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Day 338 of reading an article everyday:
Ernest L. Schusky, “The Roots of Factionalism among the Lower Brule Sioux.” In eds. Raymond J. DeMallie & Alfonso Ortiz. North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, 258-77.
Ernest L. Schusky, “The Roots of Factionalism among the Lower Brule Sioux.” In eds. Raymond J. DeMallie & Alfonso Ortiz. North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, 258-77.
An interesting look at factionalism among the Lower Brule over a long period. In the pre-reservation era, factionalism was less likely because of the fluidity of Lakota society. Lakota communities would expand & contract depending on the season & regularly moved to follow bison.
Individuals in a dispute would regularly separate into different tiyóšpaye & keep disputes from crystallizing into factions. With the rise of the fur trade, there were greater possibilities for division. The Lower Brule are Sičháŋǧu Lakota, the same band as at Rosebud.
The Lower Brule made a choice to break off & stay on the Missouri River to be closer to traders & Indian Agents. By the end of the Civil War they were recognized by the federal government as a separate band & received their own Indian Agency.
During the early reservation period, there were differences in opinion over allotment, the breakup of the Great Sioux reservation, the move of the agency further north, & the Ghost Dance. About 2/3 of the tribe was upset at the creation of the reservation to the north.
They didn’t want to leave the land they were already on. The 1/3 that moved to the reservation quickly gobbled up the best land for cattle ranching & took agency jobs. This created some animosity between the 2 groups.
Schusky argues that the “mixed-blood” & “full-blood” divide began to grow around the turn of the 20th century, & especially in the 1930s with the New Deal & the IRA. Mixed-ancestry Lakota were more likely to accept new government programs. Villages were settled along racial lines
When Schusky began his fieldwork at Lower Brule in 1958 he was surprised that the mixed-blood-full-blood divide was dormant. They were united against the building of the Fort Randall & Big Bend Dams. However, he argues the divide was still there just less important at that time.
The main division at that moment was between those who lived on reservation & those who lived off. The tribe received money for the loss of their land due to the dams. On reservation Indians wanted to keep the money on the reservation while off-reservation Indians felt cheated.
He goes on more about the divide between mixed-bloods & full-bloods in interesting ways. Schusky is not my favorite scholar but he is one of the only scholars to study Lower Brule history. There are still reservations that are almost completely ignored in the literature.
