Item #5010 Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases. William Boardman Reed.
Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.
Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.
Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.
Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.
Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.

Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases.

Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, ca. 1865–1870. 3 pp. of manuscript. [with] carte-de-visite photograph of Reed, taken in Philadelphia by Wenderoth, Taylor & Brown, April 1870 [manuscript date].

A fascinating manuscript of Dakota phrases and vocabulary recorded by a Civil War veteran stationed at Fort Rice in Dakota Territory where interactions with the Sioux people were frequent.

A veteran of several Wisconsin Infantries, Capt. William Boardman Reed saw action as part of William Sherman’s famed “Iron Brigade” in the First Battle of Bull Run, and went on to fight in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Groveton against Stonewall Jackson, and in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Reed was injured several times and was discharged for disability in early 1863. After recovering, Reed reenlisted in March 1865 as a Captain in the 50th Wis. Infantry and was stationed at Fort Rice. Following the establishment of the Fort in 1864, it became a source and site of heated conflict and negotiation between whites and Native Americans inhabiting the region.

Entitled “Vocabulary of Dakota Phrases,” the present manuscript features tables of Dakota grammar as well as vocabulary lists. The lists cover phrases, words, and objects, the majority of which have been translated into Dakota. Examples include: “I am sick” (ma-yá-zan) “I love you” (wa-sté-éi-dá-ka) “something to eat” (Ja-wón, Bow-Itá-zi-na) “I have not got anything,” “modest/bashful,” “sit thou down,” “tobacco,” “furs,” “blanket, or anything worn as a B,” “what band do you belong to?”, “buffalo robe,” and so on. Some of the phrases and words do not feature corresponding Dakota translations, which seems to indicate Reed first created a list of vocabulary he wanted to learn in Dakota and then filled-in their translations. The tables of Dakota grammar are divided into separate pronouns, incorporated pronouns, reflexive pronouns, relative pronouns, and verbs. Pronouns and verbs are broken down into nominative, objective, and possessive cases, as well as singular, dual and plural modifications. One section is entirely devoted to conjugations of the Dakota verb ‘to be,’ “Yanká.”

As manuscript materials formerly in our possession reveal, while at Fort Rice Reed and a company of his fellow soldiers undertook a buffalo hunt with a party of 80 Lower Yanktonai, Sioux Indians in January of 1866. This outing was led by Chief “Two Bears” (Mato Nopa), a prominent and venerated chief of the Lower Yanktonai Sioux, whom Reed described as commanding “the movements of the whole party, we, the white men, acknowledging the Indians as our leaders for the time being.” A year after the buffalo hunt in 1867, Two Bears served as an interpreter at a treaty commission meeting held at Fort Rice with the Lakota. On the whole, Reed appears to have been sympathetic to the Native Americans he encountered while at Fort Rice, as the present manuscript suggests. In June 1866, he was mustered out of the Army.

“Throughout its existence, Fort Rice was a highly active military post. It served as base of operations for General Sully’s First and Second Northwestern Expeditions of 1864 and 1865. In 1866–1868, important Indian councils were held at the post. The most important of these was the Great Council with various Sioux bands in July 1868. Although a key leader of the Lakota, T at á ka Íyotake (Sitting Bull), refused to participate, Father Pierre Jean De Smet did convince Sitting Bull to allow his chief lieutenant, Phizí (Gall), to attend this council. As a result of this council, area Sioux bands signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which ended the Red Cloud War and defined the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation. The reservation included most of the area west of the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota.”—history.nd.gov

REFERENCES: State Historical Society of North Dakota. Fort Rice State Historic Site at history.nd.gov

CONDITION: Very good; CDV very good.

Item #5010

Sold

See all items in Autographs & Manuscripts
See all items by