Dakota people in the Mankato ("Maka To" – Earth Blue/Blue Earth) region of southwestern Minnesota along the Blue Earth River. Contemporary Sioux people are also listed under the tribes to which they belong: Dakota people The Dakota people are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota. The Eastern Dakota are the Santee ("Isáŋyathi" or "Isáŋ-athi"; "knife" + "encampment", ″dwells at the place of knife flint″), who reside in the eastern Dakotas, central Minnesota
Native American disease and epidemics as they could fulfill their responsibilities to the community. The increase in disability due to diseases and epidemics began to affect Native American communities, as well as displacement, environmental decline, and war. While disability affected European settlers, the material and societal realities of disability for Native American communities was tangible. Smallpox epidemics led to blindness and depigmented scars. Smallpox specifically led indirectly to higher rates of suicide. Many Native American tribes prided themselves in their appearance, and the resulting skin disfigurement of smallpox deeply affected them psychologically. Unable to cope with this psychological development, tribe members were said to have