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Nakoda

"Nakoda" is a tribal name used by several Siouan tribes of the Northern Plains:

1) The Stoney tribe of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

2) The Assiniboine tribe of Saskatchewan and Montana. (Many Assiniboine people spell and pronounce this name Nakota instead.)

3) The Yankton and Yanktonai people of South Dakota. Actually the Yankton and Yanktonai people do not use "Nakoda" to refer to themselves; they usually call themselves Yankton and Yanktonai Sioux, and in their own language the tribal name is pronounced Dakota, not Nakoda. Only historians and anthropologists use "Nakoda" to refer to the Yankton or Yanktonai. Presumably at some point in the past there must have been some Yankton and Yanktonai speakers who pronounced "Dakota" as "Nakoda," thus causing them to be recorded in history books this way. It could also have been a case of mistaken identity on the part of outsiders. The Yankton and Yanktonai dialects of Dakota are closer to the Stoney and Assiniboine language than other Dakota dialects, so Stoney and Assiniboine people might have been confused for Yankton or Yanktonai people.

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Here are links to our webpages about the Nakoda tribe and language:

Assiniboine language
Stoney language
Dakota language (Yankton and Yanktonai)
The Assiniboines
The Sioux
Siouan tribes
Plains Indians

Here are a few good books about the Nakodas:
Land of Nakoda
Aaniiih and Nakoda Speeches
Nakoda Sky People

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