Native American Tribes: Sioux and Haida

Sioux (Dakota)

Warriors and Honor

Fierce warriors, feared by their neighbors. To win glory for their tribe and fame and honor for themselves, they fought one another. From boyhood on, males were taught to fear neither pain nor death. Bravery in battle was the surest way for a warrior to win respect and a high position in his tribe.

Lifestyle and Sustenance

Food, Shelter, Clothing: Buffalo (when the buffalo moved, they moved). Everything they owned was designed to be carried easily. Within hours they could take down their tepees (conical buffalo-skin tents that were their homes and a symbol of the American Indian way of life). The tepee was invented by the buffalo hunters of the western grasslands. It was built around a framework of about 12 slim, wooden poles approximately 20 feet long. The thin ends of the poles were tied together with strips of buffalo hide, and the poles were raised and spread until their bottom ends formed a circle about 15 feet in diameter. As many as 40 buffalo hides were sewn together, then spread over the frame, their ends fastened to the ground by pegs. A doorway covered with a flap of skin was left in the side, and an opening at the top acted as a chimney. The outside paintings were designs that had religious or historical meanings. They packed their belongings in lightweight leather bags called "parfleches" and moved off after the buffalo. They carried fire by sealing a hot ember inside a buffalo horn filled with rotted wood. They also gathered nuts and berries from forests and fished for salmon in the rivers and ocean. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of salmon swam in from the Pacific and fought their way up the fast-flowing rivers to spawn. This abundance of food gave the tribes time for feasting, carving, and building.

The Sioux Creation Story

1933: Sioux Chief Luther Standing Bear wrote down ancient legends of his people. How the Sioux people began: Thousands of years ago, the first man sprang from the soil in the Great Plains. One morning long ago, a lone man awoke, face to the sun, emerging from the soil. Only his head was visible. The man saw no mountains, no rivers, no forests. He was still young. The man drew himself up until he freed his body from the clinging soil. His first few steps were slow and uncertain. But the sun shone, and the man kept his face turned toward it. In time, the rays of the sun hardened the face of the earth and strengthened the joyous creature. From this man sprang the Dakota nation. Its people have been born and have died upon this plain, and no people have shared it with them until the coming of the European. So this land of the Great Plains is claimed by the Dakota as their very own.

Haida

Totem Poles and Houses

The Haida built large houses of wooden planks with elaborately carved gables and doorposts (totem poles). Totem poles are specially decorated tree trunks that some tribes placed in front of their houses, but the Haida made them part of the house itself. They served as a record of the history of the family that lived in the house.

European Arrival

The arrival of Europeans with their guns, their diseases, and their hunger for land would eventually destroy everything.

Potlatches

Potlatch: A popular ceremony amongst the wealthy Pacific Coast tribes of North America. A chief or head of the family might give away everything that he owned to show how wealthy he was and gain respect. To avoid disgrace, the person receiving the gifts had to give back even more. If he failed to do so, his entire family was disgraced.