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Despite our fierce reputation, the Sioux (and the vast majority of Native American tribes) are basically peaceful people who would rather move than fight. We only got fierce, mean and nasty when we were driven from our lands too often.

Our cousins the Mandan were kind and hospitable to Lewis and Clark and other early explorers sharing food, lodging and even womenfolk with some of them.

There are accounts of Sioux on the Oregon and Mormon trails who could have easily massacred entire wagon trains of pioneers. Instead, we traded with them. There are pioneer journals from both trails which recount incidents where our trade and/or medical intervention even saved pioneer lives.

Even during the famed Sioux uprising of 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley and points further west and north, most of the Sioux declined to participate. There was even a small Mormon settlement in Otter Tail County where the local Sioux even protected the whites for the duration of the uprising. It was mostly the Santee band which did the killing and we all earned a one-way ticket out of Minnesota for the actions of a relative handful.

The aforementioned Mormon settlement tried but did not succeed in getting their government to make an exception for the local Sioux which protected them.