Sauk people

History

The Sauk, an Algonquian languages people, are believed to have developed as a people along the St. Lawrence River. They were driven by pressure from other tribes, especially the powerful Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, to migrate to Michigan, where they settled around Saginaw Bay. Due to the yellow-clay soils found around Saginaw Bay, they called themselves the autonym of Oθaakiiwaki (often interpreted to mean "yellow-earth".)

The neighboring Ojibwe and Ottawa peoples referred to them by the exonym Ozaagii, meaning "those at the outlet". French colonists transliterated that as Sac and the English as "Sauk". Anishinaabe expansion and the Huron attempt to gain regional stability drove the Sac out of their territory. The Huron were armed with guns supplied by their French trading partners. The Sac moved south to territory in parts of what are now northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

A closely allied tribe, the Meskwaki (Fox), were noted for resisting French encroachment, having fought two wars against them in the early 18th century. After a devastating battle of September 9, 1730, in Illinois, in which hundreds of warriors were killed and many women and children taken captive by French allies, Fox refugees took shelter with the Sac, making them subject to French attack. The Sac continued moving west to Iowa and Kansas. Two important leaders arose among the Sac: Keokuk and Black Hawk. At first Keokuk accepted the loss of land as inevitable in the face of the vast numbers of white soldiers and settlers coming west. He tried to preserve tribal land and his people, and to keep the peace.

Having failed to receive expected supplies from the Americans on credit, Black Hawk wanted to fight, saying his people were "forced into war by being deceived." Led by Black Hawk in 1832, the mainly Sac band resisted the continued loss of lands (in western Illinois, this time.) Their warfare with United States forces resulted in defeat at the hands of General Edmund P. Gaines in the Black Hawk War.

About this time, one group of Sac moved into Missouri, and later to Kansas and Nebraska. In 1869 the larger group of Sac moved into reservations in Oklahoma, where they merged with the Meskwaki as the federally recognized Sac and Fox Nation. (The United States had been making treaties with them together since their residency in the Midwest.) A smaller number returned to the Midwest from Oklahoma (or resisted leaving.) They joined the Mesquakie at the Mesqwaki Settlement, Iowa.

Clan system

Originally, the Sauk had a patrilineal clan system, in which descent and inheritance was traced through the father. Clans which continue are: Fish, Ocean/Sea, Thunder, Bear, Fox, Potato, Deer, Beaver, Snow, and Wolf. The tribe was governed by a council of sacred clan chiefs, a war chief, the head of families, and the warriors. Chiefs were recognized in three categories: civil, war, and ceremonial. Only the civil chiefs were hereditary. The other two chiefs were recognized by bands after they demonstrated their ability or spiritual power.

This traditional manner of selecting historic clan chiefs and governance was replaced in the 19th century by the United States appointing leaders through their agents at the Sac and Fox Agency, or reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In the 20th century, the tribe adopted a constitutional government patterned after the United States form. They elect their chiefs.

Federally recognized tribes

Today the federally recognized Sac and Fox tribes are:

Language

Sauk is one of the many Algonquian languages. It is very closely related to the varieties spoken by the Meskwaki and the Kickapoo tribes; linguist often describe these three as dialects of the same language. Each of the dialects contains archaisms and innovations that distinguish them from each other. Sauk and Meskwaki appear to be the most closely related of the three, reflecting the peoples' long relationship. Sauk is considered to be mutually intelligible, to a point, with Fox.

In their own language, the Sauk at one time called themselves asakiwaki [a-‘sak-i-wa-ki], "people of the outlet."

The Sauk people have a syllabic orthography for their language. They published a Primer Book in 1977, based on a "traditional" syllabary that existed in 1906. It is intended to help modern-day Sauk to learn to write and speak their ancestral tongue. A newer orthography was proposed around 1994 to aid in language revival. The former syllabary was aimed at remaining native speakers of Sauk; the more recent orthography was developed for native English speakers, as many Sauk grow up with English as their first language (Müller 1994).

Sauk has so few speakers that it is considered an endangered language, as are numerous others native to North America.

In 2012, Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma began to offer a Sauk language course.

Phonology

Sauk does not have many phonemes in comparison to many other languages: four vowels, two semivowels, and eight consonants.

Consonants

The representation of /h/ was omitted in the 1977 syllabary. It was added back in later editions because it is an important distinctive sound in the Sauk language.

All three stops have at least two allophones each, one voiceless and one voiced:

Semivowels

Müller (1994) symbolizes /j/ as /y/, following Americanist practice.

Vowels

Vowel length is important in the Sauk language. Müller presents four vowels, each with two allophones:

Pitch and tone

Pitch and tone are also important when speaking Sauk.

Syllables

Both the Sauk and Fox languages are known for "swallowing" syllables in word-final position, which can make identification of individual sounds more difficult for the language learner.

Morphology

Sauk is a polysynthetic language. Because this can easily pose great difficulties to learners with little to no experience with highly synthetic languages , the Sauk orthography has words written by identifying each syllable.

Orthography

Two samples of written Sauk language, as they appear in Müller (1994):

Ho! Ne nu ta ma!

'Hi! I speak Sauk!'

Ni swi me cli ke a ki a la se te ke wa ki a la te ki ki

e ka ta wi ke mi yak i e we li ke mi ya ki ne ko ti

me cle ke a e cla gwe ne mo tti wi ne li wi tti cle we na

li ta ske wa ne li se ke

"Two turtles were sunning on a bank when a thunderstorm approached. When it began to rain, one turtle said to the other, 'I don’t want to get wet,' and jumped into the lake."

Geographical names

Lake Osakis in west-central Minnesota, the Sauk River, which flows from Lake Osakis, and the towns of Osakis, Sauk Centre, and Sauk Rapids all were named for association historically with a small party of Sac who made camp on the shores of Lake Osakis. They had been banished from their tribe for murder. According to Anishinaabe oral tradition, these five Sac were killed by local Dakota in the late 18th century.

Place names with "Sauk" references include:

Notable people