The Sioux or Lakota or Dakota
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      The Santee Sioux (Lakota) are part of the Sioux Nation. Most of what we know of their history is based on records kept by the early American explorers.  Those records began about the 1600s.  History of the Sioux before that time is part of the oral (spoken) history of the tribe.
      The Sioux were living in their homeland along the Mississippi River in what is now called Minnesota before they were moved to Northeastern Nebraska in 1863.  The federal government divided the Sioux Nation into smaller reservations.  The American government wanted the Santee Sioux to accept the culture and ways of the settlers.  Much effort was made to convince the Santee Sioux to become Christian and to begin farming.  The Sioux were put on reservations and were forced to accept treaties giving up their land.  This caused many problems between the Sioux and the new white settlers.
     There was an uprising in Western Minnesota and Sioux went to war with the new settlers.  Because of this "uprising" in 1863,  all the treaties with the Sioux were stopped.  All the Sioux lands in Minnesota were taken by the United States government and the Sioux were moved out of Minnesota and were given a reservation in northeastern Nebraska. 
      The Sioux Nation originally roamed from Minnesota to the northern Rock Mountains in Montana and then south through the northwestern part of Nebraska.  They called themselves the "Dakota" and still do today.  They were actually four bands (Mdewakantonwan, Wahepeton, Sissetonwan, and Wahpekute). 
    The Santee Sioux (originally a woodland tribe) actually lived in semi-permanent villages and grew much of their own foods.  They would have a hunt for animals twice a year.  While hunting, they lived in a teepee. The men rode horses when they hunted buffalo and other kinds of animals.  The women would come to the hunts after the animals were killed and help cut up the killed animals and haul away the pieces to their campsites where the meat would be smoked and dried to use for food during the year.
     The Santee Sioux Reservation is today located in northeast Nebraska along the Missouri River.  Lake Lewis and Clark are on its north side and it is about seventeen miles long and thirteen miles wide.