Sioux

American  

[soo] / su /

noun

plural

Sioux

1. Dakota.

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Sioux British  

/ suː /

noun

1. a member of a group of North American Indian peoples formerly ranging over a wide area of the Plains from Lake Michigan to the Rocky Mountains

2. any of the Siouan languages

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Sioux Cultural  

1. A common name for the Dakota people, a tribe of Native Americans inhabiting the northern Great Plains in the nineteenth century. They were famed as warriors and frequently took up arms in the late nineteenth century to oppose the settlement of their hunting grounds and sacred places. In 1876, Sioux warriors, led by Chief Sitting Bull, and commanded in the field by Chief Crazy Horse, overwhelmed the United States cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (See Custer's last stand.) A group of Sioux under Chief Big Foot were massacred by United States troops at Wounded Knee in 1890.

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Etymology

Origin of Sioux

An Americanism dating back to 1755–65; from North American French, shortening of earlier Nadouessioux from Ojibwe (Ottawa dialect) na·towe·ssiw(ak) (plural), from unattested Proto-Algonquian na·towe·hsiw-, derivative of unattested na·towe·wa ”Iroquoian,” probably literally, “speaker of a foreign language”) + French -x plural marker

Example Sentences

"I don't know where I'd be now if it wasn't for Sioux and this place," she said.

From BBC • Mar. 20, 2026

At the heart of the North Dakota court battle was the Dakota Access Pipeline, where from 2016 to 2017 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led one of the largest anti-fossil-fuel protests in US history.

From Barron's • Feb. 27, 2026

The company that had been based in Palo Alto is now based in Sioux Falls, S.D., according to a December filing to the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2026

Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of the Ojibwe Tribe, said her team and lawyers were trying to help the Oglala Sioux secure the men’s release.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026

“And Christmas I’m going to Sioux Falls. I got a aunt there.”

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck