Dakota people 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 and northern Iowa. They have federally recognized tribes established in several places. The Western Dakota are the Yankton, and the Yanktonai ("Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ" and "Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna"; "Village-at-the-end" and "Little village-at-the-end"), who reside in
Kamiakin (Native American leader) Rock Lake in Whitman County, Washington in 1864, where he lived until his death. Kamiakin was of mixed Nez Perce, Spokane and Yakama ancestry. His father Ki-yi-yah was the son of a Nez Perce father and a Spokane mother. His mother was Yakama. In 1825 Kamiakin married Sal-kow, also a Yakama, whose father "Te-i-as" and grandfather "Weowikt" were leaders in the tribe. Kamiakin later married Colestah, also a Yakama. In 1855 Isaac Stevens, the new Washington Territory governor, was anxious to extinguish claims to traditional lands by regional tribes and free up Native American land for sale to European Americans,