Table Of Contentsss
Lakota America
THE LAMAR SERIES IN WESTERN HISTORY
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Philip J. Deloria, Harvard University
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Lakota
America
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A New History of Indigenous Power
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Pekka Hämäläinen
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.
Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.
Published with assistance from the John R. Bockstoce Endowment Fund.
Endpapers: National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution;
front: Flame winter count, 1887, NAA INV 08633800;
back: Tracing of The Swan winter count, 1870, NAA INV 08633900.
Copyright © 2019 by Pekka Hämäläinen. All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018966994
ISBN 978- 0- 300- 21595- 3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on Terminology ix
Introduction: Dark Matter of History 1
ONe A Place in the World 11
twO Facing West 50
three The Imperial Cauldron 85
fOur The Lakota Meridian 118
fIve The Call of the White Buffalo Calf Woman 164
SIx Empires 208
SeveN War 248
eIght Shapeshifters 294
NINe Upside-D own Soldiers 337
Epilogue: The Lakota Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty 380
List of Abbreviations 393
Notes 399
Glossary 507
Index 509
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Acknowledgments
I owe many institutions and individuals thanks for their help and support in
writing this book. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have Briony Truscott
manage the Nomadic Empires project and wish to express my deep gratitude to
her. Many friends and colleagues have read all or parts of the manuscript, spent
time talking with me about my project, and offered their expertise. I would like
to thank Rani Anderson, Sean Archer, Juliana Barr, Ned Blackhawk, LaDonna
Brave Bull Allard, Kingsley Bray, Bruce Brown Wolf, Jay Buckley, Marcel Bull
Bear, Jane Burbank, Richard Carwardine, Frederic Cooper, Julien Cooper,
Brian Delay, Philip Deloria, Jane Dinwoodie, Willy Dobak, Tawa Ducheneaux,
Marie Favereau, Alex Fire Thunder, Catharine Franklin, Gary Gerstle, Dakota
Wind Goodhouse, Steven Hahn, Tiffany Hale, Ryan Hall, Richard Iron Cloud,
Stella Iron Cloud, Mandy Izadi, Karl Jacoby, Goedarz Karimi, Ari Kelman, Tilda
Long Soldier, Ben Madley, Bryan Miller, Kathryn Olivarius, Brian One Feather,
Jeffrey Ostler, Sarah Pearsall, Laura Peers, Maya Petrovich, Marie Randall, Akim
Reinhardt, Irina Shingiray, Mark St. Pierre, Alan Taylor, Tim Vasko, Michael
Witgen, and John Wunder. I owe each of them a large debt of gratitude. I would
also like to thank friends in the Oxford History Department and the Rothermere
American Institute, especially Aileen Mooney and Jane Rawson, for all the help
along the way.
I have presented parts of this book in seminars at the University of Cambridge,
New York University, and the University of Oxford and wish to thank the partici-
pants for their comments and advice.
Elliott West and Richard White read the full manuscript for Yale University
Press and gave exceptional feedback. I deeply appreciate their help. They and the
other readers saved me from many mistakes. Those that remain are mine alone.
For their vital help I wish to thank the archivists and librarians at the Bodleian
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viii Acknowledgments
Library; the Library of Congress; the National Archives; the Missouri Historical
Society; the Missouri History Museum, Library and Research Center; the Ne-
braska State Historical Society; the Newbery Library; the Oglala Lakota Col-
lege; and the State Archives of the South Dakota Historical Society. I also wish
to extend grateful thanks to Mark Holman at the Sitting Bull College Library;
Michael Moore of the Sitting Bull College faculty; Jennifer Martel at the Sitting
Bull College Visitor Center; and Nicolas Texier at Service Historique de la Dé-
fense.
Lindsay Marshall offered efficient research assistance in Oklahoma, and I owe
her a debt of gratitude. Morgane Muscat provided invaluable help with French
colonial documents. Adina Berk at Yale University Press guided the manuscript
into production with keen insight. I am very grateful to Eliza Childs for superb
copyediting and for making the final stretch of the manuscript preparation so re-
warding and enjoyable. It was a great pleasure to work with Bill Nelson again on
the maps.
My dear friends Chris Rogers, Sam Truett, and David Wishart have helped me
over the years in more ways than they know. And, as always, there is Veera Su-
pinen who makes everything better.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European
Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
(FP7/2007–2013) / ERC grant agreement n0.615040.
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A Note on Terminology
I use the word “Sioux” in this book as a cover term for seven related and allied
people or oyátes: the Lakotas, Yanktons, Yanktonais, Mdewakantons, Sissetons,
Wahpetons, and Wahpekutes, who together formed the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, the
Seven Council Fires. Sioux is a French corruption of Ojibwe word “Nadoues-
sioux” which means “snake” and thus enemy. Here I use Sioux when describing
events or action that involve more than one or all peoples or oyátes; the alter-
native would have been to list each group in every instance. Although prob-
lematic, “Sioux” remains the most common English term used by Lakotas and
non- Natives alike, and many modern Lakota oyátes identify themselves as Sioux
tribes. “Dakota” is a cover term for the four eastern people, the Mdewakantons,
Sissetons, Wahpetons, and Wahpekutes.
The spelling of Lakota words follows New Lakota Dictionary, edited and
compiled by Jan Ullrich (2008; 2nd ed., Lakota Language Consortium, 2011).
I have used Lakota names for the seven Lakota tribes or oyátes unless a French
or English name is dominant in the literature: Hunkpapas (“head of camp circle
entrance”), Minneconjous (“plant by water”), Oglalas (“scatter one’s own”),
Sans Arcs (“without bows”), Sicangus (“burned thighs,” hence the French term
Brulés), Sihasapas (“Blackfeet”), and Two Kettles (“two boilings”). As for other
Native nations, I have used their preferred spellings of their names: Odawas
rather than Ottawas; Mesquakies rather than Foxes; Wyandots rather than
Hurons; and Ho- Chunks rather than Winnebagos.
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