Oohenonpa ('two boilings' ). A division of the Teton Sioux,
commonly known as Two Kettle Sioux, or Two Kettles; also a subdivision thereof.
No mention of it is made by Lewis and Clark, Long, or other earlier explorers.
It is stated in a note to De Smet's Letters (1843) that the band was estimated
at 800 persons. Culbertson (1850) estimated them at 60 lodges, but gives no
locality and says they have no divisions. Gen. Warren (1856) found them much
scattered among other bands and numbering about 100 lodges. Gumming (Rep. Ind.
Aff. for 1856) places them on the south side of the Missouri. Hayden (1862) says
they passed up and down Cheyenne river as far as Cherry creek and Moreau and Grand rivers,
not uniting with other bands. Their principal chief then was Matotopa, or Four
Bears, a man of moderate capacity but exercising a good influence on his people.
They lived entirely on the plains, seldom going to war, and were good hunters
and shrewd in their dealings with the traders. They treated with respect white
men who came among them as traders or visitors.
They were on the warpath in 1866
at the time of the Ft Phil. Kearney massacre, yet it is not certain that they
took an active part in this attack. By treaty made at Ft Sully, Dak., on Oct.
19, 1865, they agreed to cease attacking whites or Indians except in self
defense and to settle permanently on designated lands. This treaty was signed on
their behalf by chiefs Chatanskah (White Hawk), Shonkahwakkonkedeshkah (Spotted
Horse), Mahtotopah (Four Bears), and others, and was faithfully observed by
them unless they were in the Sitting Bull uprising of 1876, which is doubtful.
Neither contagion nor war materially reduced the number of the Oohenonpa, which
seems to have remained comparatively stationary up to 1887, when it was reported
as 642, the last separate official enumeration. They reside on Cheyenne River
reservation, South Dakota, with Sihasapa, Miniconjou, and Sans Arcs.
