The Great Sioux Nation is the traditional political structure of the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

in North America. The peoples who speak the

Sioux language Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 30,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit languages, and Ojibwe. Regional variation Si ...

are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin (''Očhéthi Šakówiŋ'', pronounced ) or Seven Council Fires. The seven-member communities are sometimes grouped into three regional/dialect sub-groups (Lakota, Western Dakota, and Eastern Dakota), but these mid-level identities are not politically institutionalized. The seven communities are all individual members of the historic confederacy. In contemporary culture, the designation is primarily a linguistic, cultural, and for some, political grouping. Since 2019,

has been an official language of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large portio ...

Subdivisions

The Great Sioux Nation is divided into three linguistically and regionally based groups and several subgroups. Linguistically, all three language groups belong to the

. #

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

(also known as Lakȟóta, Thítȟuŋwaŋ, Teton, and Teton Sioux) #* Northern Lakota (Húŋkpapȟa, Sihásapa) #* Central Lakota (Mnikȟówožu, Itázipčho, Oóhenuŋpa) #* Southern Lakota (Oglála, Sičháŋǧu) # Western Dakota #* Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ) #* Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna) #

Eastern Dakota The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided int ...

(also known as Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta) #* Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute) #* Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ) The term "Great Sioux Nation" is also sometimes applied to the region (and hypothetical state) of the western and

midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

ern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

which, while not a legal designation, includes the following recognized Indian reservations: *

Oglala The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live ...

(

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Grea ...

) * Sićangu (

Rosebud Indian Reservation The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who are Sicangu, a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name ''Sicangu Oyate'' translates as ...

) *

Hunkpapa The Hunkpapa ( Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records a ...

(

Standing Rock Indian Reservation The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaks ...

Cheyenne River Indian Reservation The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey ...

) * Minniconjou (

) *

Sans Arc The Sans Arc, or Itázipčho (''Itazipcola'', ''Hazipco'' - ‘Those who hunt without bows’) in Lakota, are a subdivision of the Lakota people. Sans Arc is the French translation of the Lakota name which means, "Without bows." The translator o ...

(

) *

Two Kettles Two Kettles ("Two Boilings" or "Two Kettles") are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). They reside on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Together ...

(

) *

Crow Creek Indian Reservation The Crow Creek Indian Reservation ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá okášpe, '' lkt, Kȟaŋğí Wakpá Oyáŋke''), home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ( dak, Khąǧí wakpá oyáte) is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east ban ...

Lower Brule Indian Reservation The Lower Brulé Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation that belongs to the Lower Brulé Lakota Tribe. It is located on the west bank of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley counties in central South Dakota in the United States. It ...

* Santee Indian Reservation * Yanktonai ( Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation) *

Flandreau Indian Reservation The Flandreau Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation, belonging to the federally recognized Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. They are Santee Dakota people, part of the Sioux tribe of Native Americans. The reservation is located ...

Lake Traverse Indian Reservation The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is the homeland of the federally recognized Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. Most of the reservation covers parts of five counties in northeastern South Dakot ...

(Sisseton-Wahpehton) * Lower Sioux * Upper Sioux * Shakopee-Mdewakanton * Prairie Island *

Spirit Lake Tribe The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: ''Mniwakaƞ Oyate'', also spelt as ''Mni Wakan Oyate'', formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux Tribe) is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central Nor ...

(formerly Devil's Lake Reservation) This region also includes the defunct Great Sioux Reservation, which was divided into smaller portions in the 19th century, and other "unceded Indian territory" in four states, as well as parts of the following states: *

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Colu ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

* Wyoming The Great Sioux Nation occupies only parts of the United States where Sioux tribes have some legal claim with regard to treaties with the federal government, e.g., Treaty of Fort Laramie. Historically, the Great Sioux Nation and the United States have had a turbulent relationship. The last of the great American Indian battles – the

Battle of Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nort ...

and the Wounded Knee Massacre – were fought between these two peoples.

Controversy

In one of the oldest unresolved cases in U.S. legal history, ''

United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians ''United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians'', 448 U.S. 371 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that: 1) the enactment by Congress of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States t ...

'' 448 U.S. 371 (1980), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the United States was wrong in breaking the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which forever exempted the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk ...

from all white settlement. When European Americans discovered gold there in 1874, miners swept into the area in a gold rush. The U.S. government reassigned the Lakota, against their wishes, to other reservations in western South Dakota, breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation into smaller portions. The Supreme Court awarded eight Sioux tribes $106 million in compensation—the 1877 value of $17.5 million, plus interest. The Sioux Nation has refused to accept the award, saying they want their land returned. The money is held in accounts at the Treasury Department, accruing interest. As of 2011, the accounts are estimated to be valued at over $1 billion.

Canada

The Assiniboine (Nakota), who live to the North of most of the Sioux peoples, speak a Siouan language closely related to the

but are not considered part of the modern Oceti Sakowin. The Assiniboine were the first of the Siouan-speaking peoples to leave the

Eastern Woodlands The Eastern Woodlands is a cultural area of the indigenous people of North America. The Eastern Woodlands extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Great Plains, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now pa ...

and move onto the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

. They had developed as a separate people sometime before 1640, when they were first documented as a tribe by French missionaries. Because of this, other Sioux-speakers referred to them as the ''Hohe'', or "rebels". The Canadian

Nakoda (Stoney) The Nakoda (also known as Stoney or ) are an Indigenous people in Western Canada and, originally, the United States. They used to inhabit large parts of what is now Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana, but their reserves are now located in Albe ...

possibly began as the westernmost band of the Assiniboine, but were referred to as a separate people after about 1744. Later, in the nineteenth century, further bands belonging to the

Dakota people The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...

s and to a lesser extent to the

s, also moved to Canada and their descendants still live in several of the Canadian

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

References

External links

Map of treaty land

"Sioux,"
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains

Countries and Their Cultures
Chase Iron Eyes, Historical Context

Russell Means on late Lakota (Sioux) history
{{Native Americans in Nebraska Sioux Siouan peoples Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains Former confederations

Subdivisions

Controversy

Canada

See also

References

Further reading

External links