Sioux Warriors.
Siouan refers to a language group of Native American tribes. Indians of the Siouan stock mostly occupied the central part of the continent, from Lake Michigan to the Rocky Mountains and from the Arkansas River to the Saskatchewan River in Canada, while an outlying group stretched to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
The name Sioux is a shortened form of Nadouessioux, the Ojibwe derogatory term for Siouan people.
Linguists think that the Siouan people migrated from North Carolina and Virginia to Ohio over a thousand years ago. Later, some went down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and up the Missouri River, while others crossed Ohio on their way to Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Canada.
In the East, the language is called Siouan-Catawban. This language was the most divergent from the other Siouan tribes and is extinct today.
The Siouan language once included 17 dialects, many of which are extinct or severely endangered today. The Catawba, Mandan, Iowa-Oto, Kansa, Osage, Biloxi, Ofo, and Tutelo languages are already extinct.
Today, Siouan languages are primarily spoken in the American Great Plains and southern Canada. Only the Dakota, Lakota, Stoney, and Crow tribes retain many speakers.
Absaroka (Crow) Warriors.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated September 2026.
Also See:
Native Americans – First Owners of America
Native American Photo Galleries
See Sources.