J. McGEE
THE SIOUAN STOCK
DEFINITION
EXTENT OF THE STOCK
Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families found in North America
above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were confined to the tenth
of the territory bordering Pacific ocean; the remaining nine-tenths of the
land was occupied by a few strong stocks, comprising the Algonquian,
Athapascan, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, Siouan, and others of more limited
extent.
The Indians of the Siouan stock occupied the central portion of the
continent. They were preeminently plains Indians, ranging from Lake
Michigan to the Rocky mountains, and from the Arkansas to the
Saskatchewan, while an outlying body stretched to the shores of the
Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters and
warriors and grouped in shifting tribes led by the chase or driven by
battle from place to place over their vast and naturally rich domain,
though a crude agriculture sprang up whenever a tribe tarried long in one
spot. No native stock is more interesting than the great Siouan group, and
none save the Algonquian and Iroquoian approach it in wealth of literary
and historical records; for since the advent of white men the Siouan
Indians have played striking roles on the stage of human development, and
have caught the eye of every thoughtful observer.
The term Siouan is the adjective denoting the "Sioux" Indians and cognate
tribes. The word "Sioux" has been variously and vaguely used.
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