The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society

by Royal B. Hassrick, Rani-Henrik Andersson

Overview

For many people the Sioux, as warriors and as buffalo hunters, have become the symbol of all that is Indian colorful figures endowed with great fortitude and powerful vision. They were the heroes of the Great Plains, and they were the villains, too.

Royal B. Hassrick here attempts to describe the ways of the people, the patterns of their behavior, and the concepts of their imagination. Uniquely, he has approached the subject from the Sioux's own point of view, giving their own interpretation of their world in the era of its greatest vigor and renown –the brief span of years from about 1830 to 1870.

In addition to printed sources, the author has drawn from the observation and records of a number of Sioux who were still living when this book was projected, and were anxious to serve as links to the vanished world of their forebears.

Because it is true that men become in great measure what they think and want themselves to be, it is important to gain this insight into Sioux thought of a century ago. Apparently, the most significant theme in their universe was that man was a minute but integral part of that universe. The dual themes of self-expression and self-denial reached through their lives, helping to explain their utter defeat soon after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. When the opportunity to resolve the conflict with the white man in their own way was lost, their very reason for living was lost, too.

There are chapters on the family and the sexes, fun, the scheme of war, production, the structure of the nation, the way to status, and other aspects of Sioux life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806121406
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	01/15/2021
Series:	The Civilization of the American Indian Series , #72
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	422
Sales rank:	575,033
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Royal B. Hassrick is the author of Western Painting Today: Contemporary Painters of the American West and Cowboys and Indians: An Illustrated History.

Rani-Henrik Andersson holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tampere in Finland. He has served as the McDonnell Douglas Chair, Professor of American Studies at the University of Helsinki and is currently working as a Core Fellow at the University of Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. He has published a number of scholarly articles about topics in Native American history, and has held a position as a visiting research fellow at Indiana University where he worked with Lakota experts Ray DeMallie and Doug Parks. Andersson is the author of The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 (University of Nebraska Press, 2008).

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
Part 1	Rank and Order
Chapter 1	The Structure of the Nation	3
Chapter 2	Morals, Modes, and Manners	32
Part 2	The Warrior
Chapter 3	Ethnocentrism	61
Chapter 4	The Scheme of War	76
Part 3	Familiarity and Respect
Chapter 5	The Family	107
Chapter 6	The Sexes	121
Chapter 7	Fun	143
Part 4	The Predators
Chapter 8	Nomadism	171
Chapter 9	The Predators	188
Chapter 10	Production	209
Part 5	Self-Sacrifice
Chapter 11	The Universe and the Controllers	245
Chapter 12	The Vision Quest	266
Chapter 13	The Way to Status	296
Chapter 14	The Individual and the Sioux Way	310
Chapter 15	Epilogue	339
Appendix A	Iron Shell's Winter Count	346
Appendix B	Familial Terms and Their Use	352
	Bibliography	354
	Index	361