The Sioux believed they came
from the land like plants
Ploughing the land was seen as
ripping their mother's breast
High places were believed to
be close to the spirit world
Daily life
Girls learnt to keep the home
Women cleaned the tipi, prepared food, made clothes and collected water
Boys learnt to ride horses and hunt Buffalo
Medicine men and women
were spiritual leaders
The elderly gave advice to the council and passed on history to the next generations
Beliefs and religion
Circles
Circle of nature, physically surrounded by the circle
of horizon, the circle of the council, the circle of
birth, there was a circle for everything in Indian life
Visions
The only way to
contact the spirit world
To enduce visions one had to have food
and water restrictions, go to sweat lodges,
participate in sundances or menstrate
Dances and ceremonies
The whole tribe would sometimes need to contact spirits, before
hunting they would dance to call spirits to summon the Buffalo,
they would celebrate war victories with the scalp dance and
young boys would become men in 4 days with the sundance
Wars
Preparing for wars
Rifles were taken or traded by pawnees
Horses were used on the front line for
speed and were decorated with handprints
to represent their warrior society
Shields made from Buffalo
neck were held on the left
arm and were decorated
with magical symbols
Feathers were used to show previous acts of
bravery: a notch on the black tip was for scalping
but a black tip with a red spot was for killing
A coupstick was used to touch their enemies
with as it was a sign of bravery
An amulted was used as medicine granting
spiritual protection to the warrior
Warriors painted their bodies in
magical colours for protection