The Sioux warriors used several offensive weapons that could cause terrible injury and death. This conveys the impression that the Sioux were very warlike. However, they often didn’t use this artillery to kill, and instead touched them with the coup stick. This act is not warlike, as it doesn’t harm their opponents. I think that the Indians carried weapons more for self-defence and to look belligerent than to use them.
Individual Sioux warriors took part in warfare for a number of reasons. By fighting they could gain personal glory and could prove their bravery. Through this, this might have enabled a warrior to enter a warrior society or attract a wife. Capturing horses and weapons could increase wealth. It was important for leaders and chiefs to be successful because if they were not, warriors would no longer follow them. For the leaders and chiefs, fighting was a way to improve and test their spiritual powers and knowledge. Also, this could increase their status in the nation. A successful leader of chief was considered to be one who could bring back horses and captives from a battle and also not allow for many warriors to be lost. It was not considered to be heroic if a warrior was to die in battle, as it was more important to stay alive as a provider to their family. It was important not to lose your scalp during battle, as this would prevent them from going to the happy hunting grounds after death.
The Sioux fought in battles to steal from their opponents. This proves that they were warlike because only an aggressive person would forcefully capture somebody else’s property. It also seems extremely barbaric to scalp a dead persons body.
Warfare was fought according to certain rules. The bravest thing to do was touch an enemy with a coup stick or to peg the end of your sash to the ground. The idea of ‘counting coup’ was made into a war ritual and it was considered braver to touch an enemy rather than to kill him. This usually only took place when fighting other nations over issues such as stealing horses. During battle, a warrior may have pegged the end of his sash to the ground. This meant that he could not move until the fight was over and that he must ward off enemies from this particular area. The warrior could not pull out his peg from the ground and move away. This could only be done by a fellow warrior or the warrior would stay in the area until he was killed or touched with a coup stick. During fights, casualties were very low. Between 1835 and 1845 the Sioux were at was with the Ojibwa and fewer than four warriors were lost each year. More tribe members were probably killed through hunting accidents rather than through fighting. Warfare usually only took place in the summer months when the Indians had built up their food supplies.
The low number of casualties doesn’t make the Sioux warlike. A warlike tribe would only be out to kill their enemy and cause as much damage as possible.
The Sioux tribe also took scalps. They were used to show evidence of their successes in battle. Scalps would be dried and then hung from tipis as a trophy. Weapons were also decorated with them. The main reason for scalping an enemy was so that he couldn’t go to the Indian spirit world. It was believed that you could not go to the spirit world if your body was incomplete. The Indians scalped their enemies to avoid meeting them in the spirit world.
This act is extremely warlike, as it is pitiless and malicious. To take the scalp of a dead body just for a belief seems very cruel. It is even worse to hang it up.
The Sioux fought against their traditional enemies, the Crow and Pawnee, for a number of reasons. The different nations did not feel the right to be able to say that they owned a specific piece of land. They just felt that it was theirs to hunt the buffalo and live on. They were eager to protect their hunting ground and living area even though they did not class it as their own. It was land like this that the Sioux would ‘count coup’ over with other nations. The Sioux only fought the Crow and Pawnee over sacred land – high places etc. This matter would have been fought to the death. Another reason for the Sioux wanting to fight the Crow and Pawnee would have been to destroy them. If the Sioux could kill and then scalp their traditional enemies, they would then not meet them in the spirit world. This would have been considered to be a good thing for the Sioux. The honour for the tribe would have been kept in this way but also this reason was not as important as perhaps the protection of sacred land. Fighting their traditional enemies was a way in which the Sioux could seek revenge. Raiding parties of small numbers would set out to enemy villages and launch attacks for any of the above reasons.
The Sioux may also have fought with the Crow and Pawnee to keep the Sioux nation together. Often the tribes and bands went off separately, but by going to tribal council every year meant that they stayed together as a nation. Other reasons for fighting would have been to increase wealth by capturing horses. Wealth was measured by the amount of horses owned by an Indian and stealing horses from an enemy was seen as a great deed.
Overall, I feel that he Sioux nation was only warlike in certain aspects but generally they weren’t. The ‘rules’ that were used in battle such as ‘counting coup’ was not warlike as it didn’t harm anybody and it wasn’t vicious or bloodthirsty. Rules like these left low casualties, and also gave them respect and honour. On the other hand, they would always be ready and prepared to go into war if such thing happened. They had successful tactics such as sending out the raiding parties and their reasons for fighting were for a good reason. Scalping was very warlike, but this was an aspect of religion and personal honour. The Sioux created savage images of themselves, as the decoration of their tipi, clothing and weaponry present this characteristic, as do the ways in which they performed their war dances. However, I feel that they created more of an impression of themselves being warlike than they actually were because they hardly ever killed.
