The Dakota were the lords of the Northern Plains by the mid-1800s. The Europeans would call them Sioux. It is a Ojibwa word for "enemy". In the 1700s they were forced westward by well-armed Ojibwa to get them off their Western Great Lakes homeland. The Dakota were made up of 7 different independent groups, ranging from Minnesota west to the upper Missouri River. They were the largest of the Plains tribes and outstanding warriors, the Dakota terrorized many of their Indian enemeis and offered fierce resistance to whites. Te worst thing was that their lives depended on buffalo which mean that the end of the great herds meant that it would be the end of their independence. Between 1862 and 1877 they forcefully resisted the U.S. to advance into their lands. In 1876, in eastern Montana near Little Bighorn River, they attacked the U.S. Army which was themost famous defeat by Native North Americans.
