 lodges to the Western Sioux di- a generation is marked enough to indi- the Teton ("Prairie Villagen) divisions. As visions may well be a shorthand way of cate severe losses. nineteenthcentury historical sources stating that the western divisions ac- The principal cause of these losses was grow in quantity and quality, and these di- counted for over 50 percent of the total undoubtedly the terrible smallpox epi- visions crystallized into the classic seven Sioux population. demics of 1780-82, serious enough to be Teton "tribes" (Brul6, Oglala, Miniconjou, A 1700 population of 24,000 Sioux sug depicted in all the Sioux winter counts Two Kettles, Sans Arc, Sihasapa, and gests a 14 percent decline in the forty-five and remarked upon by observers as espe Hunkpapa), we shall focus on Teton year period since contact (0.31 percent cially virulent. The epidemics were prob- population trends to examine the deme per annum), suggesting the Sioux had in- ably the greatest single blow to Sioux graphic underpinning of a burgeoning, deed entered a period of diseasebased numbers during the depopulation period. expansionist tribal society extending its depopulation. Unfortunately, although the Continuing the rate of depopulation at control into territories held by peoples in epidemic history of the Great Lakes basin 0.16 percent per annum from 1764 until decline. is understood in outline, the Sioux do- 1780 yields a provisional estimate of main remained at the edge of European 20,900 Sioux on the eve of the epidemics. Teton Sioux Population Reconstrue. 1785-1881 perceptions throughout the French period The "Memorial" estimate indicates the tion, (1655-1763). Consequently, little hard evi- population in 1786 exceeded 12,00@ With the beginning of the American pe dence exists to identify actual epidemics 15,000.Anticipating our nineteenth- nod on the plains, there is a growing body affecting the Si~ux.'~ century analysis, by 1805 Sioux numbers of data on Sioux population, enabling A second group of estimates from table totalled approximately 18,800 and were more detailed, divisional breakdowns. 1 cluster in the mid 1760s, representing growing, suggesting depopulation nadir First, however, a base line Sioux popula- British interest in assessing Indian stren&h was reached in the immediate aftermath tion for the beginning of the nineteenth in lands won from the French after the of the 1780-82 epidemics. Back projection century must be established, together Seven Years' War. The estimates range of 1805-25 growth rates established below with figures for the Tetons and their con- from 4,300 to 6,000 warriors, indicating a would yield a nadir population in 1785 of stituent divisions. population of 21,50@30,000.Comparison 17,000 persons. Because population re In 1805 three important assessments of with the contact period spread indicates a covery was a halting process, slow to start Sioux population were made by U.S. ex- decline in population of approximately 30 and subject to localized reverses, we pro- plorers Zebulon Pike and William Clark percent between 1655 and 1765. Because pose a population in 1785 of 17,500, repre- (see table 2) and by trader Piem-Antoine the highest figure is Jonathan Carver's, senting a total depopulation of 38 percent Tabeau. The explorers were armed with which he saw fit to reduce drastically in in the 130 years since contact, with losses tribal estimate furnished by the St. Louis composing his published Travels,we of 16 percent during the single cluster of trading community, but, faced by the adopt the lower assessment of 21,500 per- epidemics in 1780-82. Although the de sheer scale of Sioux numbers, contradic- sons (including 4,300 warriors), also ac- population rate is far below that suggested tory assessments were made. One trader cepted by Helen H. Tanner in her authori- by Dobyns, his prediction of population rated all the Sioux at 12,000 persons, tative survey of Great Lakes tribes.lgThe stabilization and growth beginning 130 while another reckoned 11,000Tetons 21,500 figure indicates continued popula- years after contact seems borne out in the alone. Clark chose to select the lowest tion decline after 1700 but at a somewhat case of the Sioux. counts, and the computations tabulated lower rate (0.16 percent per annum). By 1785 the Sioux had completed the in his "Statistical View of the Indian Na- After the American War of Indepen- postcontact cycle of disease and depopu- tions" yielded a total Sioux population of dence, British companies sought to make lation. Sioux numbers grew in the period 8,310, including 2,910 Tetons (35 percent the most of their influence among the 17851880, despite localized losses in of total)."' Pike's estimates total 22,665 western tribes and aggressively carried many recorded nineteenthcentury epi- Sioux, including 11,600 Tetons (51 per- trade beyond the Eastern Sioux to their demics, suggesting critical immunities cent of the total). Tabeau, an experienced Teton Sioux Population

Table 2. Estimates of Teton Sioux Population by Tribal Divisions, 1805-1881.

Year Oglala MInlronJon TwoKettle Sans Arc SLhssapa Hlmkpapa TW

Men/Warriors 300 120 250 300 omitted 970 Lodges 1 120 1 50 1 100 1 1 120 1 " 1 390

% of total 31 12 26 31 Remarks: too too too Sans Arc/Hunkpapa combined; too low low low too low low

Lodges Total population 3,000 1,500 4.000 1,500 10,000 % of total 1 30 1 15 1 40 1 1 15 1 100 Remarks: Miniconjou, Sans Arc, and Sihasapa combined accurate

1833' Men/Warriors Lodges 500 300 260 100 100 220 150 1.630 Total population % of total 31 18 16 6 6 14 9 100 Remarks: ratio of lodges to persons = 1:5 too low

%of total . 26 26 15 6 9 9 9 100 Remarks: too Two Kettle lodges were a too low part of the Broken Arrow, low a Miniconjou band.

Lodges 260 250 150 100 100 . 200 250 1,310 Total population % of total 20 19 10 8 8 16 19 100 Remarks: too ratio of lodges to persons = 1:10 low

Total population I % of total 1 22 1 18 1 12 1 3 111 I 20 1 14 1 100 Remarks: ratio of lodges to persons = 1:10 too muchtoo high high

Lodges 150 omitted 225 165 160 150 280 1,130 Total population % of total 13 ' 20 15 14 13 25 ** 100 Remarks: see note; ratio of lodges to persons = 1:8 Nebraska Historv - Summer 1994

Lodges Total population 9,207 7,202 1,290 759 870 1,094 1,620 " 22,042 %oftotal 42 33 6 3 4 5 7 100 Remarks: inflated inflated accurate accurate accurate accurate See note trader, unfortunately did not provide a to Clark's gross underestimate of Sioux num- Clark figures by invoking heavy Eastern tal population figure, but he did compute bers has to be recognized and replaced Sioux out-migration to the Tetons after Sioux strength as "at least four thousand by a more plausible, reasoned estimate. 1805 is unacceptable because the "Statisti- men bearing arms."22Applying the ratios The "Statistical View" figures contradict cal Viewn estimates are unaccountably established above, a total population be both Pike's and Tabeau's contemporary low for all Sioux, not only for the Teton tween 16,000 and 24,000 is suggested, sig estimates and Clark's own subsequent re divisions.23 nificantly of the same order as Pike's esti- visions, and, when compared with the first Establishing a nineteenthcentu~ybase mate but two or three times that of Clark's. reliable reservation head counts, would line population depends on explaining For too long our view of northern establish Sioux population growth in 1805- Clark's errors. After examining the com- plains demography has been distorted by 80 at over 220 percent, a phenomenon un- parative data, the flaws in his methodol- the national mystique associated with the matched elsewhere in native North ogy become evident. Clark's principal in- Lewis and Clark Expedition. In particular, America. George E. Hyde's defense of the formants were employees of Regis Loisel, Teton Sioux Population a St. Louis trader with extensive Sioux men, in 120 lodges. The ratio of three to Yanktonai population at 2,600, the connections. Unfortunately the most ex- one is even more deflationay than his Yanktons, including the then-associated perienced of these men, Pierre Dorion, Middle Sioux calculation and is anyway Sihasapa, constitute another 2,600'per- was a poor informant. His partial listing of based upon a false accounting of adult sons. Because of their historic association Sioux divisions was a lazy, hasty account males. Tabeau, trading in the main BmlC with the Tetons, we omit the Sihasapa omitting important gro~ps.2~Significantly, winter camp one year before Clark wrote, from the Middle Sioux total and count his rating of one constituent band of the remarked on an incident involving "plus them as Tetons. Rated by Tabeau the Yankton Sioux at "200 men" was used by de 400 hornrne~."~~In all likelihood the smallest of three Yankton bands, the Clark as his basis of computation for the whole BrulC tribe was not present, yet Sihasapa approximated 700 persons, cor- entire Yankton division. Therefore, the such a figure subjected to realistic ratios recting the Yankton population in 1805 to "Statistical View" figures fail to account yields a village population in excess of some 1,900. for a second band of Yanktons actually 1,600 persons. In 1804 Lewis and Clark Only with the Tetons do we question named in the tabulation, as well as for a themselves reported three main BrulC the substance of Pike's findings. His ratio third band classified by Tabeau as camps, totaling 200 lodges, or 2,000 per- of 2,000 Teton "warriors" to 11,600 per- Yankton but omitted entirely by Clark. sons, double Clark's divisional t0tal.2~Be sons (5.8:l) is out of line with the stan- Moreover, Clark depressed the total popu- cause more Brul& were reported in small dard four or five to one ratios most com- lation further by adopting a highly conser- camps along the Missouri, any realistic ap monly used. His estimate of 600 Teton vative ratio of persons to men (3.5:1), cre praisal of the Brulb in 1805 must more lodges creates a persons per lodge ratio ating a total Yankton population of 700. than double Clark's assessment. of almost twenty to one, unacceptably We may assume he undervalued the Teton numbers are further depressed high in light of our examination of the Yankton, at least, by well over 100 percent. by simple omission. Clark entirely omits downward trend in lodge ratios. Pike's un- For the Yanktonai division, relatives of from his calculations the Sihasapa divi- realistic estimates reflect his relative unfa- the Yankton in the Middle Sioux gee sion, presumably because of the ambiva- miliarity with the Teton range from his graphical grouping, we have an estimate lence of Sihasapa political affiliations at Mississippi-based explorations. His lodge by Tabeau of 260 lodges. Using Tabeau's this time. Although classically considered total may be derived from reports of the own carefully formulated calculations of a Teton division, their first contemporay annual Sioux trade fair, which was at- two and onehalf men per lodge and the report, in Tabeau's tabulation, rates the tended by most but not all Teton bands.30 standard four to one ratio of persons to "Seascapenas a band of the Yankton With a partial lodge total corrected to men, provides a Yanktonai population of Clark himself drastically revised 6,000 persons and a warrior total implying 2,600 persons, including 650 men. Signifi- upwards his Sioux estimates in later years. numbers in the 8,000-10,000range, we cantly, in Clark's draft manuscript he origi- In his 1814 master map of the American propose a total Teton population, includ- nally entered the Yanktonai population as West, he raised his aggregate Sioux popu- ing the Sihasapa, of 8,500 persons in 1805. 2,500 but he chose to delete it in the belief lation from 8,310 to 9,300 (excluding the This creates a6ioux grand total of 18,800, that traders' estimates should be Yanktonai). In 1815 he revised upwards falling near the middle of the range of ex- "deduct[ed] about one third generally.n25 again to propose 16,000 persons, includ- pectations created by Tabeau's computa- As a cautious observer, Tabeau rounded ing 4,000 warri0rs.2~ tion, of which the Tetons constituted 45 down his estimate to 500 men. Clark Enough has been said to require dras percent. Although the proportion of adopted this conservative figure, then tic revision of the Clark figures. By con- Tetons to other divisions grew steadily contrived an even more conservative per- trast Tabeau's careful grading of both throughout the nineteenth century (to sons to men ratio (3.2:l) to create a total Sioux and Arikara bands by size leaves us reach 60 percent by 1881). this recon- Yanktonai population of 1,600, almost 40 confident that his estimate of the Sioux as struction gains further credence from rule percent lower than the figure recon- comprising "at least four thousand men of-thumb trader assessments, which con- structed from Tabeau. Clark entirely dis bearing armsnmerits respect. Such an esti- sistently estimated the Tetons at roughly carded Tabeau's lodge count, probably mate agrees in order of magnitude with half of all Sioux.31 the single soundest figure in the entire cal- Pike's total Sioux population. To arrive at It remains to approximate Teton divi- culation, and replaced it with his own 200 a satisfactory reconstruction, we accept sional population in 1805. In the absence. lodges (not based on observation of any the approximate accuracy of Pike's ob- of other contemporary tabulations we Yanktonai camps), thus creating unreli- served figures for the Eastem Sioux and have preserved Clark's proportions of rela- able ratios of men to persons to lodges. assign a round 5,800 to the four Eastern tive size and applied them to the recon- Further shortcomings are evident in divisions (Pike's corrected figur& aggre structed total of 8,500. Using standard ra- Clark's handling of Teton data. The "Statis gating 5,865). We also follow him in tios yields the results presented in table 3. tical View" represents the BrulC Tetons as signing 5,200 to the two Middle Sioux divi- This breakdown provides a divisional numbering 900 persons, including 300 sions. Since Tabeau establishes base line for the nineteenth century. In Nebraska History -Summer 1994 order to establish a terminal base line we Table 3. Reconstructed Teton Sioux Population by Tribal Divisions, 1805-1881." have selected 1881 as the year the last of the Tetons surrendered and were enrolled on the "Great Sioux Reservation." All 250 500 200 175 400 2,125 Sioux were then concentrated at agencies Men 600 1 1 1 1 1 or otherwise controlled within the domi- Women 1 840 1 350 1 700 1 1 280 1 245 1 560 1 2,975 nant white society, where enforced accul- Children 960 400 800 320 280 640 3,400 turation was in operation, foreclosing fur- Lodges . 240 100 200 80 70 160 850 ther Teton territorial expansion. Total population 2,400 1,000 2,000 800 700 1,600 8,500 Unfortunately, in 1881 Sioux popula- % of total 28 12 24 9 8 19 100 tion assessments had not yet progressed Remarks: All Miiconjou figures before 1849 include incipient Two Kettle division. to the level of uniform census procedures at all agencies, and the aggregate Teton population in the annual report of the 1 , 1,050 525 735 ( 315 315 525 3.465 commissioner of Indian affairs, 22,042, Women 1 Children 1.200 600 840 ( 360 1 ' 360 600 3,960 cannot be accepted uncritically. Begin- I I I ning in 1868 Tetons had been subjected Lodnes- - 1 375 1 190 1 260 1 1 105 1 100 1 165 1 1.185 to the reservation system, as traditional Total population 3,000 1,500 2,200 900 900 1,500 10,000 nomadic lifeways became increasingly % of total 30 15 22 9 9 15 100 restricted by the expansion of white settle ment. Resident agents were sent to admin- ister affairs, but although their responsi- bilities included careful population assessments, they proved largely inca- pable of obtaining accurate counts. A col- lation of agency statistics for 1875 (table 2) asserts a Teton population of 34,651. It is evident from the estimates in table 2 that such a figure exceeds by over 100 percent the estimates in official reports immediately preceding the reservation pe nod. These estimates were derived from calculations by experienced members of the white trading community. As such they merit real, if critical, respect. Further- more, the 1875 figures again exceed by over 100 percent the counts conducted under census procedures by Indian Bu- I855 reau personnel in 1887-95, when Teton Men 780 740 425 160 275 265 585 3,230 totals stabilized at approximately 16,000. Women 1,090 1,030 600 225 380 370 815 4,510 The early reservation period estimates Children 1,250 1,180 690 265 435 420 930 5,170 are anomalous. John S. Gray demon- Lodges 480 455 265 100 165 160 360 1,985 strated the methodological flaws in their Totalpopulation 3,120 2,950 1,715 650 1,090 1.055 1 2,330 1 12,910 assessment in an important essay, identify- % of total 1 24 1 23 1 13.5 1 5 1 8.5 1 8 1 18 1 I00 ing a number of factors relevant to population inflati~n.~"ndiansand agents alike inflated calculations, because govem- ment rationing and annuity payments were based on the estimates. The extreme fluidity of agency populations before 1876 frustrated establishing even workable estimates, because many bands shuttled be tween two or more agencies and the hunt- Teton Sioux Population

Table 3. cont.

Year Bml6 OgIaIa MinImnjan Two Kettle SansArc S(hasaprr Hunkpapa Total

ing ranges still dominated by Tetons idecl reconstructed population is represented was highly likely. Although some in-migra- logically opposed to government counts. by a round figure estimate of 1,200.These tion persisted through the 1880s, the The Sioux War of 187&77changed this adjustments establish a Teton population count of 1890 established a Rosebud state of affairs. The military assumed con- at the Missouri agencies of 7,559. population of 4,650. All factors consid- trol of the agencies and conducted en- '' At the southemmost and largest agen- ered, we reconstruct an 1881 Upper Brul6 forced head counts of "friendlyncamps cies, Rosebud (Upper Brul6) and Pine population of 4,500, again including 170 and of the surrendering "hostiles." By 1881 Ridge (Oglala), inflationary factors were persons already counted as surrendered such procedures were effectively stan- still operative in 1881. Here the estimates at Standing Rock. This creates a recon- dardized at the Missouri River agencies, totaled, respectively, 7,698 and 7,202. At structed total Teton population in 1881 of Lower Brul6, Cheyenne River, and Stand- Pine Ridge estimates of this magnitude 16,110 (table 3). Simiiar calculations sug- ing Rock. Thus the 1881 statistics in the continued until 1886, curiously unad- gest the Tetons then constituted some 60 commissioner's annual report (table 2) justed after the enrollment of approxi- percent of a grand total Sioux population have been accepted as broadly accurate mately 600 persons transferred from of approximately 27,000 (graphs 1 and 2). for these agencies. Only minor modifica- Standing Rock in 1882. After the removal At this time agency populations of the two tions have been made in the 1881 recon- of Agent Valentine T. McGillycuddy a Middle Sioux divisions had stabilized at struction figures in table 3. At Cheyenne militaryconducted census established an about 2,000 (Yankton) and 4,000 River Agency Two Kettle divisional figures Oglala population of 4,873.33This figure (Yanktonai),while the four Eastern Sioux have been slightly depressed to avoid du- stabilized until 1891, when significant divisions, including significant numbers plication with tribesmen enrolled at Rose numbers of Tetons were transferred to living in Canadian exile, totaled up to bud. To the Standing Rock Agency statis- Pine Ridge from other agencies. An 1881 5,000 persons. tics must be added a number of free Oglala population of 4,800 is represented The reconstructed figures in table 3 are Hunkpapas not enrolled when counts in table 3, including 556 persons already not offered as precisely accurate. How- were made in July 1881. These comprised counted among the so-called "hostilesn ever, they establish orders of magnitude Sitting Bull's camp of 187 persons and an- temporarily concentrated at Standing that should be broadly correct. Even at other of thirty-five families, approximately Rock. Added to the Missouri-based the problematic southern agencies, the 210 persons, which remained in postwar Tetons, a new subtotal of 11,780 emerges. margin of error in our reconstruction . exile in Canada. Mild inflation is evident Only the Upper Brul6 population at should be within 5 percent. Having estab at Lower Brul6 Agency. Over the previous Rosebud remains to be adjusted. Here lished initial and terminal base lines for four years counts showed a stable popula- resumed inflation was compounded by our analysis, the dynamics of Sioux popu- tion, ranging from 1,160 to 1,247. The 1881 significant in-migration through official lation in the period 1805-81 can be as count of 1,509 is anomalous because the transfer, surrenders, and the desertion of sessed. The statistics demonstrate clearly observable trend through the 1880s is one disaffected people from the Missouri that significant population growth was the of modest decline, to 1,040 in 1890. The agencies. Duplication of enrolled people major theme of the period. Total Sioux Nebraska History -Summer 1994 population grew by approximately 45 percent. Sharp distinctions exist, however, when this figure is subjected to a divisional breakdown. Until the Santee exile from Minnesota in 1862, the joint population of the four Eastern Sioux divisions was roughly static at about 5,500, declining significantly in the wake of war and diaspora. The joint population of the two Middle divisions was marked by net growth of about 40 percent until imple mentation of the resewation system, with numbers stabilizing at about 6,000 by 1870. Breaking down these ~iddlesioux figuresagain, however, suggests that while

Yankton numbers grew by 18 percent, I Yanktonai numbers grew by three times 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 as much. The Tetons enjoyed the most sustained Year growth, running at 90 percent, fully twice Graph 1. Total Sioux Population, 1655-1905. the Sioux standard rate. Confinement to reservations brought an immediate stabilization of Teton population as it had done for the Middle Sioux. Although detailed analysis of modem demographic trends is beyond our present intention, the freezing of Sioux population lasted only to the end of the nineteenth century. Government figures covering the period 1895-1925 indicate a Sioux growth rate comparable to that of the prereservation period" Growth has continued to characterize twentieth- century population trends. Clearly different rates of growth prob ably do reflect, in part, real divisional differences in birth and death rates. Tetons who made a full transition to become equestrian buffalo hunters enjoyed a Year vastly improved standard of living that al- Graph 2. Total Teton Population, 1801-1881. lowed for higher birth rates (with women freed from excessive burden canying) and lower mortaliQ rates (as the practice west in the direction of greater game re- assimilated comparatively large numbers of abandoning aged, infirm camp mem- sources and enhanced economic secu- of such immigrants, consistent with their bers became morally unacceptable) than rity. On this model cumulatively signifi- aggressive expansion across the mixed- prevailed among the Santee Sioux.35Com- cant numbers of Eastern Sioux chose to grass prairies, while the Yankton steadily parative Santee sedentism may have re join relatives in the west as individuals en- redistributed new local surplus members sulted in continued vulnerability to dB gaged in out-marriage or as members of westward to the Tetons through the same ease. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the organized camps shifting deeper into the mechanisms of individual out-marriage stark differences in growth rates evident in buffalo range. Logically, the two Middle and organized camp movement. our reconstructions can be entirely ac- Sioux divisions acted as the primary desti- Different rates of population growth in- counted for in this way. nation of such movements. Consideration dicate these mechanisms also character- Rather, we postulate an ongoing of their respective population profiles sug- ized Teton demographics at the divispnal "drain" of Sioux population from east to gests that the rapidly growing Yanktonai level. If we assume for the Tetons broadly Teton Sioux Population uniform birth and death rates throughout the Chippewas in 1736, resulting in East- swiftly reducing "neutral groundsnfirst the period 1805-81, as is indicated by the em Sioux relinquishment of the major to war zones and then to exclusive Sioux relative homogeneity of their high plains ricing regions by 1768. domain. environment and the essential unity of An increasing number of Sioux joined Through this process by 1785 the Teton their cultural response to its ecological re western relatives hunting the buffalo Sioux divisions had shifted their core quirements, then it becomes possible to herds of the tallgrass prairies, an ecologi- ranges from Minnesota to dominate the employ the reconstructed population esti- cal adaptation entailing drastic reductions east drainage of the Missouri River in mates of each division (table 3). in population density. Despite 38 percent South Dakota. Through intertribal trade After first considering the demographic depopulation in 1655-1785, the Sioux de and raiding they had acquired growing and geopolitical dimensions of Teton ex- main expanded by 30 percent, resulting in herds of horses derived from the Spanish pansion, we profile each of the seven a significant reduction in population den- settlements of New Mexico, which intensi- tribal divisions and examine their partici- sity and suggesting the possibility that ter- fied their nomadic culture by increasing pation in the phenomenal growth that ritorial expansion was, among other mobility and hunting efficiency, enhanc- characterized the nineteenthcentury things, itself a strategy for counteracting ing military capacity, and permitting Teton. By isolating gross localized growth the effects of recurring epidemics. higher standards of living through im- and loss rates and adjusting for known Expansion was aimed westward onto proved lransportation. Greater subsis local losses to disease and war, the "Popu- the prairies weakly held as hunting range tence security encouraged the regular lation Profiles" section identifies the direc- by horticultural tribes suffering worse de aggregation of larger groups, a process tion and magnitude of "drainnfrom divi- population than the Sioux, in particular, probably initiated during the depopula- sion to division as the Tetons competed the Iowa, Omaha, and Ponca in 1680- tion period through band fusion. Certain with other tribes and, ultimately, with the 1750, and the Cheyenne, Arikara, Mandan, Teton bands, coalescing seasonally as the United States in a constant struggle to con- and Hidatsa in the late eighteenth cen- BmlC and Oglala "tribes,"had already e trol access to resourc-buffalo herds, tury. The nature of this expansion is tablished access to the transMissouri high horses, pasture, and trade. poorly understood, but it involved a judi- plains through joint use accords with vil- cious blend of diplomacy and force. A lage groups. Teton Expansion general pattem can be seen of joint Farther north other Teton bands were In 1655,28,000Sioux occupied an exclu- land-use truces contracted between indi- undergoing similar processes and emerg- sive domain of approximately 60,000 vidual villages and Sioux bands, charac- ing as the Miniconjou and Saone tribes. square miles. Population density ap terized by trade, intermarriage, and occa- These incipient tribal polities were inte proached densities associated with some sionally tempomy residence of whole grated by rituals and associations both ex- horticultural tribes. Because Sioux farm- bands at village locations. Tmteau's ac- isting (for example, through the calumet ing was marginal, the intense use of wild count of Teton-Arikara relations in 1795 adoption rite) and innovative (through rice in the northeastern half of the domain demonstrated thii pattem at work. A Sun Dance and warrior societies) and is indicated?=Several factors contributed Teton band, probably the Miniconjous were capable of sustained military activity to a southward and westward shift in the proper, was living at the Arikara villages against village peoples suffering continu- Sioux domain in the early contact period: throughout Tmteau's stay. His character- ing depopulation as Sioux numbers be depopulation onset; the need to defend ization of them as "really the only friends gan to grow. southern ranges from intrusive tribes di* of the Ricaras, having the same senti- The period 17851825 was marked by placed by the Iroquois Beaver Wars; ments and character,"indicated a lengthy approximately 25 percent Teton growth deteriorating relations with the Cree period of intermarriage. By fall they were and saw the consolidation of the Teton Assiniboin alliance supplied with English joined by other Teton bands, who traded hold on the Missouri. The Arikaras were firearms after 1670; and access to French British goods to the Arikaras to legitimize reduced to two faction-tom villages effec- trade on the lower Mississippi, 1687-95. winter hunting on Arikara lands. Similar tively dominated by the Sioux. At harvest Suspension of French trade also hastened processes probably characterized earlier time Arikaras were forced to trade surplus Sioux movement from the woodlands, Teton-village alliances, such as those be crops at rates set by Teton visitors, whose four villagebased bands (including the tween the Oglalas and the Arikaras and camps prevented Arikara access to buf- Oglala) crossing west of the Mississippi between certain Bml& and the Poncas, falo. When the Arikaras won a key posi- between 1695 and 1700 alone.37Although resulting in the emergence of the hybrid tion in the expanding St. Loubbased fur trade was resumed in 1726-37 and 1750- Wazhazha band?9Territorial claims were trade, Teton bands united to drive them 56, many Sioux never returned to the Mi established, to be asserted by force when onto the prairies, forcing Arikara reloca- sissippi Valley, possibly deterred by hu- truces broke down. Interband Sioux war tion above the Grand RiverP0After 1796 man and animal epidemics.38Thii process parties might concentrate their activities Tetons were able to establish direct rela- was compounded after war opened with in a region for several successive seasons, tions with Euroamerican traders, free of Nebraska Historv -Summer 1994

Eastern Sioux and village tribe middle the lower North Platte that included wild or Upper Bml& were vaccinated in 1853. men. Band leaders, emergent "chiefs," horse ranges in the Nebraska Sand Hills. In 185961 Doctor J.C.R. Clark acted as acted as intercultural brokers in formal if Miniconjous seasonally moved down to "special vaccinating agent" to the Upper frequentlystormy relations with white the Platte to obtain horses, placing them- Platte Agency and vaccinated 558 traders and later government representa- selves in an important supply role to those Oglalas, Brul&, and allied Cheyenne and tives. Variable access to trade, competing Tetons remaining in the Missouri Valley. Arapahos in the summer of 1859 al0ne.4~ summer tribal activities, and population . By the 1830s the U.S. was extending its The program helped to confirm the exist- growth all furthered fluidity of movement administrative control over the Plains Indi- ing trend in Teton demography, so that, across divisional lines and caused prolif- ans and still enjoyed a positive if complex while epidemics might still be virulent eration of tribal polities. Under these pro relationship of apparent equality with the and cause local temporary reverses in cesses the Saone tribe attracted to its sea- sonal locus of ceremonial activity the Sihasapa, rated a Yankton band in 1805, but under population pressure this amalgamation proved unwieldy. Of the constituent Saone bands, the Hunkpapa and Sihasapa drew closer together, while the Sans Arcs shifted into a growing association with the Miniconjous by about 1820. In 1823 several Teton bands allied themselves with the new American trad- - ing community and the U.S. Army in once more driving out the Arikaras, their strategy possibly connected to a Teton deter- mination to control the flow of the plain.+ wide Indian horse trade and so win the role of suppliers to the fur companies. Af- ter 1825 population stresses, the native horse trade, and the expansion of the American fur trade contributed to important tribal range shifts on the high plains. The Cheyennes, the Tetons' closest allies Swift Bear, Brul6. (NSHSR539:lO-7) and a key link in the horse trade, moved Standing Elk, Yankton. (NSHSR539:14-1) southward from the Black Hills into the Tetons. A significant example of this rela- population growth, the net population upper Platte River drainage. Behind their tionship was the vaccination program of continued to grow at a record of 1.34 per- Arapaho allies they moved into the 1832, when a humanitarian vaccination cent per annum during the 1840s. vacuum left by southward-moving act was implemented to prevent further That decade, however, brought the Comanches, victims of sustained depopu- outbreaks of smallpox. In addition to first hints of crisis to the expansionist lation throughout the nineteenth century. Yanktonai and the majority of the Teton society. The burgeoning population The availability of warmer southern Yankton Sioux, 900 Tetons (probably and its intensifying participation in the ranges with better pasture and direct ac- Brul&) were vaccinated?' When small- buffalo robe trade depleted the game in cess to wild horse herds became an im- pox again struck the plains in 1837, shat- the Teton heartland between the Black portant factor in Teton expansion. The tering unvaccinated village tribes such as Hills and the Missouri. Two opposed re southward pull was first felt by the the Mandans, the Tetons went relatively sponses to the crisis are discernible. Oglalas, who took advantage of trading unscathed; significant Teton losses were One, associated with the Two Kettles, a opportunities presented by the establish- restricted to the two northernmost divi- newly independent division budded from ment of Fort Laramie in 1834 to relocate sions (Sihasapa and Hunkpapa) and even the Miniconjous, and with the Lower to the North Platte, turning their military there probably numbered in scores rather Brul&, was to intensify land use by engag- attention downstream to Pawnee villages than hundreds.42The vaccination pre ing in smallscale maize horticulture and still suffering critical depopulation. Grow- gram was extended to include the Platte by increased sedentism around fur trading numbers of Brul&, cohering as a sepa- based Sioux in the 1850s. At the Upper ing posts. Camps augmented their living rate Upper BrulC tribal division, followed Platte Agency seventy-five lodges (ap on the fringe of the cash economy, with the Oglala shift and took over lands along proximately 500 persons) of Oglalas and/ individuals cutting wood, supplying fine Teton Sioux Population furs, and acting as messengers, guides, This slowing in growth did not pre annum) after a generation of sluggish and herders. clude further expansion. The Upper growth. Favorable living conditions in the The contrasting response was particu- Brulb and Southern Oglalas continued to early 1870s-fluid options existing be larly associated with the Hunkpapas, al- press down the Platte Valley against Paw- tween a still viable nomadic life and the ways t& northernmost Teton division. nee ranges, which a people suffering 2.18 open agency system providing annuities They intensified existing patterns of preda- percent per annurn depopulation could and rations based on inflated population tory nomadism, after 1837 extending hunt- not defend. Although Pawnees allied estimatesseem reflected in higher ing ranges northward to include the Can- themselves firmly with the U.S. as Arneri- growth rates. In 1876-77 this interlude was nonball and Heart river drainages vacated can-Sioux relations turned to war, they thrown into chaos by war, the net result of by the withdrawing village tribes. As were unable to maintain control of their which was to confine the Tetons by 1881 lands and in the mid-1870s relocated in to the Great Sioux Reservation, defined by modem Oklahoma. the Treaty of 1868 as comprising modem To the northwest Teton ranges fronted western South Dakota (after 1876 exclud- with those of the Crows, who experienced ing the Black Hills). Immediately, as depopulation of approximately 22 per- Yankton and Yanktonai populations had cent in the years [email protected] the 1840s done after the imposition of reservation at the height of the Teton growth rate life, Teton numbers stabilized, reflecting Oglala leaders had failed to create a the closure of the expansionist options broad Teton alliance against the Crows. open to former generations and the By the 1850s, however, continued gwe abrupt end of tribal selfdetermination as depletion, growing emigrant traffic on the Tetons became the grudging subjects of Overland Trail bringing disease and re enforced acculturation. source loss, worsening U.S. military rela- Although the wars with the U.S. of tions, and profound Teton ambivalence to 1854-55,1864-69, and 187G77, had an im- closer U.S. treaty relations characterized mense political effect on the Tetons, their by meager annuity payments for rights of demographic impact was comparatively way across the Sioux domain impelled in- minor. Only in the 1855 Bluewater battle creased use of the remote Powder River (present Garden County, Nebraska), buffer zone. Opened by accords engi- where eighty-five Brulb were killed, were neered by Crow and Miniconjou leaders, Teton casualties sustained by large num- the reduction of this neutral ground fol- bers of noncombatants. The Tetons were lowed a classicpattern. Teton bands fortunate to escape the worst effects of Pawnee Killer, Oglala. (NSHSB774-27) unrepresented in the Crow truce season- U.S. military reprisals until 1890, when a Hunkpapas expanded into the Little Mis- ally utilized the game sanctuary, demand- tragic series of blunders and misunder- souri drainage they clashed increasingly ing access and citing Crow reluctance to standings erupted on the field of with the Crows, who, although capable of agree as grounds for war. Friendly rela- Wounded Knee and resulted in the deaths a spirited defense, were in the grip of de tions broke down in 1857, and despite at- of possibly 260 Miniconjou and population and gradually retreating to tempts by the Upper Platte agent to broker Hunkpapa Ghost Dancers, members of a their core domain on the upper Yellow- a firm peace, during the next two raiding pan-Indian cult intended to revive static stone. Hunkpapas were thus able to ex- seasons Teton war parties terrorized the or falling populations. Memories of this ploit buffer zone game sanctuaries. In Crows into withdrawing across the tragedy have served to torture relations 1849 Teton population suffered a setback. Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers. The between the Tetons and the US. for over Asiatic cholera came up the Overland Powder River country thus became exclu- a century. Trail in the wagon trains of California- sive Sioux domain, to be contested vigor- bound gold seekers. It shuck Upper Brule ously with the U.S. in the next decade and Population Profiles of Teton Divisions, camps in the Platte forks region, to be fol- a half.+' 1805-81 lowed in 1850 by smallpox. Population The 1860s saw the foundations of teni- The following section examines in detail projections suggest that about 50O.Brulb torial loss being laid through increasing the experience of each of the seven Teton died in the epidemics. The other divisions hostilities and treaty making with the U.S. tribal divisions in light of their nineteenth- lost fewer, but a flattening in the Teton government. No significant Teton range century population histories. It attempts to growth rate is apparent until about 1860 expansion postdated 1860, although the address the issues raised by Richard (see graph 2). Teton per annurn growth in 1870s were characterized by renewed White in his influential 1978 article on 185@70fell to 0.5 percent. high growth rates (1.2 percent per Teton expansionism. That essay dealt Nebraska Historv -Summer 1994

"largely with external influences on the 11 percent more than the Oglala~?~These losses has been made, but consideration Sioux," but expressly "not with the inter- facts suggest that the major reasons for of the profiles suggests that approximately nal political and social changes that took BmlC excess growth 180525 was access to 500 Bml& died in the epidemics, about place within the Confederacyduring this U.S. trade. Further evidence is the stabili- 15 percent of the population. This was by period. Thii is an important study in its zation of population growth in 182539 far the single most severe blow to Teton own right."45 (running at about the Teton norm of 1 numbers during the nineteenth century. Throughout, references to population percent per annum), when the expansion BmlC numbers grew after 1850 but were growth and loss are based upon table 3, of U.S. trade ended BmlC dominance. checked in 1855 when eighty-five persons "ReconstructedTeton Sioux Population, During the 1840s the marked decline in were killed by U.S. troops. by Tribal Division, 18051881." That tabu- BmlC growth reflects tensions related to After 1865 new, phenomenal growth lation presents the reconstructed base line Teton population for 1805 and the terminal 1881 population established above. Six other years have also been selected to fill the intervening period and similar methods used to establish divisional totals. These reconstructed figures are based upon the contemporary estimates presented in table 2. Remarks entered in table 2 identify anomalous counts, dk torted ratios of population units, and estimates omitting significant groups. All these factors were considered minutely in preparing the reconstructed divisional estimates in table 3. 1. BrulC The BmlC profile (see Graphs 3 and 4 for the seven divisions) is characterized by three clear stages: (a) 180539, with growth at 42 percent (1.23 percent per annum), somewhat exceeding the Teton norm; @) 1840-65, a generation of mark- Year edly slower growth centering on the cata- Graph 3. Bml6 and Oglala Population,1801 -1881. strophic decline caused by epidemics in 184950 and losses in the Bluewater battle the range shift to the Platte drainage. The set in. This growth was localized in the up (1855); and (c) 1866-80, a closing period Minisa band split, part joining the Oglala per division and coincided exactly with of growth at a phenomenal 83 percent or in 1840 and part joining the Sans Arcs five the head chieftainship of Spotted Tail 6 percent per annum geton norm = 1 per- years laterP71ncipientband divisions were (1823-81), a charismatic leaderwho, al- cent per annum) only exceeded at the deepened by the move, polarizing the though committed to peaceful relations tribal level by the Two Kettle midcentury tribe into Upper and Lower divisions with the U.S., sought to enter the new era burst. based on the Platte and Missouri drain- of treaties, land cessions, and reservation As the southernmost Teton division, 'iges respectively. Traditional divisional life on Sioux terms and at Sioux speed. Af- the Bml& first achieved links with the boundaries correspond to the limits of the ter relocation of the Upper BmlC agency white trading community based in St. trade catchment areas served by Forts away from an unpopular Missouri River Louis after 1796. Tabeau reveals how Laramie and PierrePB'Carnps associated site in 1871, there began a heavy drain of BmlC leaders strove to isolate other with the hereditw band chiefs of the migration from the Northem Tetons. Large Tetons from traders and function as early trade period mainly remained with numbers of Miniconjous and Sans Arcs middlemen, imposing terms on both par- the Lower Bmlb, while ambitious aspir- chose to surrender at Spotted Tail Agency ties. Clark's statistics indicate that per man ants to status drained to the Upper Platte?9 in 1877, and, although many fled to Bml& traded roughly twice the amount of In 1849-50cholera and smallpox struck Canada later that year, about 500 seem- buffalo robes supplied by Miniconjous the plains with the Bmlk worst hit among ingly remained, in effect becoming and the Sans Arc-Hunkpapa group, and Teton divisions. No estimate of BmlC Bml&. They were augmented in 187980 Teton Sioux Population by Sans Arc and Two Kettle relatives flee consistency indicates a prevailing reason. ably articulated through the horse trade). ing a martinet regime at Cheyenne River, The intertribal trade in horses seems the By 1839 the tribe was divided equally into their home agency.50 most likely critical factor. The northern three primary bands, the Oglala proper, Spotted Tail's ability to master reserva- plains tribes were as much dependent on the Kiyuksa, and Oyuhpe, of 100 lodges tion politics, maintaining a semblance of this trade for their supply of horses as they each." After Kiyuksa incorporation of part control over the implementation of gov- were on raiding enemy herds. In 1804 the of the BrulC Minisa band in 1840, how- ernment policies, was clearly a major fac- Teton calumet ceremony, which aided ever, significant in-migration temporarily tor in Upper BrulC growth after 1865. Yet intertribal trade, was modified by Oglala ended, and internal shifts drained popula- study of BrulC band numbers yields sur- holy men to emphasize horse symbolism. tion to the Oglala proper until 1870. This prising insights. Significant growth, ap Elsewhere I have demonstrated the impor- check reflects the BrulC population re proximately 60 percent, characterized the verse of 184950, while in the north, al- Southern Brulk, Spotted Tail's own though Teton growth continued, it sought bands. The Wazhazha band, however, other outlets for out-migration. After 1855 doubled in size, and the Isanyati (Corn substantial in-migration resumed, al- Band and Loafers) more than trebled. though heavily localized in the emergent Each of these bands represented an ex- Bad FaceLoafer bands. treme in Upper BrulC reaction to the reser- Before 1834 the Oglala geographically vation system; the Wazhazhas were highly constituted a link in a northsouth distribu- conservative and closely associated with tion of Teton divisions, but by 1849 the the Oglalas (much of the band ultimately Oglala range had cohered as an arc defin- settling at Pine Ridge), where active hostil- ing the southwest segment of the Teton ity to the US. remained a viable option, domain. After 1850 as the domain ex- while the Isanyati were tractable and soon panded southeastward to the Republican committed in varying degrees to River and northwestward to the lower sedentism,agriculture, and Christianity. Yellowstone, the Oglalas expanded in As the architect of the middle line that both directions. In this way the Oglalas typified the Upper BrulC response to the acted as a frontier society, their range a reservation system, Spotted Tail attracted catchment zone for the ambitious and as- large numbers of incomers to the tribe. pirant. By 1870 Oglala bands occupied a These migrants, however, largely chose to corridor defining the westem boundary of align themselves with bands adopting po the Teton domain. Warfare had now su- larized stances to the system. perseded the old horse trade as the key Spotted Tail. (NSHSR539:lM) factor in Oglala success. Northem Oglala 2. Oglala bands had played a significant role in the The Oglala profile is unmatched for the tance of this event in the amalgamation of Crow dispossession war, 1857-62, and af- consistency of its phenomenal growth; at disparate bands into the Oglala tribe?' ter 1865 took the lead in articulating Teton 385 percent in seventysix years it is ex- The Cheyenne were principal suppliers resistake to US. encroachments on their ceeded only by the Two Kettle profile for of horses to the Tetons. Their range shift to newly won domain. The economic di- percentage growth. Unlike the Two the South Platte in 1827-34 placed them mension to both these operations was sig- Kettles, Oglala growth was sustained outside the Missouri trade locus?2The key nificant, because Crow horse herds pro throughout the nineteenth century and Oglala shift to the North Platte in 1834-35, rata were twice the size of Teton herds, continued into the next. while formally a response to the establish- and the wealth acquired in stolen stock Although the Oglalas sometimes en- ment of Fort Laramie and reflecting a dou- along the Bozeman Trail was phenom- joyed white trading advantages (for ex- bling of population since 1805, may have enal indeed. ample, being favored over the Brulh by been an attempt to control the horse Agency statistics from the 1870s con- Tabeau and Jean Valle in 1804-5, in the es- trade?3 firm that the Oglalas continued to com- tablishment of the Bad River trading cen- Between 1805-40 both Northern Tetons mand access to abundant sources of ter after 1817, and at Fort Laramie in and Brulh moved by whole camps to the horses. John.Ewers's tabulation of com- 1834), they did not on the whole seek as Oglalas. Incoming Bml& cohered as the parative tribal wealth in horses for the strong ties with traders as did the Brulk. A Kiyuksa band, while the northem immi- year 1874 demonstrates that the Oglala number of ephemeral local factors must grants, about half of them Miniconjou- agency enjoyed the highest horse to per- have contributed to the influ of outsiders derived, emerged as the Oyuhpe band, son ratio of all the Sioux agencies. (Be into the Oglala locus of activity, but its maintaining strong northern links @rob- cause the human population statistics are Nebraska Hitow -Summer 1994 massively inflated, as discussed above, de somely inflated population estimates at tailed analysis is problematic). Herd size the Oglala and Upper BrulC agencies, was greatest among the unsurrendered which created increased per capita gov- Oglalas; upon capitulation in 1877 the ernment rationing, 1871-86.56 Crazy Horse band of 899 persons owned Taken in conjunction with consistent over 2,200 horses. The ratio of more than population loss, it is significant that Teton 2.4 horses per person significantly ex- hereditary chieftainshipswere most highly ceeded the contemporary Crow ratio developed among the Miniconjou. Steady (1.9:1), demonstrating the ongoing loss of shedding of population helped to pre military "edgenby the Crows.55 serve such a system because disaffected After the Treaty of 1868 the Oglalas aspirants to status, a growing class under continued to attract northern immigrants nineteenthcentury demographic condi- dissatisfied with their new agencies, al- tions, sought power bases outside the though this flow was less significant than tribe. A comparable trend may be de- the contempomy movement to the Up tected among the Lower Bmle and Sans per Bmlb. The conservative Bml6 Arc divisions. Wazhazha band chose to settle at the Oglala agency. Although half the band 4. Two Kettle was forced to relocate to Spotted Tail No contemporary document identifies the Agency in 1877, Wazhazha-Oglala links Two Kettle tribal division before Stephen continued to plague reservation adminis- R. Riggs's 1840 journal. Comparison with trators into the 1890s. Joseph N. Nicollet's tabulation from 1839 confirms that prior to 1840 the Two Kettles 3. Miniconjou were a constituent camp of the Broken Ar- In contrast to the aggregative develop row, a Miniconjou primary band, with a ment of the Bmlb and Oglalas, the population that may be reconstructed at Miniconjou profile is marked by steady approximately 220 persons. Leadership population loss, amounting to an absolute was vested in the Four Bears family, who decline of 36 percent in 1805-81. The nine had close trading links with both Arneri- teenth century saw a steady drain by out- can Fur Company and "oppositionnper- marriage and the regular migration of sonnel. Rejecting the intractable reputa- camps to other Teton divisions. There are tion of their parent band, the Two Kettle four major stages in this sequence of sought after 1840 to create a very different movement: (a) 1800-20, to the Brulb, c0rnmunity.5~ where the Red Lodge and Orphan immi- The Two Kettle emergence is to be un- grants cohered as important camps seek- derstood in the context of midcentury ing European4J.S. trade links; @) 182040, ecological conditions in the Teton heart- to the Oglalas, for access to the intertribal land. Population growth and increased horse trade, immigrants emerging as the participation in the buffalo robe trade de Oyuhpe band; (c) 1840-65, to the nascent pleted game in the middle Missouri Val- Two Kettle tribal division, for stronger U.S. ley.58Teton communities had to devise so- trade relations and in response to game lutions to the crisis in resources. The Two depletion discussed below; and (d) 1865- Kettle response was expressed in a new 81, to the Oglalas and more especially to drive to relative sedentism. They created the Upper Bmlb, as the reservation sys- semipermanentvillages near Fort George tem was implemented and many North- (1845) and Fort Pierre @y 1855) and its em Tetons sought more congenial homes successor posts. Denig characterized the at agencies more remote from US. con- Two Kettleas thrifty, able hunters and trol. Up to 700 Miniconjous, from consid- trappers, exploiting fine fur resources pre eration of the profiles, moved southward viously untapped by Teton suppliers and in 186581. Like earlier generations they participating only marginally in the ex- sought better living conditions among the Dove Eye, Spotted Tail's daughter. (NSHS pansionist war complex classically identi- Southern Tetons-now due to hand- 8774-22) fied with the Tetons. The Two Kettles also

182 Teton Sioux Po~ulation

aggregative policy was not sustained. After 1865, in line with the Northern Tetons generally, Sans Arc population be gan to fall sharply, draining to the Oglalas and especially to the Upper Bmlb. In 1877 most resisting Sans Arcs chose to surrender at Spotted Tail Agency. Although many fled to Canada that fall, probably in excess of 250 stayed permanently with the Bml&. Their numbers were swelled by desertions from Cheyenne River Agency in 187879 led by Burnt Face, and the phe nomenon continued after the 1881 surrenders from Canada. By the 1880s the Sans Arcs remaining as a tribe at Cheyenne River had declined to near their 1805 p~pulation.~' 6. Sihasapa The Sihasapa, or Blackfoot Sioux, were -I / I 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 the last Teton division to cross west of the Year Missouri River permanently. They main- tained strong British trading contact in Graph 4. Miniconjou,Two Keitie. Sans Arc, Sihasapa, and Hunkpapa Population, Minnesota in the period 180525, which may account for modest growth in excess intensified resource use by adopting lim- crass militarism succeeded in undermin- of the Teton norm. By 1825 such links ited horti~ulture.~~ ing the Cheyenne River Agency farming were declining in importance as the US. Contemporary Tetons largely approved program among the very people who trading community consolidated its posi- of this radical adaptation because Two might have led it. Consequently in 1879 a tion on the Missouri. The Sihasapa sought Kettle numbers grew fivefold in the gen- sizeable Two Kettle and friendly Sans Arc stronger ties with the Hunkpapa Tetons at eration 1840-65. Not even the Oglalas camp deserted Cheyenne River to relocate this time, shifting their range across the could match this phenomenal local at the Upper BfilS Rosebud Agency. Missouri during the 1830s, but the modest growth rate. The profiles indicate strong rate of Sihasapa growth (even allowing for in-migration from the parent Miniconjou 5. Sans Arc disproportionately high losses during the throughout the generation. Whole camps The Sans Arc profile for 1805-65 indicates 1837 smallpox epidemic) reflects their evi- moved in this way, since Black Rock, 52 percent growth, somewhat below the dent secondary status. Thii trend is consis- Miniconjou tribal war leader in 1832, was Teton norm of 63 percent. Hereditary tent with the emergence of hereditary rated a Two Kettle headman by mid- chieftainship, associated particularly with chieftainships, as in the case of the Fire century.@' In 1855-65significant influx is the Red-Tailed Eagle, Elk Head, and Crow Heart and Grass families. indicated from the Hunkpapa and Feather families, existed in both Sans Arc After 1865 Sihasapa population re Sihasapa. primary bands. Analogous to the mained stable, contrasting with the After 1865 this startling growth irnrnedi- Miniconjou and Lower Brul6 cases, per- marked losses in southward drain under- ately stopped,with population stabilizing petuation of these statuses and modest gone by their Hunkpapa, Sans Arc, Two for over a decade and outmarriage to the growth should be directly related phe Kettle, and Miniconjou relatives. Chrono- Bmlb and Lower Yanktonai being likely. nomena. Excess population seeking status logically this stability coincides with a per- Population reversal undoubtedly arose moved elsewhere, with the profiles indi- ceptible distancing in Sihasapa relations from the crisis in U.S. relations and subse cating significant movement to the Oglala from the Hunkpapa as the reservation pe quent dissatisfaction with conditions at Oyuhpe band during the 1830s and to the riod opened, the emergence of a major newly established Cheyenne River Hunkpapa and Two Kettle divisions after "friendlynleader in John Grass, and an ac- Agency as the reservation era opened. 1840. In 1845 part of the BmE Mini tual administrative division of the tribe as "Hostile" Teton bands first sought to termi- band joined the Sans Arc tribe, evidently certain groups enrolled at Grand River nate "friendly" attempts at farming; after at the invitation of Elk Head, Keeper of (subsequently Standing Rock) and others the army took over the agencies in 1876, the Sacred Calf Pipe, although this at Cheyenne River agencies. These factors Nebraska Historv -Summer 1994 resulted in a majority of Sihasapa rejecting Teton norm. Discounting some known mi- armed resistance as a solution to the crisis nor outbreaks of disease (Nine Hunkpapa in US. relations, a reversal of the Hunk- lodges, approximately sixty persons, died papa pattern with an apparent demcl of smallpox in 185&57),&large numbers graphic bonus.62 chose to leave the Hunkpapa during the critical period of US. relations. 7. Hunkpapa As the northernmost Teton group, the The first two decades of the American era Hunkpapas had developed the weakest saw a roughly static Hunkpapa popula- relations with St. Louis traders in the early tion. This phenomenon indicates out- nineteenth century. Throughout the pe migration to the Southern Tetons, where nod 1851-81a majority of Hunkpapa was the Oglalas included camps with names identified with a clearly formulated anti- (Wakan and Sore-backs) derived from American policy increasingly associated Hunkpapa parent Hunkpapa with Sitting Bull (1832-90). This policy re- population stabilized after 1825 and in- jected treaty annuities, construed as legiti- creased at near the Teton norm until mizing US. land use, and tolerated only about 1840. Then during the 1840s the presence of traders in the Teton dcl Hunkpapa numbers rose by 2.6 percent main. Analysis of statistics shows that the per annum, twice the Teton norm. This "friendlynHunkpapa faction lost numbers sudden burst was contemporaneous with at a faster rate than the "hostilenmajority; the Two Kettle surge and similarly re- the former numbered ninety lodges in flected game depletion in the Teton 1867 (from a profiled total of 325) but heartland. In contrast to the Two Kettle only 333 persons or fifty-five lodges in response of sedentism and intensified re 1876 (from approximately 290 total source use, the Hunkpapas chose to in- Hunkpapa lodges).@The depopulation intensify the Teton tradition of militant ex- dicates the Sitting Bull stance was rela- pansionism, neglecting US. trade links. tively unpopular, perceived as unrealistic The northernmost Teton division, the in the long term, and its methods of group Hunkpapas extended the Teton domain control by camp police deeply resented up the Missouri Valley as smallpox- by the ideologically nonaligned. The devastated Mandan and Hidatsa villagers rhetoric of betrayal aimed at Southern withdrew. Hunkpapa participation in joint Teton agency leaders by militant use accords between the Miniconjous Hunkpapas (and their latterday apolo- and the Arikara villagers opened the up gists) reflects the direction of the drain of per Little Missouri drainage after 1847, in- disaffected Hunkpapas during the 1870~.~~ creasing Hunkpapa clashes with the Crows." Conclusion The 1840s were marked by incorpora- The arrival of Europeans and the introduction of immigrants, principally Sihasapa tion of Old World diseases ushered in a and Sans Arc, attracted by a Hunkpapa period of massive population collapse in policy of "predatory nomadismn that native North America. Certain peoples of solved the heartland resource crisis by ex- the plains region, especially the horticul- tending hunting ranges into gamerich tural village tribes, were reduced by rates war zones. This trend was reversed after of up to 95 percent before populations re- 1850. In 1850-55 growth slowed to the established equilibrium by the early twen- Teton norm, indicating the end of signifi- tieth century. Among the less densely cant in-migration. After 1855 the settled, nomadic tribes, wider variations Hunkpapas began to decline absolutely, in depopulation rates are evident. Certain well ahead of the general northern drain tribes originating on the northeast margin that set in a decade later. In the genera- of the plains, specifically the Cree and the tion 1855-80 Hunkpapa population loss Sioux, made relatively early contact with Running Antelope, Hunkpapa. (NSHS R539: ran at over 1.2 percent per annum, in con- Europeans, suffered comparatively mod- 1 0-9) bast to 1.0 percent per annum growth as a est losses, acquired critical immunities, Teton Sioux Population

ments, calumet trade relations, broadly defined military strategies, and by innovative or newly elaborated institutions, such as the Sun Dance complex, warrior societies, and tribal councils, which remained either nonexistent or poorly developed among the Eastern Sioux. Aggregative Teton tribalism entailed the emergence of a network of overlap ping summer ceremonial loci that multi- plied under conditions of population growth. Four such tribal loci are evident in the period 1785-1825, rising to seven or more by 1860. Comparative population levels imply that approximately 2,000 persons constituted an ideal tribal size. This size compares well with nomadic tribal 1805 -1825 1839 1849 1855 1865 1870 1881 structures throughout the plains. Number- Year ing well above 2,000 are tribes who devel- Graph 5. Tribal Divisions as Percentages of Reconstructed Teton Population, 1805-1881. oped dual ceremonial loci during the nineteenth century (Cheyenne and and devised dispersal strategies that estab- use alliances with, progressively, the Arapaho) or who already held multiple lished population equilibrium late in the Kiowa, Arapaho, and Cheyenne. The Sun Dances (the Blackfeet "Confed- eighteenth century. They were able to southern Teton divisions steadily tracked eracy"); well below 2,000 are ethnic units turn the plains depopulation crisis to their this vacuum as allies of the two latter that combined to form a single ceremo own advantage in interbibal affairs. tribes. To the southeast,Tetons rolled nial locus (Kiowa and Kiowa-Apa~he).~ During the Sioux depopulation period, back Pawnee hunting ranges by purely Tribal polities were competitive, jock- 1655-1785, many Sioux bands filtered out military means, while on the northwestern eying for preferential access to hunting of the Minneota woodlands to augment Crow frontier they employed a joint grounds and both intertribal and inter- plains-adapted relatives on the tallgrass diplomatic-militarystrategy to open up ethnic trade. Population drains occurred prairie. Commitment to communal buf- the game rich buffer zones. as people shifted allegiance to favored falo hunting required increased popula- A number of.generalized conclusions loci. Such drains are perceptible in deme tion dispersal, and the Teton Sioux may be drawn from the reconstructed graphic reconstruction and can represent divisions gradually appropriated ranges trends of Teton population dynamics in steady out-marriage or, in more dramatic vacated by horticultural neighbors suffer- the period 178M881. The seven classic cases, migration by organized camps as ing worse depopulation. Striking decline Teton "tribes" were late sociopolitical the aspirant and ambitious sought status in population density, contrasted with in- phenomena whose roots can be traced in in areas of enhanced opportunity. creasingly concentrated village settle the depopulation period. Population loss A significant contrast is clear between ments combining for defense, was prob- encouraged fusion of existing bands, a stable and aggregative tribes. Stable ably a significant factor in comparative process intensified by the increasing im- groups, typified by the Miniconjou, were Sioux success in combating disease and portance of the large scale communal characterized by population growth terminating the depopulation cycle. buffalo hunt, which favored regular sea- somewhat below the Teton norm, with Sioux population grew after 1785, and sonal cooperation of multiband units. Ac- the implication, supported by historical Teton territorial expansion continued. quisition of growing horse herds after evidence, that such groups shed "excessn Withdrawal of collapsed village popula- about 1765 further intensified the population to other Teton divisions. tions permitted Tetons to extend ranges aggregative process through increased Stable tribes were also marked by well- west of the Missouri, where they contin- mobility and hunting efficiency, permit- defined hereditary band chieftainships, ued expansion toward new population ting larger groups to remain together for implying the realization of idealized high vacuums. One of the most important of extended summer periods. As netpopula- status, postmarital, virilocal residence these was on the southern high plains, tion grew again after 1785, several Teton (where the wife joins her husband's where sustained depopulation throughout tribal polities may be discerned emerging, camp). Such a system acted to perpetuate the nineteenth century caused the each consisting of several bands inte- stable bodies of male kindred over time. Comanches to make a series of joint land- grated by preferential marriage arrange- minimizing factionalism. Nebraska History -Summer 1994

Aggregative tribes, such as the Oglala, for example, UpperILower Bml$ North- ibility of the Sioux people during the criti- were characterized by population growth ernlSouthem Oglala, and UpperILower cal period of Euroamerican contact. Even well above the Teton norm, indicating Yanktonai, as separate ceremonial loci during their depopulation cycle, the Sioux their position as net recipients of excess were gradually established to minimize were able to perfect strategies of popula- growth from stable tribes. Hereditary factionalism.Nevertheless, Oglala growth tion dispersal to minimize the worst ef- band chieftainships, although present, continued at aggregative rates into the fects of introduced diseases and to win were comparatively weak, as might be ex- early twentieth century, indicating that them expanded hunting ranges. Although pected in societies attracting outside as- poor integration of in-migrants is a signifi- predatory nomadism was a fact of life on pirants to status. Postmarital residence cant factor in the endemic factionalism the plains, this should not blind us to pattems were probably more flexible. that has characterized historic and mod- other central facets of the Teton experi- Miniconjou head chief One Hom re em Oglala politics. ence that have gone unremarked. Teton marked of the Oglala Kiyuksa band in A number of regularities may be identi- diplomacy, couched in the plains idiom 1865, "It is a band that is mixed altogether, fied in the direction of Teton population of calumet-trade relations with neighbors composed of men of different bands."69 drain. Net population movement was to red and white, was intelligent and astute The statement clearly reflected more flex- the periphery of the Teton domain, evi- in its creation of joint land-use alliances ible pattems of postmarital residence in dent in both major cases of ephemeral and trading networks. Crises in resource one of the classic aggregative "super growth, those for the Hunkpapa and Two availability elicited a wide vhety of intel- bands." Such a pattem is consistent with Kettle in the period 1840-65. In-migrants ligent responses. The game depletion in the need of aspirant chiefs to create joined Hunkpapas in pushing northward the Teton heartland after 1840 is particu- strong new kinship networks through the the limits of the Teton domain into ranges larly significant, for several Teton groups in-marriage of prominent warriors to their vacated by withdrawing village groups sought to intensify resource use through camps. and into buffer zones weakly contested by incipient horticulture and increased par- One Horn, as the principal leader of declining Crow and Assiniboin popula- ticipation on the fringe of the cash the classic stable Teton division, clearly tions. The Two Kettle case is unusual be economy. The Sioux people are about to expressed some distaste for what he per- cause it represents an eastward shift back enter the twenty-first century. Expansionist ceived as socially chaotic conditions into gamedepleted ranges vacated by options of predatory nomadism will not among aggregative groups. Indeed, the in- other Tetons. A new periphery was thus be open to them again, but the Sioux and tegrative mechanisms identified above created, stimulating new strategies of rela- the larger society must together learn to were stretched to their limits in aggregative tive sedentism and resource intensifica- tap again the adaptive potential of this dy- bands and tribes. Although precise politi- tion by the emergent Two Kettles. namic and resilient people. cal contexts varied, the four cases of as Population drain was most consistent sassination of Sioux head chiefs in the to the south@mperiphery. The southem- Notes nineteenth century took place in tribes most divisions, Bmld and Oglala, consti- I George E. Hyde, Red Cloud's Fo1k:A Histoy of that had undergone population growth of tuted 40 percent of the Teton total in 1805, the OglalaSioux Indians, 2d ed. (Norman:University an aggregative nature. Aggregative groups rising to 65 percent by 1881. The major ofOklahoma Press, 1957);Doane Robinson, "AHis were inherently unstable, their politics movements southward may be divided tory of the Dakota or Sioux Indians," South Dakota Historical Collections QDHQ 2 (1904);Richard dangerously volatile. The ambitious con- into three periods: (a) 180540, as north- White, "The Winning of the West:The Expansion of tinued to seek those enhanced oppomni- em Tetons sought better positions in the the WesternSioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth ties in the hunt, war, and trade that identi- buffalo robe trade and the intertribal Centuries," The Journal ofAmericanHistory 65 fied aggregative loci, while aggregative horse trade; @) 1865-70, when a brief, (1978): 31943. host groups continued to encourage in- highly localized population drain Arthur J. Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Role cremental growth in a calculated play-off benefitted certain Northem Oglala bands as Trappers. Hunters, and Middlemen in the hds Southwesl ofHudson Bay, 16660-1870Foronto: Uni- between increased military capacity and and the Bmld Wazhazha band engaged in versity ofToronto Press. 1974), 112, fig. 37. the critical intensification of factionalism. the highly profitable Bozeman Trail war; For most aggregative groups periods of John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux and (c) 1865-81,a more sustained drain War of I876 (Fort Collins: Old Anny Press, 1976), relatively massive in-migration did not ex- created by perceived advantages at the 312-13. ceed a generation or so before resource Upper Bruld and Oglala agencies as the Annie Heloise Abel, ed., Tabeau's Nmafive of limits and integrative mechan&rnswere reservation system was imposed upon In- Loisel's Expedition to the Upper Missouri (Norman: exceeded. Population levels might stabi- dian populations. This latter movement University ofOklahoma Press, 1939). 105 n; Mildred lize or suff er marked decline as excess continued well into the reservation period. Mott Wedel, 'Le Sueur and the Dakota Sioux," in population sought new outlets and new The broad trends of Teton population Elden Johnson, ed., Aspecfs of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology: Papers in Honor ofLloyd A. Wilford super-bands emerged. In extreme cases of hiitory unequivocally demonstrate the (St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1974), 157- sustained growth "dual tribes" emerged, vigor, resourcefulness,and adaptive flex- 71, esp. 165; Gary E. Moulton, ed.. The Journals of Teton Sioux Population the Lewis and Clark Expedition: August 25, 1804 I'ouest et dam le sud de I'Amerique septenhionale4 waniors and 90 "People of the Leaves Detached" April 6, I805 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (Paris: Jouast et Sigaux, 1888), 601-2. (Wahpekute) warriors to his grand total, which 1987), 3:22. stands corrected at 22.665. lo Elliott Coues, ed.. The Expeditions ofZebulon Col. John E. Smith, Fort Laramie, to Maj. George Monrgomery Pike (New Yoh Francis P. Harper, a Hyde, Red Cloud's Folk, 2930. D. Ruggle, acting adjutant general, Department of 1895). 2:60M01. 24 Moulton, ed., Joumals ofLewis and Clark 3: 27- the Platte, Mar. 22, 1871, Records of the Adjutant The principal source for 1805 figures is 28,32-33. General's Office, RG 94, National Archives. Washing- Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, "A Statistical ti Ibid.. 388. ton. D.C.; Thaddeus A Culbertson, "Journal of an View of the lndian Nations Inhabiting the Territory Expedition to the Mauvaises Term and the Upper of Louisiana, and the Countries Adjacent to Ik 26 Abel, Tabeau's Nmafive, 115 n. Missouri in 1850." John Francis McDermott, ed., Northem and Westem Boundaries,"American State Smithsonion Institution Bureau ofAmerican Ethnol- 27 Moulton, Journals ofLewis and Clark 3:104, 106, Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 705-43 (with some adjust- 132 fn.8. ogy (SIBAEJ Bulletin 147 (1952): 13536; Alfred W. ments in view of Lewis's selective underestimating Vaughan. Upper Missouri Agency, to Alfred as discussed below). Cf. Elliott Coues, New Light on 28 Abel, Tabeau's Narrative, 103. Cumming, superintendent of lndian affairs, St Louis. fhe Early History of the Greater Northwest: The Manu- "Gary E. Moulton, ed., Atlas of the Lewis and Sept. 20, 1853,Annual Report ofthe Commissioner of script Joumals ofAlaander Henry and David Indian Affairs (1853). 112-19; Gouvemeur K. Warren, Clark Expedition (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Thompson (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1897), Press, 1983). map 126; American State Papers: Indian Miminary Report ofExplomtions in Nebraska and 2522-23,530. Dakota, in the Yem 1855-55.57 (Washington: Affairs 2: 76-77. GPO, 1875). 48; Edwin Thompson Denig, Five Indian l2 Clark Wissler, 'Population Changes among the 30 Cf. Abel, Tabeau's Nmfive. 121-23. Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Sioux, Arickams, Northem Plains Indians," Yale Universify Publica- 31William H. Keating, Narmtive of an Expedition to Assiniboines, Crees, Crows, John C. Ewers, ed. tions in Anthropology 1 (1936); Ray, Indians in the the Source ofst. Peter's River (1825; reprint Minne- (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961); Fur Trade, chap. 5. apolis: Ross and Haines, 1959). 404; Stephen Retum Thomas S. Twiss, Upper Platte Agency, to Alfred W. l3 Richard Glover, ed., David Thompson's Narrc- Riggs, 'Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography," Cumming, Nov. 14, 1855, Letters Received, Bureau live, 17841812 Cl'oronto: The Champlain Society, James Owen Dorsey, ed., Conbibutions to North of lndian-Affairs, RG 75, National Archives; Twiss to 1962), 236. American Ethnology9 (1893): 161,186. Both these commissioner of Indian affairs. Se~t22. 1856. An- observations derive from members of the Renville nual Report ofthe commission& o>Indi& ~ffiirs l4 Ferdinand V. Hayden, 'Contributions to the Eth- hading family. (1856), 94-99. nography and Philology of the lndian Tribes of the Missouri Valley," Transactions of the American Philo- 32 Gray, Centennial Campaign, chap. 26. Henry F. Dobyns, 'Estimating Aboriginal Ameri- sophicalSociefy 12, pt. 2 (1862): 253, s.v. Cree; can Population: An Appraisal of Techniques with a Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages horn Monml... James C. Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux New Hemispheric Estimate," Current Anthropology 7 Through the Continent of North America. ..in the Problem (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (1966): 395416,42545. For a review of reactions to Years 1789 and 1793 (London: Cadell and Davis, 1965), 306. Dobyns and a sound analysis of local population dy- 1801). Lxix if; Denig, Five Indian Tribes, 109. "Results from the annual reports of the commis- namics in Ontarieupstate New York. see BNC~G. Is R Cole Hanis, ed., Hisforical Atlas of Canada, sioner of Indian affairs were tabulated in Wissler, Trigger, Natives andllrewcomers: Canada's "Heroic "Population Changes." Age" Reconsidered (Kingston,Ont: McGillQueen's Vol. I: From the Beginning to 1800 (Toronto: Univer- University Press, 198.5). chap. 5; Henry F. Dobyns, sity of Toronto Press, 1987). plates 18 and 69 by "On Santee abandonment of the infirm, see Ruth Their Number Become Thinned: Native Ammkan Conrad E. Heidenreith. Landes, The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Population Dynamics in Eastern North America l6 Gary Clayton Anderson, Kinsmen ofhother Mdewakantonwan Santee (Madison: University of (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1983). Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Missis- Wisconsin Press, 1968). 32; contrast the Teton ideals in Royal B. Hassrick, The Sioux: Life and Customs of T~deau'sJournal," SDHC 7 (1914): 403-74. esp. sippi Valley, 16550.1862 (Lincoln: University of Ne- braska Press, 1984), chap. 2, esp. 17-18. a Wamor Sociefy (Norman: University of Oklahoma 459 for contact Arikara population. This and subse- Press, 1964). 113. quent early twentieth- century estimates are derived l7 Wedel, 'Le Sueur and the Dakota Sioux," 157-71. from Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., 'Handbook of 36 Archeological work in Minnesota indicates the American Indians North of Mexico," SfBAEBulletin Cf. Anderson, Kinsmen ofhofher Kind, 21-22. increasing utilization of wild rice after AD. 800, a 30 (1912), and W. Raymond Wood and Margot Lib l9 Helen Hombeck Tanner, ed., Atlas of Great time consistent with the emergence of the Dakota erty, eds., Anthropology on the Greaf Plains (Lincoln: Lakes Indian History (Norman: University of Okla- (Sioux) language as a linguistic entity distinct from University of Nebraska Press, 1980), 284-96. homa Press, 1987). 65-66; Norman Gelb, ed., its nearest relatives in the Siouan language group. George E. Hyde, The Pawnee Indians, 2d. ed. Jonathan Cmer's Travels Through America, 1766 "Wedel, "Le Sueur and the Dakota Sioux"; Ander- (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974). 364- 1768: An EighteenthcenturyExplorer's Account of son, Kinsmen ofhofher Kind, 24-25. UnchmtedAmerica (New Yoh Wiley, 1993). 87. 65; Richard White, The Roots ofDependency:Subsis- "Edward D. Neill, ed., 'Memoir of the Sioux, A fence, Environment, andSocia1 Change among the Memorial of lndian haders, in "Papers from the Manuscript in the French Archives" Macalesfer Col- Choctaws, Pawnees, and Namijos (Lincoln: Univer- Canadian Archives, 1767-1814," Collections of the lege Conhibutions 10 (St Paul: Pioneer Press, 1890): sity of Nebraska Press, 1983), 154. State HistoricalSoci~of Wisconsin 12 (1892): 76-82, 223-40,esp. 236. quotation on 81. The Mandan-Hidatsacontact estimate represenk "Journal of TNteau on the Missouri River. 1794- an average between the estimates of Donal'd J. Lewis and Clark, "Statistical View of the lndian 1795," in A. P. Naktir, ed., Before Lewis and Clmk. Lehmer and Alfred W. Bowers. See Roy W. Meyer, Tribes;" cf. William Clark, 'Estimate of the Eastem Documents Illusbating the History of the Missouri, The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri: The Indians," in Moulton, ed., Journals ofkwis and 17851804 (St Louis: St Louis Historical DOCU- Mandans, Hidolsos, andArikmas (Lincoln: Univer- Clark 3: 386450,esp. 40820. menk, 1952). 1:294-311, quotation on 310; Abel, sity of Nebraska Press, 1977), 14; Alfred W. Bowers, Tabeau's Nmative, 104; Edmund C. Bray and 'Hidaka Social and Ceremonial Organ'kation," Abel, Tabeau's Nmafive, 101-2. Pike's tabulation asserts 21,675 total Sioux population, but a recheck Martha Coleman Bray, trans. & eds., Joseph N SlBAE Bulletin 194 (1965): 486; Pierre Margry, ed., Nicollef on the Plains and Prairies: The Expeditions of Decouvertes et etablissements des francais dans of his figures shows he failed to add 900 Yanktons" Nebraska History -Summer 1994

183839 With Journals, Letlers, and Notes on the Do- ground on thii commission,see also 'Report of 59 Denig. Fiw Indian Tribes, 2829; Proceedings of a kola Indians (St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Commission to Treat with Sioux of the Upper Mi Board of Commissioners,53,58. Press, 1976), 261. souri," Annual Report oflhe Commissioner of lndian George Catlin, Letlers and Notes on [he Manners, AKairs (1865),537-42. "Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark, 1:273,277,294- Customs, and Condilions of the North American Indi- 31 1; 2: 527. =George E. Hyde, Spolfed Tail's Fo1k:A Histoy of ans (New York: W~leyand Putnam, 1841). 1:222; the Bml6Sioux (Norman: University of Oklahoma Denig, Five Indian Tribes, 29. 41 Michael K. Trimble, "The 1832 inoculation Pre Press, 1961). 3045; George E. Hyde. A Sioux gmm on the Miouri River," in John W. Verano and 61 The Wind winter count enhy for 1845, given in Chronicle (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Douglas H. Ubelaker, eds., Disease and Demography Lakota only, seems to report a Sans Arc visit to a 1956), 42-45; Hany H. Anderson, "AHistory of the band with previous Bml6 affiliations. Thenceforth in the Americas (Washington: Smithsonian Institu- Cheyenne River lndian Agency and Its Military Post. tion Press, 1992), 25744. the count records Northern Teton and ultimately Fort Bennett, 18681891."SDHC28 (1956): 481-82. Cheyenne River Resewation events. Howard, Two N. See Bray and Bray, Joseph Nicollet, 260; Kingsley M. Bray, The Political History of the Dakota Winter Count Texts." Denig, fieIndian Tribes, 27-28. Four hundred Oglala Sioux Part 1-Making the Oglala Hoop, Yanktonais are said to have died in the 1837 epi- 62 Keating. Narrative ofan Expedition, 404; Bray 18041825," English Weslemers'SocietyAmerican In- and Bray, Joseph N. Nicollet, 260. A trend towards demic. Russell Thomton, American Indian Holocaust dian Studies Series (London, 1982). 9 ff. Cf. James R and Su~viuaI:A Population History since 1492 increased Sihasapa hostility clearly evident in the Walker, Lakota Beliefand Ritual, Raymond J. 1850s was reversed after 1865. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), 95. DeMallie and Elaine A Jahner, eds. (Lincoln: Uni- Dr. J.C.R Clark, Upper PIatte Agency, to com- versity of Nebraska Press, 1980), 193 ff. a Interview with He Dog, Scudder Mekeel to missioner of lndian affairs, Oct 25, 1859, and "State- George E. Hyde. Aug. 26,1931, Hyde Papers in 52 Donald J. Berthrong, The Soulhern Cheyennes ment of Indians Vaccinated," Oct. 28, 1859, Letters author's collection; John Colhoff to Joseph Balmer. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 25- Feb. 9,1949, transcript in author's collection. Received, RG 75, National Archives. 26, cites documents which demoi%bate the Chey- 4Kingsley M. Bray. 'Lone Horn's Peace: A New ennes' key role in supplying the fur companies with Denig, Five lndian Tribes, 25 ff.; Stanley Vestal. View of SiouxCrow Relations, 1851-1858." Nebraska horses before their removal southward, complete New Sources of lndian History, 185@1891(Norman: History 66 (1985): 2847. by 1833-34. One factor in Oglala backing of the University of Oklahoma Press, 1934), 193 f. Cheyenne move after 1834 was clearly to capitalize 4i White, 'Winning of the West" 329 n. "Lt. G. K. Warren "Diary," Sept. 23, 1857, New on the resulting demand for horses by the Missouri York State Library. Albany. Transcript furnished by 46 Lewis and Clark, "StatisticalView of the lndian traders. James A. Hanson. The same epidemic caused the Tribes," 713. 53 Previous accounts of the Oglala move south- deaths of 136 Sihasapa people. 47 The Minisa were rated Bml6 in 1839, but by ward assume a simple response to fur bade blan- 66 Lucille M. Kane, bans. & ed., Mililary Life in Da- November 1841 their chief Le Borgne was rated an dishments. See Hyde, Red Cloud's Folk. 4546; Remi kota: The Journal ofPhilippe Regis de Trobriand (St. Oglala. Bray and Bray, Joseph N. Nicollel, 261; David A. Nadeau, Fort Laramie and the Sioux f.Englewood Paul: Alvord Memorial Commission, 1951), 144; Adarns diary, enhy for Nov. 27,1841, transcript at Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967). chap. 2. Gray, Centennial Campaign, 319. Profiled total lodge the Museuin of the FurTrade. Chadron, Nebr., of the figures are derived from Graph 4. original held at the Missouri Historical Society, St. 54 Bray and Bray, Joseph N. Nicollet, 261. Nicollet Louis. Reconstruction of Minisa-Sans Arc relations is designated the OgIala proper as the Hunkpatila and "Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem, 131. based upon the Wind winter count James H. the Kiyuksa as the Kuinyan, names properly borne gives a contemporary assessment of Red Cloud by Howard, Two Dakota Winter Count Texts," Plains by constituent subgroups of their respective parent Sitting Bull.. bands. Anthropologist 5 (1955): 13-30; A R. Bouis letter, Cf. Margot Liberty, "The Sun Dance," in Wood Aug. 31,1845, in 'Fort Tecumseh and Fort Pierre ti John C. Ewers, "The Holse in Blackfoot Indian and Liberty, eds.. Anthropology on Ihe Great Plains, Journal and Letter Books," SDHC9 (1918): 206f.; Culture." SIBAEBulletin 159 (1955): 2427; Thomas 164-78, which suggests a minimum population of Culbertson, "Journal of an Expedition," 135-36; R. Buecker, 'AHiistory of Camp Robinson, Ne- 2,000 as one factor favoring a sustainable contem- Hodge, ed., "Handbook of American Indians," 1: braska, 18741878,"Masters thesis, Chadron State porary Sun Dance complex. 625. Cf. Sans Arc, below. College. Chadron, Nebraska, 1992. mProceedingsof a Board of Commissioners. 19. Emest L Schusky, The Forgollen Sioux: An j6For early nineteenth century Miniconjou mi- Ethnohisto~yof the LawerBmle Resernation (Chi- grants to the Bml6, see Hassrick, The Sioux, 28; cago: Nelson-Hall, 1975). 112-14; Charles E. Hanson, Hyde. Spotted Tail's Folk. 1819; Susan Bordeaux Jr., and Veronica Sue Walters, "The Early Fur Trade Bettelyoun, "My Mother Huntkalutawin." Bettelyoun in Northwestern Nebraska." Nebraska History 57 Collection, MS 185, Nebraska State Historical Soci- (1976): 3045. Fort Pierre outfitted branch posts on ety Archives, Lincoln; William J. Bordeaux, Conquer- the White River as high as modem White Clay ing the Mighty Sioux (Sioux Falls. 1929). 9. Creek, the western boundary of the Lower Bm16. Stephen Return Riggs, "Journal of a Tour from Fort Laramie supplied operations along the Ne " Lacqui-Parle to the Missouri River," SDHC 13 (1926): braska sketch of the White River. 33M4; Bray and Bray, Joseph N. Nicollel, 260. Cf. 49 Lower Bml6 chiefs in council wi$ US. treaty Hany H. Anderson, 'An Investigation of the Early commissionersin October 1865 stressed their he Bands of the Saone Group of Teton Sioux," Journal reditarysuccession from chiefs of the early fur bade of the Washinglon Academy of Science 46 (1956): period. Aoceedings of a Board of Commissionerslo 87-94. Negotiate a Treaty or Treales with the Hostile Indi- "SDHC 9:206 f.; Denig, Fiw lndian Tribes, 25; ans oflhe Upper Missouri [I8651 (Washington,n.d.). Kingsley M. Bray, The Political History of the Oglala 37-47; also found in 'Documents Relating to the Ne Sioux: Part 2-Breaking the Oglala Hoop, 1825- gotiation of Ratified and Unratified Treaties with 1850," English Westerners' Society American Indian Various lndian Tribes, 1801-1869,"Microfilm Publica- Studies Series (London. 1985). 56. tion T494, RG 75, National Archives. For back-