Q 01/05

What does the Sioux name for their own nation, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, mean?

A) People of the Plains

B) Seven Council Fires

C) Keepers of the Pipe

D) Children of the Buffalo

Answer · why

B) Seven Council Fires

Seven Council Fires counts the nation's seven allied peoples, each keeping its own council fire: four Dakota groups in the east, two in the middle and...

Q 02/05

The word 'Sioux' is usually traced to a French rendering of a term in which language?

A) Lakota

B) Cree

C) Cheyenne

D) Ojibwe

Answer · why

D) Ojibwe

Ojibwe is the usual answer, though some linguists point to the closely related Ottawa. The French wrote the name as Nadouessioux, then kept only its l...

Q 03/05

What do the words Dakota and Lakota translate to?

A) River people

B) Friend, ally

C) Hunter, warrior

D) Real people

Answer · why

B) Friend, ally

Friend, ally is the sense of both: they are one name in two dialects. 'Sioux' was an outsiders' label, shortened by the French from a name a rival nat...

Q 04/05

Which English word for a Native American dwelling was borrowed from the Sioux languages?

A) Wigwam

B) Tipi

C) Hogan

D) Wickiup

Answer · why

B) Tipi

Tipi comes from the Dakota and Lakota word for a dwelling. When a camp moved, the poles became the frame of a travois, a drag sled that carried the fo...

Q 05/05

Around which Great Lake did the Santee Dakota live before the 17th century?

A) Michigan

B) Superior

C) Erie

D) Huron

Answer · why

B) Superior

Superior's wooded shores were Santee country, where they gathered wild rice and speared fish from canoes until long wars with a rival nation to the ea...