Morning Thanks--"Siouxland"

The Sioux people before European immigration

We owe the word, I'm told, to Frederick Manfred, who claimed--in my hearing, in fact--that he was the one who came up with the name, now widely used. It always seemed to me that "Siouxland" didn't deserve the appellation because, well, as long as I lived in the area I never once ran into someone of Native Sioux extraction. 

Which is not to say there weren't any Sioux people around--just not in my circles. Therefore, when I identify with the name, I can't help feeling a little bit of a carpetbagger because this land didn't really belong to me, despite the fact that my own great-grandparents lived here (and elsewhere) and are buried in good Siouxland soil. 

We are, of course, some distance east of what once was Yankton Sioux country, but only a river away--"the Big Sioux." In fact, the Yankton Reservation (land "reserved" for Yankton tribal members) is still just a bit of jaunt west. 

But if you look at the map, the boundaries of the Sioux tribal people do not extend into Iowa or Minnesota. And while no Native peoples are sentenced to live their lives on their varied reservations, the general areas of the region are still (somewhat) in place. This is a map of the Sioux people, those who shared a language (roughly) before Euro-Americans such as my own ancestors decided somewhere in a land far away that there was opportunity here--for the asking.  . .

And often, for the taking--Charles Ingalls, for example, who, in Kansas, simply drove his family onto Osage land, threw up some sod for a wall, and refused to move, something it seems Michael Landon would have never done. So much for history.

Whether Mr. Manfred stole the title or not, we do live in a somewhat recognizable region, southwest Minnesota being nothing at all like the rest of the land of 10,000 lakes, eastern South Dakota notably more verdant than most of the rest of the place, northwest Iowa being so far from state powers out east that we often seems to DesMoines like inhabitants of some faraway and unnamed planet. 

So, regardless of whether or not we stole the name, somehow it fits, even if, by definition, what the word describes makes no sense. Somehow the region requires some kind of special mention because it is, let it be said, despite its geographical uniqueness, one of the richest agricultural regions on the continent. 

That's why I use it too--the title of Siouxland, even though I will forever tip my hat to those who were here before we were, the people whose name we've adopted. We are, really, a separate place.

This morning's thanks is for the awkward designation, despite its deception and despite the fact that my spellchecker still leaves it red-lined because unrecognizable. 

It's not. We live here, in Siouxland, a home for which I'm thankful.