The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sioux Indian Courts, by Doane Robinson

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Title: Sioux Indian Courts
An address delivered by Doane Robinson before the South
Dakota Bar Association, at Pierre, South Dakota, January
21, 1909

Author: Doane Robinson

Release Date: July 10, 2008 [EBook #26021]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SIOUX INDIAN COURTS

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY

DOANE ROBINSON

OF PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA

BEFORE THE

SOUTH DAKOTA BAR ASSOCIATION

AT PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA

JANUARY 21, 1909

R. C. SESSIONS & SONS
SIOUX FALLS S. D.

SIOUX INDIAN COURTS

In their primitive life the Sioux Indians of North America had an
intelligent system of jurisprudence, varying somewhat in the different
bands, as our court practice varies in the several states, but
nevertheless recognizing the same general principles throughout the
confederacy.[1]

[1] Most writers upon Indian life have noted the existence of
these courts. Since undertaking this paper, I have consulted
Hump, One Bull, Wakutemani and Simon Kirk, all intelligent Sioux
and, save as otherwise noted, they are my authorities for the
statements herein contained.

It is not an easy thing to determine the laws or the practices of an
unlettered people, who have abandoned the wild and primitive life to
live under regulations prescribed by their conquerors, and who must
depend upon tradition and recollection for the practices of the old
life; but fortunately intelligent observers have from time to time,
during the past two and one half centuries, noted their observations,
and these, supplemented by the recollections of the older men now
living, give to us a fairly clear understanding of the courts and the
legal practices of these people.

Primarily the Sioux government was by clans,--patriarchal; but within
the clan it very nearly approached the representative