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The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota as they were in 1834

 Item
Identifier: 6130-RefShelf-General

Table of Contents

Subdivisions of the Dakotas in Minnesota -- The chiefs -- White men and half-breeds -- Food, agriculture, game and fish -- Dress and ornaments -- Dwellings and furniture -- Tools and weapons; manufactures -- Domestic animals -- The deer-hunt -- Sugar making and fur hunting -- Summer occupations -- Warlike pursuits -- Industry of the hunter and farmer compared -- Government -- Laws -- Personal appearance -- Natural dispostition -- Vices and crimes -- Language and picture writing -- Oratory -- Poetry -- Music and musical instruments -- Notation -- Standards of measure -- Religion and worship -- The medicine dance -- Waken feasts -- The fiest of raw fish -- Heyoka feast -- The sun dance -- Thunder dance -- Making a bear -- The elk dance -- The vapor bath -- Sacrifices and offerings -- Jugglery -- Superstitions -- Belief in immortality -- Recreations -- Gambling -- Social feasts -- The war dance -- Smoking -- Wars -- Marriage customs -- Social and industrial conditions of women -- Treatment and education of children -- Personal names -- Adultery and fornication -- Cleanliness -- Swimming -- Diseases -- Insanity -- Deformity and idiocy -- Surgery and medicine -- Burial customs and mourning -- Traffic and presents -- Traditions.

Dates

  • Copyright: 1986
  • Publication: 1908

Creator

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on use of this collection for research purposes. The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

Extent

1 Volumes : Paperback; 192 pages; photo; map

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

In the spring of 1834 Samuel W. Pond and his brother Gideon built a cabin near Cloud Man's village of the Dakotaa Indians on the shore of Lake Calhoun -- now part of Minneapolis, Minnesota -- intending to preach Christianity to the Indians. The brothers were to spend nearly 20 years learning the Dakota language and observing how the Indians lived. In the 1860s and 1870s, after the Dakota had fought a disastrous war with the whites who had taken their land, Samuel Pond recorded his recollections of the Indians "to show what manner of people the Dakotas were ... while they still retained the customs of their ancestors". Pond's work, first published in 1908, is now considered a classic, "unrivaled today for its discussion of Dakota material culture and social, political, religious, and economic institutions," writes historian Gary Clayton Anderson in his introduction to this reprint edition. Anderson, the author of Little Crow, Spokesman for the Sioux (MHS Press, 1986), discusses Pond's career and the effects of his background or his work. -- from cover.

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General

"First published in 1908 in Minnesota historical collections, volume 12"

Source

Title
The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota as they were in 1834
Date
2025-06
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Southwest Minnesota Historical Center Repository

Contact:
Southwest Minnesota State University
McFarland Library
1501 State Street
Marshall MN 56258