Term | Definition |
Oral Tradition | The custom of telling stories about the histories and legends of a group in order to teach about that culture. |
Elder | An older member of the tribe who is respected for his or her knowledge and wisdom. |
Tipi | A cone-shaped house made by stretching animal skins over a frame of wooden poles. |
Sugar Camp | Village location during spring, when Dakota made sugar from maple sap. |
Bark House | A rectangular house made with poles and covered with large overlapping strips of bark. |
Ohanwaste | Dakota word meaning generosity. |
Tiyospaye | Dakota word meaning extended families, including cousins, aunts, and uncles. |
Wohoda | Dakota word meaning respect and courtesy |
Wakinyan | The great storm-maker who cleans the earth and sky. |
Unktehi | The Water Spirit |
Tate Waziyata | The North Wind |
Wicanhpi Hoksidan | Star Boy, the son of a woman and a star |
Where did the Dakota live in the spring? | The village location was at the sugar camp. |
Where did the Dakota live in the summer? | In the summer, they lived in villages of bark houses, along rivers where the soil was soft and sandy. |
Where did the Dakota live in autumn/fall? | The villagers became a community on the move. Each family packed up its belongings and headed to the hunting grounds that the chief had chosen. |
Where did the Dakota live in the winter? | In the winter, the Dakota set up tipi villages deep in the sheltering woods, near rivers or lakes. |
Housing in the spring | In the spring, the Dakota lived in bark houses. A bark house is a rectangular house made with poles and covered with overlapping strips of bark. |
Housing in the summer | In the summer, the Dakota lived at the summer villages of bark houses along the rivers. |
Housing in autumn/fall | They set up tipis to live in during the fall. (They were a community on the move.) |
Housing in the winter | The Dakota lived in tipi villages deep in the sheltering woods. |
Food in the spring | In the spring their food was small game, such as muskrat, beaver, and ducks. The other food was sugar and maple syrup and sugar. |
Food in the summer | Small game, fish, wild rice, cultivated corn, corn, blueberries, cranberries, venison, squash, beans, ducks, and crops. |
Food in autumn/fall | Large game, such as bison, deer, and bear. They also had wild rice and crops. |
Food in the winter | Stored corn, wild rice, dried meat, bison ribs, rabbit, and fish. |
Activities in the spring | The children did chores and played in the woods, the men hunted, and the women made syrup at the sugar camp. |
Activities in the summer | The boys would grind rice husks; the men hunted, fished, and wild rice; the women farmed, picked berries and nuts. |
Activities in autumn/fall | The men hunted game, and the women dried meat and prepared animal skin. |
Activities in the winter | The children used sleds, skated, and listened to elders' stories; the men ice fished, gathered firewood, hunted, and visited; the women tanned hides, sewed cloths, visited, and preserved food for winter. |
Step 1 in the wild rice process | Host a celebration and make an offering to Unktehi |
Step 2 " " | They tied the stocks of grain into bundles and let them stand there to dry for a few days. |
Step 3 " " | They returned and struck the bundles with a rod so that the rice fell into the bottom of the canoe. |
Step 4 " " | Rice was brought to the shore and placed on mats to dry in the sun. |
Step 5 " " | Roast the rice over a fire |
Step 6 in the wild rice process | Boys grind the husks off the grains by stepping lightly on them; place rice in a pit. |
Step 7 in the wild rice process | Husks removed from the grains by shaking the rice |