View from the Red Road

THE ORIGINS OF "SIOUXLAND"


For over sixty million years the Ihanktunwan DaNakota or “Yankton Dakota” (misnomer “Sioux”), lived upon their homelands, now called "western and northern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, and southern Minnesota”, their ancient territories ranging from present day Council Bluffs, IA, to Pierre, SD, to Lacrosse, WI. Today’s large cities and communities, filled with “Americans”, that now dot the plains in prime river locations, were always home to hundreds of thousands of Ihanktunwan and other populated Indigenous communities.

The DaNakota Nation Citizenry prior to the mid 1800’s had adequate land area to periodically move their Bison Hide Tipi Lodges, allowing fresh grass to re-grow beneath. This ingenious and respectful movement kept the Ihanktunwan families and communities strong and healthy, as it prevented illness and disease, such as the common cold, ‘black mold’, flu virus, and various other airborne contamination plaguing American homes today. The Ihanktunwan lived peacefully as did all colors and nations of Grand Mother Earth prior to the “pyramid hierarchy” system, which began 10,000 years ago with the invention of money, domesticated animals, greed, and “god.” The pyramid system eventually destroyed the balance and harmony of female and male balanced societies around Grand Mother Earth - even making a brief ‘visit’ to central America thousands of years ago. However, their remains a few surviving Red Nations still clinging to their Way of Life today.

The “boundaries” of the DaNakota were well understood by all their neighboring nations, and all travelers across were considered “relatives”, guests free and “welcomed” to move and camp without problem. Visitors, even including the immigrant “white man” were welcome upon DaNakota homelands, despite contrary stereotypes in inaccurate school textbooks and general “history books” portraying and insinuating an “uncivilized, savageness” of “Indians.” Even such things as “scalping” (a Dutch invention used against Red People by early American colonists and pilgrims) is now mis-thought, and sometimes ‘taught’, to have been practiced by “Indians” – blaming the victim in one of the worst lies against the Red People to dehumanize and free imperialist minds in denial of reality.

The few sporadic instances of conflict between individual Red Nations occurred only after post 1492 contamination. But the advance of “America” to the Northern Great Plains found huge losses to Indigenous Peoples (tens of millions) and minimal loss of life to the government and their American citizenry (low thousands).

The lack of correspondence between archeologists and American citizenry ignores the peacefulness and contentedness of the Red People prior to the “columbus era” (1492 to the present). Fences, forts, catapults and other weapons of mass destruction were never ‘found’, as the ‘control/greed’ objects were not used by Indigenous Peoples - only being unearthed in Europe and other corrupted areas.

Without alcohol, drugs, or other harmful contaminants into their pristine systems for millions of years, and with plenty of non-polluted fresh water, great herds of over 100 million Bison, 100 million Elk, 100 million antelope, and 100 million Deer, there was no need to cause harm to a neighbor – let alone a need for fences, forts, castles, or greed. In fact, the Nakota words “wasin icuna” (takes-the-fat/best part) were put together to try to describe the strange, foreign, greedy way of early European Americans.


Sacred Red Stone

In the heart of Ihanktunwan DaNakota homelands are the Sacred Red Stone Quarries in what is now called “Pipestone, Minnesota.” A majority of Ihanktunwan today live near present day Marty, S.D. In the past, the “reservation” served the u.s. government as a “concentration camp” or “gulag” as land grabs, swindles, and thefts plagued Indigenous Red Nations and Peoples during the rampant advance and destruction caused by westward imperialism of the United States government.

The Sacred Red Stone is used only for the Canunpa (misnomer “peace pipe”), connected to a wooden stem and filled with “can sa sa”, the non-toxic, non-mind-altering inner bark of the Willow Tree. Joining the Red Stone bowl and the Wood stem initiates the beginning of one of the Seven Sacred Ceremonies of the Nakota Nation. The Ceremonies of the Canunpa teach balance, appreciation, and respect of Grand Father Sky and Grand Mother Earth – called “Wakan Tanka” or “the Great Mystery of Life.” Without a fantasical and man-made concoction of “god” (considered by Indigenous peoples as a male-dominating tool to control the masses and facilitate the desecration of Grand Mother Earth for personal gain and power of an “upper class”), the DaNakota were able to appreciate the gifts of nature without harming or destroying them.

It is from the Sacred Red Stone Quarries - limited and finite in quantity - where the Ihanktunwan “origin stories” bring them forth from within Grand Mother Earth to serve as caretakers of this spiritual and sacred place, where the Red Stone is found nowhere else in the world.

The unique, rich, red stone perfectly matches the brilliant red skin tone of the “full-blooded” Indigenous person. This is where the term “Red Man” comes from, as the Nakota word for human or mankind is “Wica Sa” (Man, Red; Human, Red).

The DaNakota were fine hosts to those of other nations seeking individual harvest of the Sacred Red Stone and spiritual pilgrimage to those stone quarries for their smoking vessels which held their Tobacco and Inner-Willow-Bark-Shavings within their sacred Canunpas.


The Ihanktunwan DaNakota

One of the DaNakota favorite home sites was in the area now called “Sioux City, Iowa.” It is located along the Big Muddy “Missouri River” near the mouth of the Big Nakota “Big Sioux” River where Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa now border together. Over twenty thousand Ihanktunwan lived in the immediate Sioux City area since time immemorial for both their winter and summer community home sites. The hills along the eastern edge of the Big Muddy were known as the “DaNakota” or Nakota Hills and hold the remains of millions of DaNakota who have passed into the Spirit World during the last 60 million years. Great reverence and solitude is employed when climbing these sacred Nakota Hills, which were also used as prime “fasting” or “Crying For A Vision” locations for the Ihanktunwan. Today, the white man calls Nakota Hills the “Loess Hills” – a German word for “loose.”

The meaning of the word Iowa comes from the DaNakota word Ayuhbe (pronounced AH-you-khbeh) or “The Humble/Sleepy Ones”, a name they called citizens of the Bakoje Nation, who resided in the southern and eastern portion of Iowa. The word Ayuhbe describes the Bakoje’s relationship with the Ihanktunwan. The Bakoje were so friendly that when they would get tired of visiting with the Ihanktunwan during international celebrations, adoptions, meetings, or gatherings, they would “pretend-yawn” in order to excuse themselves. Other Indigenous Nations living in or near Iowa, like the Meskwaki and Illini pronounced Ayuhbe as Ayuway or “Ioway.”

The Nakota Nation of which the DaNakota comprise the “d/n” language grouping, have the same language as the Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota, except in instances when the “N, D, or L” sounds are used, and the appropriate corresponding sound is implemented. As an example, the words “Indigenous Boy” would be “Nakota Hoksina” in the “Nakota” language, while in “Lakota”, the words would be pronounced “Lakota Hoksila” (noting “l” replaces “n”). The Ihanktunwan use both “n” and “d” in their unique language.


U.S. Military Reconnaissance Mission

In 1803 – without knowledge of Indigenous Red “Indian” Nations who lived in all areas west of the Mississippi River, the European nation of France sold “claiming and trade/exploitation rights” to the United States for the west-Mississippi area for $11 million dollars.

This arrogant “transaction”, however immoral and illegal, led to the initial military reconnaissance mission to map out and locate Indigenous Red Nations for future destruction by u.s. forces and occupation. The two military men hired for this job were Captains William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. When coming through what is today “Sioux City”, one of their crew, Sgt. Floyd, died from one of the many European illnesses contaminating the pristine regions of Great Turtle Island, post 1492. His remains were buried on the bluff overlooking the Big Muddy River and a large monument today marks the approximate location of his gravesite. Lewis never did free his African “slave York” and Lewis would later commit suicide, unable to handle the guilt and depression he felt due to the genocide he helped foster against millions of Red People through his military mission.

Smutty Bear

In 1851, the great orator Mato Sabiciye or “Smutty Bear”, was the principal spokesperson for the entire Ihanktunwan DaNakota Nation. His duty to his people was to translate the consensual group decisions of “Oyate Omniciye” or “Circle Meetings of The People”, which included all adult men and women of the DaNakota Nation who gathered to discuss and take action upon important national matters.

Mato Sabiciye would relay - most eloquently - during large international meetings and gatherings, exactly what all Ihanktunwan communities in unanimity instructed him to say. Mato made his primary home in what is now called Sioux City and his secondary home near the falls at Sioux Falls, SD. A third home site of Smutty Bear was the southern shores of the Iowa Great Lakes region today called “Okoboji.”


The 1851 Treaty

Mato Sabiciye was given the duty of “Itacan” or “Principal Spokesperson” for the Ihanktunwan and served during the negotiations of the 1851 Treaty of Long Meadows, commonly referred to by the United States as the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Mato, under “orders” from each community member back home - along with eight other representatives of eight distinct nations of the Great Plains Region who also followed Oyate Omniciye “true democracy” protocol, developed the document called the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie with the u.s. government.

The 1851 Treaty was an agreement between the u.s. and the nine Northern Great Plains Red Indigenous Nations to forever and “legally on paper” (the legal way of the “white man”) protect their homelands from encroachment and occupation by the u.s. and their citizenry.

Each selected representative of the nine Red Nations was instructed through their male and female “Circle Meetings” within their communities (actual democracy currently on the verge of extinction upon Grand Mother Earth) to get the U.S. to sign their name on the Treaty. The nine nations brilliantly and successfully accomplished this great task. The “supreme law” Treaty was later completed through appropriate u.s. protocol (ratification) by the senate in 1853. Because the 1851 Treaty was developed and agreed upon in the appropriate manners of the nine nations and the United States government system, this binding contract protected Indigenous hunting, gathering, traveling, and living rights in perpetuity.

The document was signed on September 17, 1851 along Horse Creek in now northwestern Nebraska, near present day Morrill, Nebraska. The name of the great Mato Sabiciye – a Sioux Cityan long before Sioux City - can be viewed and seen as the fifth name down on the actual 1851 Treaty (see www.1851Treaty.com).


The Fur Trade

It was very fortunate for early French fur trappers and Americans that they were so free to move around, settle upon, and “lay exploitation claims” to lands and resources of the Northern Great Plains. There was a great desire back east for “beaver caps” and the French – sometimes with the assistance of “assimilated Indians”, exploited the sacred beaver for monetary gain, though killing beaver was never a practice of Indigenous Peoples prior to the “columbus era.”

In the mid 1800’s, a French man, Theophile Bruguier became the first white man to settle in what is now called “Sioux City, Iowa.” He married into the community to the daughter of an Isanti Dakota spokesperson (adopted through his marriage to an Ihanktunwan woman) known as “Fighting Eagle.” Fighting Eagle is sometimes referred to as “War Eagle”, although the DaNakota had no word for, nor carried out the barbaric practice of ‘war.’

In 1852, the year just after the Great Horse Creek Treaty was agreed upon between Indigenous Red Nations and the United States government, a French trapper by the name of Gustav Pecaut was trapping in Montana among the “Nakota” (“Assinaboin”), the language grouping of the Nakota Nation who spoke in the “n” dialect. There Gustav learned to speak the Nakota language.

While moving a barge of furs down to St. Louis via the Big Muddy River, Pecaut and two other trappers were forced, due to poor navigation in low waters, to stop in Sioux City. Gustav was at a point in his life that he felt the need to settle down and Sioux City seemed to be the place to do it. He ended up staying on a farm with the second white man to settle in Sioux City, a man by the name of “Leonais.”

For a few years, Pecaut delivered mail between Sioux City and Fort Pierre, Dakota Territories, in what is now central South Dakota. He once led a group of men on horseback into the He Sapa “Black Hills” to search for gold. Because it was against the law for u.s. citizens to travel upon 1851 Treaty lands (discouraged by the government in a half-hearted attempt to honor the Treaty), Gustav had to lead the group first across northern Nebraska, then move northwestward and sneak into the He Sapa (the “Black Rocky Mountains” as the Lakota called it) from the south.

Time was spent in a canyon panning for gold with little success. On the return trip home, they encountered a group of patrolling army soldiers who considered detaining them, but because Gustav knew one of the officers from his Fort Pierre mail delivery service, the officer allowed them to leave – so long as they went straight back (and with an escort for some twenty miles in the direction of Sioux City). After the military was out of sight, a group of Lakota riders came upon the miners, which could have been troublesome to the group as they were illegally trespassing upon Lakota lands, save again for Gustav – who knew one of the Lakota riders from, once again - his time spent at Fort Pierre and his fluency in the Nakota Language.

The friendliness and graciousness of the Nakota Nation Citizenry and other Indigenous Red Nation peoples is not well spoken of. Many lies were leveled against them in successful attempts to dehumanize and defame such great and honorable peoples. Much of this racism was due to the greed of government officials and the companies and speculators who prayed upon good peoples.

In fact, Gustav Pecaut was himself a victim of unethical dealings. President Abraham Lincoln, long thought to be “honest Abe”, had influenced the Union Pacific Railroad to go though Council Bluffs, Iowa – instead of the planned route though Sioux City, where Gustav had invested heavily in the railroad coming through. Little did he know the shady dealings in Washington, D.C. (dishonest Abe held speculations in Council Bluffs, Iowa – a city itself named after a meeting with the DaNakota between Clark and Lewis during the initial military expedition) would affect the local Sioux City resident.

Abe Lincoln also was responsible for the genocide and wrongful deaths of thirty-eight Santee Dakota citizens the day after xmas in 1862. The Santee had been forced to agree with the u.s. government’s terms of living on a “reservation” and not hunting in their old traditional hunting grounds. But after being starved by the “white, reservation agent” -who had been secretly selling food stuffs intended for the Santee to his “white friends” in St. Louis Missouri instead, the suffering and famished Santee were forced to hunt.

The Santee were immediately labeled as “hostile” by the agent for the act of hunting off their destitute reservation in a last desperate act of survival, as any starving person would have resorted to regardless of any prior agreement. The newspapers went absolutely crazy condemning the Santee – blaming the victim. The media frenzy created mass hysteria, “allowing” for the military to commit a ruthless and heartless physical attack upon the innocent Santee and leading to dishonest Abe’s subsequent genocidal hanging – the largest mass hanging in world history (see “Guinness Book of World Records”).

Even those Santee who remained stationary upon their “reservation” (concentration camp) starving to death were molested by the marauding government troops and vigilantes. Today, Santee refugees in exile live primarily in Sioux City, Iowa, with their “reservation” located an hour and a half upriver near Niobrara, Nebraska.

It was around this time that Gustav Pecaut moved - to the other side of the Big Muddy – to establish the township of “Covington, Nebraska Territory.” The town would later become present day South Sioux City, Nebraska. Pecaut laid claim to many acres of the “Umanhan” or “Omaha Nation” of Indigenous peoples, whose homelands and territories stretched from points between the present day cities of Omaha, Niobrara, and North Platte, Nebraska.

In 1863, Gustav Pecaut became a naturalized U.S. citizen of the United States in Dakota City, Dakota County, Nebraska Territory. Today, both Red and White live together upon DaNakota and Umanhan homelands in what is now referred to as “Siouxland.”



Well Known Sioux Cityans

One of the most famous “Sioux Cityans” today is Reva DeCorah Barta, who has made her home there for over 50 years. Reva is the National Secretary for the American Indian Movement (AIM), a group of Indigenous “American Indians” who verbally and physically protested against the government policy of “termination of Indian tribes” (and won). The “radical, militant” (according to media coverage) also protested against and were successful at reestablishing freedom of spirituality (“religion”), thereby insuring that Indigenous ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and Life Renewal (misnomer “sweat lodge”) could be conducted without fear of arrest. AIM also insured rights to “supreme law” Treaties through their great efforts during the 1960’s and 70’s.

Reva’s Great Grandmother, Morning Glory Woman, (www.morninggloryfoundation.org) was the Principal Spokesperson for the entire Ho Cank (“Winnebago”) Nation of the region now known as “Wisconsin” during the mid 1700’s. Morning Glory Woman married a french fur trapper, Sebrevierre DeCorah, and the two had many children together. Reva’s father, Henry Thomas DeCorah, was a World War I war hero, watching his father, Foster DeCorah, Killed In Action not fifty feet from him during the infamous “Hindenburg Line Battle” in France. Foster’s remains are buried in a military cemetery in France to this day.

During the mid 1800’s, many Ho Cank were forced from their homelands due to American encroachment and genocide, finally escaping from imprisonment from Fort Thompson, SD and finding refuge among the Umanhan people near what is today called “Winnebago, Nebraska.” The resourceful Ho Cank today have many businesses and organizations, such as “Indianz.com” and “Ho Chunk, Inc.”, which enhance Ho Cank life upon their allied Umanhan’s homelands they so generously and graciously share. Their annual Homecoming Festivities Pow-wow are held the last full weekend of July each year and many tourists and visitors attend the breathtaking singing and dance performances hosted by the Ho Cank Nation Citizenry of Nebraska.

Famed Gateway Computer Company founder Ted Waitt also started his multi-billion dollar business in Sioux City. His brother and co-founder Norman Waitt is a Hollywood producer, with notoriety for the production of films such as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Superstar NBA basketball player, Kirk Heinrich, of the Chicago Bulls, began at Sioux City’s West High School, winning the Iowa State Four-A Championship during his senior year there.


Pending Resolution

In 1858, government officials forced and extorted signatures from a Yankton Dakota delegation to Washington, DC, upon a false “1858 treaty.” The delegation was taken out into the ocean on a large military ship and there, were threatened to be thrown, or shot from a cannon, overboard – to be eaten by giant sharks and whales - if they did not sign a paper to relinquish lands to the u.s. gov’t.

The lands thefted were much of northern Iowa, southwestern Minnesota, and southeastern South Dakota, leaving the Ihanktunwan with a tiny speck of land near the Fort Randall dam, which, when constructed, was supposed to provide free electricity to the Ihanktunwan Citizenry in perpetuity – but did not, and remains yet another swindle and violation of Indigenous rights.

These wrongful actions of hostage-taking and extortion, violations of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, have yet to be corrected. The DaNakota maintain their rights to their homelands to this very day. Article VI states, “Treaties made with Indian nations shall be the supreme law of the land, with the judges in every state bound thereby.” The genocide convention act of 1988 also prevents such theft of Indigenous lands.

For more info on this history of Siouxland and the Plight of the DaNakota, see www.1851Treaty.com