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 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 Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

. In contemporary culture, the designation is primarily a linguistic, cultural, and for some, political grouping. Since 2019, Sioux language has been an official language of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

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 Sioux language. # Lakota (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 (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. ...

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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

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

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 G ...

) * 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 Pabaksa ...

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 people, Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost ...

) *

Minniconjou The Miniconjou (Lakota: Mnikowoju, Hokwoju – ‘Plants by the Water’) are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota people, who formerly inhabited an area in western present-day South Dakota from the Black Hills i ...

(

) * Sans Arc (

) * Two Kettles (

) * Crow Creek Indian Reservation *

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 * Lake Traverse Indian Reservation (Sisseton-Wahpehton) * Lower Sioux * Upper Sioux * Shakopee-Mdewakanton * Prairie Island *

* Spirit Lake Tribe (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 U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

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 so ...

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, S ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the sou ...

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 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'' 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 P ...

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 Sioux language 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 and move onto the Great Plains. 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) 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 peoples and to a lesser extent to the Lakotas, also moved to Canada and their descendants still live in several of the Canadian First Nations.

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