Who are the Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna?
“The Great Sioux Nation,” or Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, which means “Seven Council Fires,” are a large group of indigenous peoples who historically lived in the western Great Lakes Woodlands region and Great Plains of what is known today as North America. Očhéthi Šakówiŋ has seven tribes spanning this geographic area, each of which has several bands and speaks languages that fall under the “Siouan” language family, which is why these various groups are all often mistakenly referred to by the homogenous name “Sioux.” This name derives from a mis-transcription by the French of the word the Ojibwe (a Great Lakes Woodlands tribe) used to refer to them.
The people of one of these seven council fires call themselves Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna, which means “Little End Village,” but they are most commonly known as the Yanktonai. Historically the Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna lived between the Missouri River and the James River, and in Josephine Waggoner’s book Witness she states there are 13 bands of Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna. These 13 groups were split among three different reservations in the late 1800s: Standing Rock (Wičhíyena), Fort Peck (Wačhíŋča Oyáte), and Crow Creek (Húŋkpathi). This winter count is from Medicine Bear’s band of Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna, whorefer to themselves as Wičhíyena, speak Dakȟóta (commonly known as “Dakota”), and—along with other peoples—were confined to the Standing Rock Reservation <link to http://standingrock.org/>.
The Standing Rock community has received global attention for leading the fight for their federally protected rights and interests, which have been violated by the Army Corps of Engineers’ authorization of the Dakota Access Pipeline from the Bakken oil fields to Illinois. The route of this pipeline is an immediate threat to sacred sites, cultural resources, and the protection of the Missouri River, and is representative of many issues Native communities continue to face today.