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) Friends and Allies

D) Children of the Buffalo

Answer · why

B) Seven Council Fires

Each fire stands for one oyate, or people, within the nation.

Q 02/05

The word 'Sioux' comes from a French rendering of a term in which language?

A) Lakota

B) Cree

C) Cheyenne

D) Ojibwe

Answer · why

D) Ojibwe

Nadowessi is often said to mean 'little snakes' or 'enemy'; the French added their plural -oux and later clipped it.

Q 03/05

What do the words Dakota and Lakota translate to?

A) Great Spirit

B) Friend, ally

C) Buffalo people

D) Seven fires

Answer · why

B) Friend, ally

The two names reflect dialect differences within the same nation.

Q 04/05

Which people are correctly called Nakota, a label often wrongly applied to the Yankton Dakota?

A) The Northern Cheyenne

B) The Assiniboine and Stoney

C) The Arapaho and Gros Ventre

D) The Crow and Hidatsa

Answer · why

B) The Assiniboine and Stoney

They live in western Canada and Montana.

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

An 18th-century war with the Ojibwe pushed them west into southern Minnesota.