The Sioux are a Native American people. The term can describe any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects. The Sioux (or Great Sioux Nation) are often divided into three main groups based on dialect and subculture: * Teton (translation uncertain): the westernmost Sioux known for their hunting and warrior culture. Often referred to as the Lakota. * Isanti ("Knife," originating from the name of a lake in present-day Minnesota): the extreme east of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and northern Iowa. Often referred to as the Santee or Dakota. * Ihanktowan-Ihanktowana ("Village-at-the-end" and "little village-at-the-end") respectively. Often referred to as the Yankton-Yanktonai or Nakota. ----------------------------------- Today it is popular to refer to the Teton, Isanti, or Ihanktowan/Ihanktowana as either Lakota (otherwise known as the Sioux), Dakota, or Nakota respectively. In any of the three main dialects, "Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota" all translate to mean "friend," or more properly, "ally". Usage of either Lakota, Dakota, or Nakota may then refer to the alliance that once bound the Great Sioux Nation together. The historical Sioux referred to the Great Sioux Nation as the Oceti Sakowin, meaning "Seven Council Fires". Each fire represented an oyate (ethnic groups or nation of people). The seven nations that comprise the Sioux are: Mdewakanton, Wahpetowan (Wahpeton), Wahpekute, Sissetowan (Sisseton), the Ihantowan (Yankton), Ihanktowana (Yanktonai), and the Teton (Lakota). The first four comprise the main branches of the Isanti (Santee or Dakota). --------------------------------------------- The name Sioux is an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux borrowed into French Canadian from Nadoüessioüak from the early Ottawa exonym: na•towe•ssiwak "Sioux". The Proto-Algonquian form *natowewa meaning "Northern Iroquoian" has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (massasauga, Sistrurus). This information was interpreted by some that the Ottawa borrowing was an insult. However, this proto-Algonquian term most likely is ultimately derived from a form *-atowe meaning simply "speak foreign language", which was later extended in meaning in some Algonquian languages to refer to the massasauga. Thus, contrary to many accounts, the Ottawa word na•towe•ssiwak never equated the Sioux with snakes.