The Dakota

Sitting Bull or Tatanka Iyotake was one of the most prominent Native American leaders in all time. He was a Sioux tribe leader who located in the Great Plains region of modern day South Dakota around 1874 when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Sitting Bull’s main focus was war and opposition of the American settlers. He began training and fighting in battles from the age of fourteen up to his death at age fifty-nine. During Sitting Bull’s early years, he didn’t really interact or witness…

extent did the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1874 lead to the Great Sioux War of 1876?”. One key source chosen to support this investigation is a treaty written in 1868 between the the United States (U.S.) government and the Native American nations of the Dakota Territory regarding ownership and land rights of the Black Hills. The other source is a firsthand account from a Cheyenne woman that lived through and experienced some of the events leading up to the Great Sioux War of 1876. Source A. Fort…

oppose change because of the fear of the unknown. The modification of one’s lifestyle can yield positive results by presenting new and exciting alternatives to what one is accustomed to but it can also have negative consequences. The citizens of North Dakota have discovered this recently as their community has undergone significant transformations brought about by the production of oil. However, not all of the changes in this area have been negative, as numerous careers have been launched by…

The start and establishment of the city of Maplewood, Minnesota goes back nearly 150 years. Before the settlers appeared, the Dakota Indians mainly occupied the land in Maplewood. The topography was a combination of small forest and open prairie, with several pockets of wetlands and lakes scattered about. In 1850, a small group of families traveled away from St. Paul to find a new place to live. The names of these families were the Bells, Caseys, Conlins, and Vincents. They eventually found an…

Wounded knee is located on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. South Dakota is home to the Sioux tribe and many of its counterparts including the Oglala, Rosebud, and the Yankton Sioux tribes. Wounded Knee, named after a creek on the reservation, was remembered as a place of much resentment, betrayal, of “the white man’s lies and promises,” and of lost hope because of the massacre that took place there in 1890. Eighty-three years later this same site would host a more controversial…

Sitting Bull: The Stubborn Chief Is there anyone that has made the general population change their whole perception on a whole race? Sitting bull was born on the plains near the black hills in South Dakota. Growing up in a traditional native tribe he was pretty sheltered to the rest of the world. As a young child he was just an average child with nothing specifically special about him. When he was ten he killed his first buffalo which officially made him a man. At the age of fourteen he was…

The recent protests in North Dakota has turned the world’s attention to the Standing Rock Sioux Nation reserve, where a section of the Dakota Access Pipeline will be built if approved. Native Americans argue that the proposed pipeline will damage their vital water sources and affect the whole reserve, making their water undrinkable and harming their health. Crude oil pipelines, usually buried underground, can easily contaminate water (“How Can You Identify Pipeline.”), which in turn toxifies the…

Controversy over a pipeline “What to Know About the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests” by Justin Worland is an informative piece about The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protesting a plan to put in a 1,200-mile pipeline to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The plan came to be in 2014 and has been ongoing since. National attention has since been gained and the opposing sides are preparing for a long battle that may be through the winter full of harsh weather and snow. The Sioux tribe…

The largest mass execution in U.S History, The Dakota Conflict, took place in 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Such a gruesome event, ended with 38 Dakota warriors hung at the same time. This all began with Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is the belief that the United States was destined by God to expand land from coast to coast. White business men having had this strong idea in their minds caused many difficulties between them and the Native Americans. Native Americans were unable to read or…

thesis: The struggle over the Dakota Access Pipeline emphasizes a longstanding history of colonialism and demonstrates threats to environmental justice. Struggles to overcome colonialism and exploitation characterize the history of many indigenous populations, such as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In his essay, Kyle Powys Whyte analyzes the impacts of colonialism in relation to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and defines colonialism as “a “complex social process in which at least one…