Among the Dakota it is customary for the rank and title of chief to
descend from father to son, unless some other near relative is ambitious
and influential enough to obtain the place. The same is claimed also in
regard to the rank of brave or soldier, but this position is more
dependent on personal bravery. While among the Omaha and Ponka a chief can
not lead in war, there is a different custom among the Dakota. The
Sisseton chief Standing Buffalo told Little Crow, the leader of the
hostile Santee in the Minnesota outbreak of 1862, that, having commenced
hostilities with the whites, he must fight it out without help from him,
and that, failing to make himself master of the situation, he should not
flee through the country of the Sisseton.
Regarding chieftainship among the Dakota, Philander Prescott(4) says:
The chieftainship is of modern date, there being no chiefs hefore
the whites came. The chiefs have little power. The chief's band is
almost always a kin totem which helps to sustain him.
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