HISTORY

** The horse culture of the tribes of the High Plains of North America lasted only some 170 years; yet in that time the sub-tribes of the Teton or Western Sioux people imprinted a vivid image on the world’s imagination through their fearless but doomed fight to protect their hunting grounds from the territorial ambitions of the white man. **

** Author’s words quoted from the back cover of the book.

THE BOOK

Osprey Publications Ltd has released Tribes of the Sioux Nation as Number 344 in their Men-at-Arms series. It is a paperback book with 48 pages. Included with the text are black and white photographs, black and white and color illustrations, an informational chart and detailed captions. It has a 2000 copyright and the ISBN is 978-1-85532-8785. As the title states, the book examines and discusses the Tribes of the Sioux Nation.

THE CONTENTS

Introduction
- Origins
- Nomenclature

Tribal Structure
- Eastern Sioux; Mdewakanton
- Wahpekute
- Wahpeton
- Sisseton. Middle Sioux: Yankton
- Yanktoni. Western Sioux: Teton

The Rise Of The Teton Sioux
- Early British Contacts
- The Revolution and War of 1812
- First US treaties
- Trade
- Immigrant pressures from c1845
- First Treaty of Laramie, 1851
- Fighting on the Bozeman Trail
- Red Cloud and the Second Treaty of Laramie, 1868

Some Sioux Leaders

The Santee Uprising, 1862 – 63
- Government abuses of treaty obligations
- Fort Ridgely and New Ulm
- Sibley’s and Sully’s operations
- Executions
- Fugitives

The Final Conflict, 1870 – 90
- Goldrush in the Black Hills
- Custer at the Little Bighorn, 1876
- Retribution
- Reduction of reservation territory, 1877 & 1889
- The Ghost Dance, 1890
- Wounded Knee

Sioux Beliefs

Teton Social Organisation

The Aftermath, 1880 – 1990

Material Culture & Dress
- Santee
- Yankton
- Teton
- Men’s ceremonial dress
- Western Sioux women’s dress
- Warbonnets

Bibliography

The Plates

Index

THE TEXT

Jason Hook covers the Tribes of the Sioux Nation very well. The text in the book is well written and extremely detailed. I did notice some grammatical errors as I read through the text. Most of these were simple errors such as run on words, poor spacing and the lack of capitalizing certain words. Grammar and spelling might not be an important factor to everyone however it is something that I take notice of and pass on my findings. Anyone interested in the tribes of the American Sioux Indians or Native American history in general will find this book very informative and interesting. Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the text for yourself.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

There are a total of 32 black and white photographs shown throughout the book, including photograph images of original paintings. Several of the photographs are of specific Sioux warriors and chiefs such as Flying Pipe, Rain-In-The-Face, Lost Medicine, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Touch The Clouds, Gall and other such famous Sioux as well as showing Sioux clothing, weapons, dwellings, ceremonies and other such subjects in nice detail. The majority of the photographs are nice, clear, centered and focused images and are of a good quality considering the time frames in which they were taken. Considering that photography was still a fairly new science at the time I was impressed with all of the photographs. The photographs will prove to be valuable to the scale figure modeler as well as anyone interested in Sioux clothing, individual Sioux personalities and the culture of the Sioux Indian tribes.
Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the photographs for yourself.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

There are 8 plates of color illustrations by illustrator Jonathan Smith which covers various tribes of the American Sioux Indians and they are very well done. There are brief captions that accompany the illustrations, and well written and detailed larger captions that are located in the Plates chapter. Some of the brief captions that accompany the illustrations are laid out in a manner which does not allow for a “flow” as the reader reads the captions and the captions for plate B has the captions in a poor location near the binding section of the page. The illustrations will prove to be valuable to the scale figure modeler as well as anyone interested in the Native American clothing of the American Sioux Indian tribes.

The color illustrations are of the following:

Plate A
Costume, c1825 - 50
1. Teton Sioux man, c1850
2. Teton Sioux woman and child, c1830
3. Yanktonai Sioux man, c1830
4. Santee Sioux girl, c1825
5. Yanktonai Sioux earth lodge

Plate B
Ceremonial, c1883:
Background; Sun dance lodge, Centre: Sweat lodge, Foreground: Sun Dance altar and ceremonial pipes
1. & 2: Sun Dancers
3. Sun Dance female pledger
4. Elk Society dancer

Note: Plate B had the captions near the binding portion of the page and it made part of them a little difficult to read.

Plate C
The Horse, c1870s
1. Mounted Teton Sioux warrior
2. Teton Sioux woman with cradle and travois
3. Parfleche bags
4. Sioux tipis

Plate D
Male Costume, c1860 – 90
1. Teton Sioux man, c1890
2. Yanktonai Sioux man, c1875
3. Santee Sioux man, 1860s
4. Teton Sioux boy, c1885

Plate E
Female Costume, c1870 - 90:
1. Teton Sioux woman, 1870
2. Santee Sioux woman, 1860 – 80
3. Yanktonai Sioux woman, 1880
4. Teton Sioux girl, 1890
5. Santee Sioux bark lodge

Plate F
Warrior Societies
1. Omaha Society, c1890
2. Miwatani or Mandan Society, c1870
3. Strong Heart Society, c1880
4. Fox or Kit Fox Society, c1880

Plate G
The Reservations
1. Sioux male Ghost Dancer, c1890
2. Sioux female Ghost Dancer, c1890
3. Sioux boy, c1890
4. Sioux baby girl, c1890
5. Teton Sioux man and woman, c1907

Plate H
Contemporary Powwow Costume
1. Contemporary male dancer, c1988
2. Flag bearer, c1980
3. Contemporary male dancer, c1995

There are also 3 black and white illustrations in this volume.

The black and white illustrations are of the following:
1. Layout of the Teton Sioux man’s buckskin shirt, c1885
2. Western Sioux ceremonial shirts of ‘poncho’ type
3. Early skin leggings

Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the illustrations for yourself.

MAPS

There are 2 black and white maps provided. They are of:
- The Struggle For The Land Of The Sioux 1850 - 1880
- Eastern Sioux Villages 1800 – 1870 and battle sites, 1862 – 63 uprising

Please refer to the scan that I have provided so that you can judge the quality of the maps for yourself.

THE INFORMATION CHARTS

There are 2 informational charts provided in this volume. They are of:
- Sioux Tribal Structure
- 20th Century Sioux Populations

Please refer to the scan that I have provided so that you can judge the quality of the informational charts for yourself.

THE CAPTIONS

The captions that accompany the photographs are well written and are very detailed and provide very specific information in regards to the photograph or illustration that they accompany. As with the text I did find a few errors as I read through the captions. As I stated before, grammar and spelling might not be an important factor to everyone however it is something that I take notice of and pass on my findings.
Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the captions for yourself.

SIDE NOTE

There is one part of the book that is very confusing to me and I am not at all sure why the author Michael Johnson did this. On Page 33 there is a photograph of the Crow Indian scout Curley who was a scout for George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry. Not only is he a Crow Indian and not Sioux but he is in no way associated with the Sioux Nation other than as an enemy. The photograph and accompanying caption have absolutely nothing to do with the book. So I am very confused as to why Johnson included them.

CONCLUSION

All in all I am impressed with the book. This is a very nice reference book that contains nice illustrations, relevant photographs and well written captions. There are some grammatical errors throughout the book. Personally I would have liked to have seen more attention paid to the weaponry of the Sioux tribes. I would have no hesitation to add other Osprey titles to my personal library nor would I hesitate to recommend this book to others as it will be a welcome addition to one’s personal military reference library. The scale figure modeler as well as anyone interested in the tribes of the Sioux nation will find this volume a useful companion.

REFERENCES

Native American Clothing: An Illustrated History
Theodore Brasser
Firefly Books

Native American Hunting and Fighting Skills
Colin F. Taylor
The Lyons Press

Native American Weapons
Colin F. Taylor
The Lyons Press

The Indians
The Old West
Time/Life Books

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
An Indian History Of The American West
Dee Brown
Picador

Lakota Portraits
Lives Of The Legendary Plains People
Joseph Agonito
TwoDot

The Great Chiefs
The Old West
Time-Life Books

Warpath
The True Story of the Fighting Sioux
Told in a Biography of Chief White Bull
Stanley Vestal
Foreword by Raymond J. DeMallie
Bison Books

George Turner’s Book of American Indians
True Tales Of Great Warriors
George Turner
Baxter Lane Company


Search inside the book at the Osprey Publishing web site:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Tribes-of-the-Sioux-Nation_9781855328785


Look inside the book at the Amazon web site:

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