Sioux

My report is about the Sioux Indians, sometimes called the Lakota Sioux. The word Sioux, short for Nadowessioux, means "little snakes". The Sioux used to be woodland Indians, which means they hunted and fished and used wild rice. They traveled from the East coast to the great Lakes. They hunted buffalo. Before they had horses they traveled by foot using dogs to pull their belonging. They made a thing called a travois that the dogs pulled with their tipis and supplies in it. Things got easier for the Sioux when they got horses. They became Plains Indians and followed the buffalo around the land. The Sioux became very good at riding horses. They lived by hunting the buffalo, which was very important to them and easier to do with horses.

The Sioux had many uses for the buffalo. They made the tipis out of the buffalo hide. They lived in tipis. The tipi was a good home for the Sioux because it was strong enough the survive strong winds but it was light and easy to take apart and put on a travois. The buffalo was also used for clothing and beds. The meat of the buffalo was used for food and the bones and sinew were used for weapons and tools. They also used the bones for shields and sleds. The Sioux made sure that none of the buffalo went to waste.

The clothing of the Sioux was made from buffalo hides and sometimes deer and elk skins. The women wore dresses and the men wore shirts and leggings, all of them wore moccasins. They used beads to decorate their clothing used for special occasions. In the winter they wore buffalo skin robes with hair side in to keep them warm. The clothing was sometimes painted to show all the brave things they did. The leggings were sometimes fringed and decorated depending on what the person liked. The Sioux women were well known for how good they beaded.

I used a sewing machine to make my regalia. The Sioux didn't have sewing machines so everything had to be sewn by hand. I went to the fabric store for the fabric, the Sioux had to hunt for theirs. I chose a light brown material that looks like a hide. I also decorated my shirt an eagle because the Sioux often decorated their clothing. I think making my regalia was easier than for the Sioux because I could use a machine rather than a needle made from bones.

Bibliography

Landau, Elaine. The Sioux. New York: Franklin Watts, 1991.

Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk. The Sioux. New York: Holiday House, 1993.

Rozenfelt, Willard E. The Last Buffalo. Minneapolis: T.S. Denison & Company, Inc., 1973.

Gibbon, Guy. The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Nations. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2003.

Sita, Lisa. Indians of the Great Plains. Philadelphia: Courage Books, 1997

"The Sioux." University of Minnesota Duluth. 10 October, 2006.
<http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/a1041/mnansx1800/sioux.htm>

"Sioux Indians." Indians.org. American Indian Heritage Foundation. 10 October, 2006. <http://www.indians.org/articles/sioux-indians.html>

"Sioux." Promote Georgia. Georgia Tourism Board. 10 October, 2006. <http://www.promotega.orgfld30009/sioux.html>

Native American Unit Home - Regalia