Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton

by Amos E. Oneroad, Alanson B. Skinner, Laura L. Anderson

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a few members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota community in northeastern South Dakota, while living in the white world, quietly worked to preserve the customs and stories of their ancestors in the face of federal government suppression and the opposition of organized religion.

Amos E. Oneroad, a son of one of those families, was educated in the traditional ways and then sent east to obtain a college education, eventually becoming a Presbyterian minister. For most of his life, he moved in two worlds. Fortunately, he met Alanson B. Skinner, an anthropology student, and kindred soul, in New York City. The two men formed a personal and professional bond, collaborating on anthropological studies in various parts of the United States. The project closest to Oneroad's heart was collecting and preserving the stories and traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton. Oneroad wrote down the stories and gave them to Skinner. The men intended to polish the resulting manuscript and publish it, but Skinner's untimely death in 1925 thwarted their plans.

Oneroad and Skinner collected descriptions of everyday life, including tribal organization, ceremonies marking the individual's passage from birth to death, and material culture. Several of the folk tales included relate the exploits of Iktomi, the trickster, while others tell of the adventures of such figures as the Child of Love, Star Born, and the Mysterious Turtle.

Paperback. 214 pages.