The Upper Sioux Indian Reservation, or Pezihutazizi in Dakota, is the reservation of the Upper Sioux Community, a

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

of the

Dakota people The Dakota (pronounced , or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe (Native American), tribe and First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultur ...

, that includes the

Mdewakanton The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan (also spelled ''Mdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'' and currently pronounced ''Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ'') are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota people, Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake (Da ...

. The Upper Sioux Indian Reservation is located in Minnesota Falls Township along the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It rises in southwestern ...

in eastern

Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota Yellow Medicine County is a County (United States), county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its eastern border is formed by the Minnesota River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 9,528. ...

, south of Granite Falls. It was created in 1938 when of land were returned to the tribe by the federal government, under the

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

encouraging tribal self-government. As of the 2020 census, the reservation recorded a resident population of 120 persons. Its land area is currently , including

off-reservation trust land In the United States, off-reservation trust land refers to real estate outside an Indian reservation that is held by the Interior Department for the benefit of a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe. Typical uses of off-reservation trus ...

. The tribe operates the Prairie's Edge Casino Resort. Every August, the Upper Sioux community holds its ''Pejhutazizi Oyate'' traditional ''wacipi'' (

pow-wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity for Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their ...

History

This reservation was originally established for the Wahpeton and Sisseton bands of the Upper Dakota. Under the

Treaty of Traverse des Sioux The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux () was signed on July 23, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux in Minnesota Territory between the United States government and the Dakota people, Upper Dakota Sioux bands. In this land cession treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpe ...

of 1851 with the United States, it encompassed an area about wide and long along the Minnesota River. Following the

Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several eastern bands of Dakota people, Da ...

, the federal government punished the Dakota by drastically reducing the sizes of two reservations along the river, in an attempt to force the Dakota out of the area. Many of the people did move westward, and many of their descendants live on reservations in South Dakota. In 1938 the federal government returned of land to the tribe, who were mostly landless, under the

of the President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

administration. It also encouraged tribes to revive their self-government. In 2024, Minnesota returned around from the Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the tribe.

Termination efforts

A decade later, the federal government began to promote the

Indian termination policy Indian termination describes United States policies relating to Native Americans from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and practices with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American soci ...

, to end recognition of tribes they thought could successfully assimilate to mainstream society. Such termination would allocate their communal lands among individual households and end federal benefits associated with federal recognition. This policy was followed by the US government from the 1940s to the 1960s. The Department of Interior issued a memo dated 19 January 1955 for the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

(BIA) indicating that terminations were being reviewed in proposed legislation for four Indian communities of southwestern

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, including the Lower Sioux Community in Redwood and Scott counties, the New Upper Sioux Community in Yellow Medicine County, the Prairie Island Community in Goodhue County, and about 15 individuals living on restricted tracts in Yellow Medicine County. Discussions between the BIA and the Indians in the identified tribes had begun in 1953 and continued throughout 1954. Although the Prairie Island and Lower Sioux communities drafted agreements to divide communal lands into plots with individual land ownership, the Upper Sioux strongly opposed tribal lands being divided under fee-simple title. On 26 January 1955, US Senator Edward Thye introduced a bill (S704) to provide for termination of the named tribes. In addition to resistance within the tribes, non-Native American residents of the area opposed termination, as they realized state expenditures might increase to accommodate services to those who would be classified as new residents, and they expressed their opposition to the committee reviewing the bill. The Minnesota Governor's Commission on Human Rights also opposed the legislation, indicating that it would "not adequately protect the interests of the Indians..." The bill died in committee, never reaching the Senate floor.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the reservation and associated off-reservation trust land have a combined area of , of which is land and is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, the combined population of Upper Sioux Community and Off-Reservation Trust Land was 120. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 49 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the reservation and off-reservation trust land was 68.3% Native American, 8.3%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.5%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.8% from other races, and 20.0% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 4.2%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. The 2020 census results may be inaccurate for locations like the Upper Sioux Community owing to the Census Bureau's implementation of differential privacy protections.

Notable members

* Waziyatawin (Angela Wilson), Dakota author,professor and activist from Pezihutazizi Otunwe (Yellow Medicine Village)

Notes

References

Upper Sioux Reservation, Minnesota
United States Census Bureau

External links

Upper Sioux Community tribal government website

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council {{authority control American Indian reservations in Minnesota Native American tribes in Minnesota Federally recognized tribes in the United States Populated places in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota 1938 establishments in Minnesota Upper Sioux Community