The History and Culture of the Spirit Lake Dakota
Scarlet Bead was born about 1834 into a Sisseton Band, presumably the Shoulder Dryers, at Woodlake. His father was Hokŝinawaŝteka, his fathers’ brother was Wicanĥpiitetun or Star Face (Sisseton Claims). His father was a Captain of Police under his brother chief Wanbdenica or The Orphan, also known as Star Face. His father’s title was Akicita Wicaŝtayatanpi (Lowie).
Scarlet Bead joined the No Flight Society at age eleven (1845) and remained a member until he was age fourteen (1848). He next joined the Female Elk Society and stayed until he was age twenty-three (1857). His father was also a member. At age twenty-one (1855), he joined the Mandan Society, this society disbanded when he was about age twenty-five (1855). He didn’t join the Fox Society because he didn’t want his hair pulled out (Lowie).
When Standing Buffalo was killed in 1868 during a battle with enemy tribes in Montana, his father was in line to be a chief. However, Hokŝinawaŝteka acceded to his son Red Beads, the chieftainship of the band. His band separated from the rest of the band and settled in the Mission District of the Spirit Lake Reservation.
Scarlet Bead claims he was not a chief, but just a common man (Sisseton Claims). Never the less he is listed as a chief in the 1877 census. The following year, Agent McLaughlin made him First Sisseton Chief representing a band with 131 members (McLaughlin Papers). He signed the 1872 Agreement at Lake Traverse on September 20, 1872 as well as the Amended Agreement of 1873, known as the Ten Cent or White Dish Treaty (Kapplar).
Red Beads became an excellent farmer. Blinded by glaucoma in his old age, he had the remarkable ability to tell the time of day and phases of the moon. He died at the age of 87 on October 20, 1921, the last of the old chiefs on the reservation. He was buried in the St. Michael Cemetery.
Bibliography
Committee of Writers The History and Culture of the Miniwakan Oyate.
and Informants North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.
Bismarck, ND 1997.
Diedrich, Mark The Odyssey of Chief Standing Buffalo
(Rochester, MN) Coyote Books 1988.
Kapplar Indian Laws and Treaties
Lowie, Robert H. Field Notes 13579 Fort Totten, ND September 20, 1912.
American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
These notes were published as “Dance Associations of the Eastern Dakota” Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 11, Part 2, 1913.
Pages 101 – 142, New York: 1913.
McLaughlin, James Papers.
Glossary
Akicita Wicaŝtayataŋpi Chief of the Soldiers, Captain of Police. (Akicita = soldier,
policeman; Wicaŝta = man, male; Yataŋ = honored; Pi =
plural).
Devils Lake A mistranslating of Miniwakan (Mini = water; Wakan = sacred)
Sacred Water [Spirit Lake] the Dakota name of the second largest
natural Salt Lake in the United States and the largest natural lake in
the state of North Dakota. Named for the Water Spirit, one of 16 spirits [Tob kin Tob = The four fours] that make God.
Female Elk Society Upaŋ
Hokŝinawaŝteka (Hokŝina = Boy; Waŝte = Good; Ka = doubt, possibly, almost)
Good Boy, the father of Scarlet Bead.
No Flight Society Napeŝni Okodakiciye (Nape = flee; ŝni = negation; Okodakiciye
= society). A group of young men who pledge not to flee from the
enemy, but stay and fight.
Orphan Wanbdenica, also known as Wicanĥpiitetun or Star Face, the father of the famous chief Standing Buffalo. The Orphans brother was Makaideya or Burning Earth. The Orphan signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851. Abdicated his chieftainship to his son Standing Buffalo in 1858, dies of smallpox in 1867 (Diedrich 1988).
Scarlet Bead Pŝiptoduta (Pŝipto = bead; Duta = Scarlet) usually shortened to
Beads or Chief Beads. It is interesting to note that Pŝipto actually
meant a blue bead (Pŝiŋ = rice; To = sky blue). Blue was the hardest color to obtain naturally so when blue beads were offered by fur traders, the people eagerly desired this priceless color; naming the bead shape after a small rice grain.
Shoulder Drying Band Abdowapusikiya (Abdo = shoulder; Wapuse = dry; Kiya
= causative) named for an incident in which the band was frightened by the report of a nearby enemy. They had
just completed a buffalo hunt and were forced to flee with strips of meat hanging on their shoulders.
Sisseton Corrupted form of Sisituŋwan (Sisi = swampy, boggy; (O)tuŋwan = town, village) one of the original tribes who make up the Seven Council Fires Ocetiŝakowiŋ (Oceti = fireplace; Ŝakowiŋ = seven).
Ten cent or 1872, this agreement sold all the land between Devils Lake White Dish Agreement and Lake Traverse, some 8 million acres. The Senate made some changes and it was resigned in 1873 at St. Paul, MN.
It was later discovered the parcel contained 11 million acres.
