By the 19th century the speakers of Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota (dialects of a single language within the inappropriately named Siouan language family) were referred to as “bands” because (from the perspective of colonial administrators) they were clearly subdivisions of the larger “Sioux tribe.” From a scholarly perspective, however, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota are the names of linguistic groups that are related to, but quite distinct from, sociopolitical units.