Chapter 6 Quiz — Makóčhe: Land, Seasons & Directions¶
Part A — Multiple Choice (10 questions, 2 points each)¶
1. What does makóčhe mean beyond simply 'land'?
Answer
b) Homeland — the land as living relationship, identity, and spiritual ground
makóčhe is not merely geographic land. It encompasses homeland, identity, memory, and spiritual practice rooted in specific places. For Dakota people, the land is a relative, not a resource or property.
a) Sacred earth used in ceremony b) Homeland — the land as living relationship, identity, and spiritual ground c) The soil of the Minnesota River valley specifically d) Any land that belongs to a nation
2. What is Bdóte and why is it significant in Dakota cosmology?
Answer
c) The confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers — the Dakota center of the world and a place of creation in oral tradition
Bdóte is where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet (near present-day Fort Snelling). It is the center of the Dakota world in oral tradition — the place of creation. The U.S. government built Fort Snelling on this site, a profound desecration of the Dakota sacred center.
a) The Dakota word for lake b) A sacred hill near the Black Hills c) The confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers — the Dakota center of the world and a place of creation in oral tradition d) The name for the first reservation granted to the Dakota people
3. Which Dakota word means 'east' — the direction of sunrise?
Answer
b) wiyóhiŋyaŋpa
wiyóhiŋyaŋpa = east, literally "where the sun rises" (wiyó- = sun, -hiŋyaŋpa = to rise/come out). Dakota cardinal directions are defined by the sun's movement, not by fixed compass points.
a) wazíyata b) wiyóhiŋyaŋpa c) itókaga d) wiyóhpeyata
4. What does čhaŋwápe-kasná-wi mean and which month does it correspond to?
Answer
c) Leaf-falling moon — approximately October
čhaŋwápe = leaf; kasná = to fall/drop; wi = moon/month. The "leaf-falling moon" corresponds to October, when deciduous trees shed their leaves. This moon name is also a behavioral cue to intensify winter preparations.
a) Berry-ripening moon — approximately August b) Snowblind moon — approximately March c) Leaf-falling moon — approximately October d) Deer-rutting moon — approximately November
5. The word for 'north' in Dakota is:
Answer
a) wazíyata
wazíyata = north. It is associated with the white color, cold, and purification in Dakota ceremonial tradition. itókaga = south, wiyóhiŋyaŋpa = east, wiyóhpeyata = west.
a) wazíyata b) itókaga c) wiyóhpeyata d) wiyóhiŋyaŋpa
6. Which treaties stripped the Dakota people of most of their Minnesota homeland in 1851?
Answer
b) The Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota
The 1851 Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota were signed under pressure and in some cases fraud, ceding nearly all of Dakota's Minnesota territory in exchange for a reservation along the Minnesota River and promised — but often withheld — annuities.
a) The Treaty of Paris and the Northwest Ordinance b) The Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota c) The Treaty of Laramie and the Homestead Act d) The Treaty of Prairie du Chien and the Land Ordinance
7. What does the word blokétu mean?
Answer
c) Summer
blokétu = summer, the growing season. The four seasons are: wétȟo (spring), blokétu (summer), ptaŋyétu (fall), waníyetu (winter).
a) Spring b) Fall c) Summer d) Winter
8. The Dakota locative particle ekta means:
Answer
b) At / to (direction or location)
ekta is the locative particle meaning "at" or "to" — it marks the destination or location. Bdóte ekta yá = He/she goes to Bdóte. The contrasting particle is etáŋhaŋ (from).
a) From b) At / to (direction or location) c) Through / across d) Near / beside
9. The name Mní Sota Makhóčhe (Minnesota) is best translated as:
Answer
c) Land of sky-tinted/cloudy waters
Mní = water, Sota = cloudy/sky-reflecting, Makhóčhe = homeland/land. The name describes the light quality of Minnesota's lakes. The English state name "Minnesota" dropped the word Makhóčhe (homeland), converting a people's homeland name into a geographic description.
a) Land of the north wind b) Where the rivers meet c) Land of sky-tinted/cloudy waters d) Homeland of the seven fires
10. According to the AIS 112 content, how did Dakota land loss disrupt the lunar calendar knowledge system?
Answer
b) Removal and reservation confinement meant Dakota people could no longer observe the specific landscapes their moon names described, severing the calendar from its ecological referents
The lunar calendar names — čhaŋwápe-kasná-wi, Waníčoka-wi, etc. — are descriptions of specific ecological phenomena observable in the northern Great Plains. When Dakota people were confined to reservations and later allotted to individual plots, they lost access to the broader landscape their moon names described.
a) The U.S. government replaced the Dakota calendar with the Gregorian calendar by law b) Removal and reservation confinement meant Dakota people could no longer observe the specific landscapes their moon names described, severing the calendar from its ecological referents c) Missionaries renamed the moons with Christian holidays d) The lunar calendar was preserved without disruption on the reservations
Part B — Fill in the Blank (3 questions, 5 points each)¶
11. The four Dakota seasons in order from spring to winter are: _, _, _, _.
Answer
- wétȟo (spring)
- blokétu (summer)
- ptaŋyétu (fall/autumn)
- waníyetu (winter)
Memory tip: wétȟo starts with "w" like "waking up" (spring renewal); blokétu has an "b" like "bloom"; ptaŋyétu has "pt" like "plant-harvest"; waníyetu contains waniyetu wowapi (winter count).
12. Translate into Dakota: 'The wind comes from the north.' ____ etáŋhaŋ tȟaté kiŋ hí.
Answer
Wazíyata
Wazíyata etáŋhaŋ tȟaté kiŋ hí. — The wind comes from the north. wazíyata = north; etáŋhaŋ = from; tȟaté = wind; kiŋ = the; hí = comes/arrives.
13. The ceremonial color associated with the east (wiyóhiŋyaŋpa) is _, and the color associated with the west (wiyóhpeyata) is _.
Answer
- East: red (šá)
- West: black (sápa)
The four directional colors: east/red (new beginnings, sunrise), west/black (transformation, sunset), north/white (purification, cold), south/yellow-gold (warmth, growth). These associations appear in ceremony, regalia, and the inípi (sweat lodge).
Part C — Short Answer (3 questions, 10 points each)¶
14. Explain the concept of makóčhe as the Dakota people understood it, and describe how the U.S. seizure of the Dakota homeland — specifically the site of Bdóte — was an ontological violation as well as a political one.
Rubric / Sample Answer
Full credit (10 pts): Student accurately explains makóčhe as homeland (not mere property), describes Bdóte as the Dakota center of creation, and articulates why building Fort Snelling there was an assault on Dakota being — not just territorial dispossession.
Partial credit (5–7 pts): Student explains makóčhe correctly but treats the Fort Snelling violation as only political, not ontological.
Sample answer: "Makóčhe is not land as property or geography — it is homeland as living relationship. For Dakota people, the land holds memory, ceremony, and identity. Specific places are relatives — inhabited by spirits, anchored in origin stories, inseparable from who the Dakota people are. Bdóte — the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers — was the center of the Dakota world in oral tradition: the place where the Dakota people came into being. When the U.S. government seized this site and built Fort Snelling on it, they did not merely take territory. They built a military installation on the Dakota people's place of creation — a violation not just of political sovereignty but of ontological reality. The Dakota people did not simply lose land; they were severed from the center of their existence."
15. How does the structure of Dakota cardinal direction words (wiyóhiŋyaŋpa = east, wiyóhpeyata = west) reveal a fundamentally different way of organizing space compared to English compass directions?
Rubric / Sample Answer
Full credit (10 pts): Student accurately analyzes the morphemes (wiyó- = sun, -hiŋyaŋpa = to rise, -hpeyata = to set), explains that Dakota directions are defined by dynamic solar events rather than fixed geometric points, and reflects on what this reveals about a relational, experiential way of knowing space.
Partial credit (5–7 pts): Student identifies the morphemes correctly but does not reflect on the philosophical difference.
Sample answer: "English compass directions — north, south, east, west — are abstract geometric points derived from magnetic poles. They are fixed, universal, and body-independent. Dakota directions are different: wiyóhiŋyaŋpa (east) means 'where the sun rises,' and wiyóhpeyata (west) means 'where the sun sets.' The root wiyó- means sun; -hiŋyaŋpa means to rise/emerge; -hpeyata means to set/descend. These directions are defined by a dynamic, daily, experiential event — the movement of the sun as observed by a person standing on the land. Space in Dakota is not an abstract grid; it is a relational field organized by the observer's experience of the sun moving overhead. This is consistent with the broader Dakota worldview in which knowledge comes from attentive, embodied observation of the living world."
16. Describe how the 1851 Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota contributed to the conditions that led to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. What role did the withheld annuities and Andrew Myrick's statement play?
Rubric / Sample Answer
Full credit (10 pts): Student accurately describes the 1851 treaties (land cession, reservation confinement, promised annuities), explains that annuities were withheld or insufficient, describes the starvation conditions by 1862, and references Andrew Myrick's "let them eat grass" statement as a catalyzing moment of contempt. Student may connect land loss to the disruption of makóčhe as discussed in the chapter.
Partial credit (5–7 pts): Student describes the treaties and withheld annuities but does not connect to the broader land/sovereignty framework, or does not reference Myrick.
Sample answer: "The 1851 Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, signed under pressure and in some cases fraudulent conditions, ceded nearly all Dakota land in Minnesota in exchange for a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River and annual annuity payments. The annuities were supposed to compensate for the loss of the vast makóčhe the Dakota people had depended on for food, ceremony, and identity. But the annuities were routinely withheld by corrupt agents, delayed, or insufficient. By 1862, Dakota people on the reservation were facing starvation. When leaders asked trader Andrew Myrick to extend food credit, he reportedly said: 'Let them eat grass' — or their own dung, in some accounts. This statement crystallized the contempt with which the Dakota people were being treated and became a symbol of the structural violence they faced. The war that followed in August 1862 was not an unprovoked attack; it was a desperate response to a decade of broken promises, land loss, and deliberate starvation."