ns allied or confederated, and is the family
name now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand
Indians. They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is seldom
willingly acknowledged by them. It was first given to them by the
French, though its original interpretation is by no means clear. The
accepted theory, because it is the most plausible, is that it is a
corruption or rather an abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa word
for enemies.

Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," so
called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, and
all save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to 1876,
more than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and the
Northwest, but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once
occupied the vast region included between the Mississippi and the Rocky
Mountains, and were always migratory in their methods of living. Over
fifty years ago, when the whites first became acquainted with them, they
were divided into nearly fifty bands of families, each with its
separate chief, but all acknowledging a superior chief to whom they were
subordinate. They were at that time the happiest and most wealthy tribe
on the continent, regarded from an Indian standpoint; but then the great
plains were stocked with buffalo and wild horses, and that fact alone
warrants the assertion of contentment and riches. No finer-looking tribe
existed; they could then muster more than ten thousand warriors,
every one of whom would measure six feet, and all their movements were
graceful and elastic.

According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered
the Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they
were held in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through
their enemies and securing a foothold on the shores of Lake
Michigan. This bold band was called by the Chippewas Winnebagook
(men-from-the-salt-water). In their original habitat on the great
northern plains was located the celebrated "red pipe-stone quarry," a
relatively limited area, owned by all tribes, but occupied permanently
by none; a purely neutral ground--so designated by the Great
Spirit--where no war could possibly occur, and where mortal enemies
might meet to procure the material for their pipes, but the hatchet was
invariably buried during that time on the consecrated spot.

The quarry has long since passed out of the c