The Teton Sioux (Indians of North America)

The Teton (TEE-ton) people once inhabited a vast territory in the northern prairies and plains of North America in the present-day states of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Today, most Tetons live in or near reservation communities within the region of their traditional lands. The Teton tribe is one of seven divisions, or tribal groups, of American Indians known collectively as the Sioux or the Lakota.

The name Sioux comes from the language of the nearby Chippewa tribe, who used their word Nadoweisiweg, which means “Lesser Snakes,” to label their neighbors. When, in the seventeenth century, French traders heard the Chippewa word, they shortened it to Sioux. The people call themselves Lakota, meaning “allies” or “friends.” In some dialects, the word is pronounced with a d as Dakota, from which the states of North and South Dakota get their name.