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The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota language/Lakota language: Očhéthi Šakówiŋ ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major Siouan languages: the Dakota people and (translation: referring to the alliances between the bands). Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or . The term Sioux, an exonym from a French language transcription (Nadouessioux) of the Ojibwe language term Nadowessi, can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
Before the 17th century, the Santee Dakota (Isáŋyathi: , also known as the Eastern Dakota) lived around Lake Superior with territories in present-day northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They gathered wild rice, hunted woodland animals, and used canoes to fish. Wars with the Ojibwe throughout the 18th century pushed the Dakota west into southern Minnesota, where the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) and Lakota (Teton) lived. In the 19th century, the Dakota signed land cession treaties with the United States for much of their Minnesota lands. The United States' failure to make treaty payments or provide rations on time led to starvation and the Dakota War of 1862, which resulted in the Dakota's exile from Minnesota. They were forced onto reservations in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and some fled to Canada. After 1870, the Dakota people began to return to Minnesota, creating the present-day reservations in the state. The Yankton and Yanktonai Dakota (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna; and ), collectively also called by the endonym Wičhíyena, lived near the Minnesota River before ceding their land and moving to South Dakota in 1858. Despite ceding their lands, their treaty with the US government allowed them to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the Pipestone Quarry, a cultural center for Sioux people. Considered the Western Dakota, they have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota.for a report on the long-established blunder of misnaming as "Nakota", the Yankton and the Yanktonai, see the article Nakota Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana.
The Lakota people, also called Teton (Thítȟuŋwaŋ; possibly ), are the westernmost Sioux, known for their Plains Indians horse culture. With the arrival of the horse in the 18th century, the Lakota became a powerful tribe on the Northern Plains by the 1850s. They fought the US Army in the Sioux Wars and defeated the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Big Horn. The armed conflicts with the US ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Dakota and Lakota continued to fight for their treaty rights, including the Wounded Knee incident, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and the 1980 Supreme Court case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, in which the court ruled that the US government had illegally taken tribal lands covered by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and that the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018, this amounted to more than $1 billion; the Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the return of the Black Hills. Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments across several reservations and communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States and reserves in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.
They are also referred to as the Lakota people or Dakota people based on dialect differences. In any of the dialects, Lakota or Dakota translates as , referring to the alliances between the bands.
The name Sioux was adopted in English language by the 1760s from French language. It is abbreviated from the French Nadouessioux, first attested by Jean Nicolet in 1640. The name is sometimes said to be derived from Nadowessi (plural Nadowessiwag),NAA MS 4800 59. Three drafts of On the Comparative Phonology of Four Siouan Languages. James O. Dorsey papers, circa 1870–1956, bulk 1870–1895. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution an Ojibwe language-language exonym for the Sioux meaning or Frederic C. Wagner III (2026). 9781476664590, McFarland & Company; 2nd edition. . ISBN 9781476664590 (compare nadowe , used for the Iroquois). Learn about the history of the Sioux Indians . Indians.org. Retrieved on 2012-07-08. The French pluralized the Ojibwe singular Nadowessi by adding the French plural suffix -oux to form Nadowessioux, which was later shortened to Sioux. The Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa, meaning , has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake (massasauga, Sistrurus).Stephen R. Riggs (1893). 9780870180521, Washington Government Printing Office, Ross & Haines, Inc.. . ISBN 9780870180521 An alternative explanation is derivation from an (Algonquian) exonym, na·towe·ssiw (plural na·towe·ssiwak), from a verb *-a·towe· meaning . The current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is Bwaanag (singular Bwaan), meaning . (2026). 9781897579152, Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre. ISBN 9781897579152 Presumably, this refers to the style of cooking the Sioux used in the past.
In recent times, some of the tribes have formally or informally reclaimed traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is also known as the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte, and the Oglala often use the name Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte, rather than the formal Oglala Sioux Tribe or OST. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered incorrect.
During the fur trade era, the thiyóšpaye refused to trade only for economic reasons. Instead the production and trade of goods was regulated by rules of kinship bonds. Personal relationships were pivotal for success: in order for European-Americans to trade with the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, social bonds had to be created. The most successful fur traders married into the kinship society, which also raised the status of the family of the woman through access to European goods. Outsiders are also adopted into the kinship through the religious Huŋkalowaŋpi ceremony. Early European explorers and missionaries who lived among the Dakota were sometimes adopted into the thiyóšpaye (known as "huŋka relatives"), such as Louis Hennepin who noted, "this help'd me to gain credit among these people". During the later reservation era, districts were often settled by clusters of families from the same thiyóšpaye.
Prayer is believed to invoke relationships with one's ancestors or spiritual world. The Lakota word for , Wocekiye, means . Their primary cultural prophet is Ptesáŋwiŋ, White Buffalo Calf Woman, who came as an intermediary between Wakȟáŋ Tháŋka Tȟáŋka and humankind to teach them how to be good relatives by introducing the Seven Sacred Rites and the Chanunpa (ceremonial pipe). The seven ceremonies are Inipi (purification lodge), Haŋbléčheyapi (Vision quest), Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi (Sun Dance), Huŋkalowaŋpi (making of relatives), Išnáthi Awíčhalowaŋpi (female puberty ceremony), Tȟápa Waŋkáyeyapi (throwing of the ball) and Wanáǧi Yuhápi (soul keeping). Each part of the sacred pipe (stem, bowl, tobacco, breath, and smoke) is symbolic of the relationships of the natural world, the elements, humans and the spiritual beings that maintain the cycle of the universe.
Dreams can also be a means of establishing relationships with spirits and are important to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. One can gain supernatural powers through dreams. Dreaming of the Wakíŋyaŋ (thunder beings) is believed to involuntarily make someone a Heyoka, a sacred clown. Black Elk, a famous Heyókȟa said: "Only those who have had visions of the thunder beings of the west can act as heyokas. They have sacred power and they share some of this with all the people, but they do it through funny actions".
The Dakota began to resent the Ojibwe trading with the hereditary enemies of the Sioux, the Cree and Assiniboine. Tensions rose in the 1720s into a prolonged war in 1736. The Dakota lost their traditional lands around Leech Lake and Mille Lacs as they were forced south along the Mississippi River and St. Croix River Valley as a result of the battles. These intertribal conflicts also made it dangerous for European fur traders: whichever side they traded with, they were viewed as enemies from the other. For example, in 1736 a group of Sioux killed Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and twenty other men on an island in Lake of the Woods for such reasons. However, trade with the French continued until the French gave up North America in 1763. Europeans repeatedly tried to make truce between the warring tribes in order to protect their interests.
One of the larger battles between the Dakota and Ojibwe took place in 1770 fought at the Dalles of the St. Croix. According to William Whipple Warren, a Métis historian, the fighting began when the Meskwaki (Fox) engaged the Ojibwe (their hereditary enemies) around St. Croix Falls. The Sioux were the former enemies of the Meskwaki and were enlisted to make a joint attack against the Ojibwe. The Meskwaki were first to engage with the large Ojibwe war party led by Waubojeeg: the Meskwaki allegedly boasted to the Dakota to hold back as they would quickly destroy their enemies. When the Dakota joined the battle, they had the upper hand until Sandy Lake Ojibwe reinforcements arrived. The Dakota were driven back and Warren states: "Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling floods below, there to find a watery grave. Others, in attempting to jump into their narrow wooden canoes, were capsized into the rapids". While Dakota and Ojibwe suffered heavy losses, the Meskwaki were left with the most dead and forced to join their relatives, the Sauk people. The victory for the Ojibwe secured control of the Upper St. Croix and created an informal boundary between the Dakota and Ojibwe around the mouth of the Snake River.
As the Lakota entered the prairies, they adopted many of the customs of the neighboring Plains tribes, creating new cultural patterns based on the horse and fur trade. Meanwhile, the Dakota retained many of their Woodlands features. By 1803, the three divisions of the Sioux (Western/Eastern Dakota and Lakota) were established in their different environments and had developed their own distinctive lifeways. However, due to the prevalent cultural concept of thiyóšpaye (community), the three divisions maintained strong ties throughout the changing times to present day.
In an attempt to stop intertribal warfare and to better able to negotiate with tribes, the American government signed the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien with the Dakota, Ojibwe, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Potawatomi, and Odawa tribes. In the 1830 Treaty of Prairie de Chien, the Western Dakota (Yankton, Yanktonai) ceded their lands along the Des Moines river to the American government. Living in what is now southeastern South Dakota, the leaders of the Western Dakota signed the Treaty of April 19, 1858, which created the Yankton Sioux Reservation. Pressured by the ongoing arrival of Europeans, Yankton chief Struck by the Ree told his people, "The white men are coming in like maggots. It is useless to resist them. They are many more than we are. We could not hope to stop them. Many of our brave warriors would be killed, our women and children left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them. We must accept it, get the best terms we can get and try to adopt their ways." Despite ceding their lands, the treaty allowed the Western Dakota to maintain their traditional role in the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ as the caretakers of the Pipestone Quarry, which is the cultural center of the Sioux people.
With the creation of Minnesota Territory by the US in 1849, the Eastern Dakota (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton, and Wahpekute) people were pressured to cede more of their land. The reservation period for them began in 1851 with the signing of the Treaty of Mendota and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. The Treaty of Mendota was signed near Pilot Knob on the south bank of the Minnesota River and within sight of Fort Snelling. The treaty stipulated that the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands were to receive US$1,410,000 in return for relocating to the Lower Sioux Agency on the Minnesota River near present-day Morton, Minnesota along with giving up their rights to a significant portion of southern Minnesota. In the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an acre. However, the American government kept more than 80% of the funds with only the interest (5% for 50 years) being paid to the Dakota.
The US set aside two reservations for the Sioux along the Minnesota River, each about wide and long. Later the government declared these were intended to be temporary, in an effort to force the Sioux out of Minnesota. The Upper Sioux Agency for the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands was established near Granite Falls, Minnesota, while the Lower Sioux Agency for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands was established about thirty miles downstream near what developed as Redwood Falls, Minnesota. The Upper Sioux were not satisfied with their reservation because of low food supplies, but as it included several of their old villages, they agreed to stay. The Lower Sioux were displaced from their traditional woodlands and were dissatisfied with their new territory of mostly prairie.
The US intended the treaties to encourage the Sioux to convert from their nomadic hunting lifestyle into more European-American settled farming, offering them compensation in the transition. By 1858, the Dakota only had a small strip of land along the Minnesota River, with no access to their traditional hunting grounds. They had to rely on treaty payments for their survival, which were often late. The forced change in lifestyle and the much lower than expected payments from the federal government caused economic suffering and increased social tensions within the tribes. By 1862, many Dakota were starving and tensions erupted in the Dakota War of 1862.
On August 16, 1862, the treaty payments to the eastern Dakota arrived in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and were brought to Fort Ridgely the next day. However, they arrived too late to prevent the war. On August 17, 1862, the Dakota War began when a few Santee men murdered a white farmer and most of his family. They inspired further attacks on white settlements along the Minnesota River. On August 18, 1862, Little Crow of the Mdewakanton band led a group that attacked the Lower Sioux Agency (or Redwood Agency) and trading post located there. Later, settlers found Myrick among the dead with his mouth stuffed full of grass. Many of the upper Dakota (Sisseton and Wahpeton) wanted no part in the attacks with the majority of the 4,000 members of the Sisseton and Wahpeton opposed to the war. Thus their bands did not participate in the early killings. Historian Mary Wingerd has stated that it is "a complete myth that all the Dakota people went to war against the United States" and that it was rather "a faction that went on the offensive".
Most of Little Crow's men surrendered shortly after the Battle of Wood Lake at Camp Release on September 26, 1862. Little Crow was forced to retreat sometime in September 1862. He stayed briefly in Canada but soon returned to the western Minnesota. He was killed on July 3, 1863, near Hutchinson, Minnesota while gathering Raspberry with his teenage son. The pair had wandered onto the land of a settler Nathan Lamson, who shot at them to collect bounties. Once it was discovered that the body was of Little Crow, his skull and scalp were put on display by the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The State held the trophies until 1971 when it returned the remains to Little Crow's grandson. For killing Little Crow the state increased the bounty to $500 when it paid Lamson.
On November 5, 1862, a military tribunal found 303 mostly Mdewakanton tribesmen guilty of rape, murder and of hundreds of Minnesota settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. The men had no attorneys or defense witnesses, and many were convicted in less than five minutes. President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the hanging of 38 Santee men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. It was the largest mass-execution in US history, on US soil. The men remanded by order of President Lincoln were sent to a prison in Iowa, where more than half died.
Afterwards, the US Congress annulled all treaty agreements with the eastern Dakota and expelled the eastern Dakota with the Forfeiture Act of February 16, 1863, meaning all lands held by the eastern Dakota, and all annuities due to them, were forfeited to the US government. During and after the hostilities, the majority of eastern Dakota fled Minnesota for the Dakota territory or Canada. Some settled in the James River Valley in a short-lived reservation before being forced to move to Crow Creek Reservation on the east bank of the Missouri River. There were as few as 50 eastern Dakota left in Minnesota by 1867. Many had fled to the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska (created 1863), the Flandreau Reservation (created 1869 from members who left the Santee Reservation), the Lake Traverse and Spirit Lake Reservations (both created 1867). Those who fled to Canada throughout the 1870s now have descendants residing on nine small Dakota Reserves, five of which are located in Manitoba (Sioux Valley, Dakota Plain, Dakota Tipi, Birdtail Creek, and Canupawakpa Dakota) and the remaining four (Standing Buffalo, White Cap, Round Plain , and Wood Mountain) in Saskatchewan. A few Dakota joined the Yanktonai and moved further west to join with the Lakota bands to continue their struggle against the United States military, later settling on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.
By the 19th century, the typical year of the Lakota was a buffalo hunting as early in spring as their horses had recovered from the rigors of the winter. In June and July, the scattered bands of the tribes gathered together into large encampments, which included ceremonies such as the Sun Dance. These gatherings afforded leaders to meet to make political decisions, plan movements, arbitrate disputes, and organize and launch raiding expeditions or war parties. In the fall, people split into smaller bands to facilitate hunting to procure meat for the long winter. Between the fall hunt and the onset of winter was a time when Lakota warriors could undertake raiding and warfare. With the coming of winter snows, the Lakota settled into winter camps, where activities of the season, ceremonies and dances as well as trying to ensure adequate winter feed for their horses.Hyde, George E. Red Cloud's Folks: A History of the Oglala Sioux Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937, p. 160; Price, Catherine, The Oglala People, 1841–1879 Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 13–16
They began to dominate the prairies east of the Missouri river by the 1720s. At the same time, the Lakota branch split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the Lake Traverse area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, and the Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the James River valley. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River, followed 10 years later by the Oglála and Sičháŋǧu (Brulé). By 1750, they had crossed the Missouri River and encountered Lewis and Clark in 1804. Initial United States contact with the Lakota during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, which never came. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne for the Black Hills, who had earlier taken the region from the Kiowa. The Cheyenne then moved west to the Powder River country, and the Lakota made the Black Hills their home.
As their territory expanded, so did the number of rival groups they encountered. They secured an alliance with the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho by the 1820s as intertribal warfare on the plains increased amongst the tribes for access to the dwindling population of buffalo. The alliance fought the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara for control of the Missouri River in North Dakota. By the 1840s, their territory expanded to the Powder River country in Montana, in which they fought with the Crow. Their victories over these tribes during this time period were aided by the fact those tribes were decimated by European diseases. Most of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara were killed by smallpox and almost half the population of the Crow were killed due to smallpox, cholera and other diseases. In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coat's village near the Loup River in Nebraska, killing many and burning half of the earth lodges,Jensen, Richard E.: The Pawnee Mission, 1834–1846. Nebraska History, Vol. 75, No. 4 (1994), pp. 301–310, p. 307, column III. and 30 years later, the Lakota again inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee during the Massacre Canyon battle near Republican River.Riley, Paul D.: The Battle of Massacre Canyon. Nebraska History, Vol. 54, No. 2 (1973), pp. 221–249. By the 1850s, the Lakota were known as the most powerful tribe on the Plains.
The treaty was broken almost immediately after its inception by the Lakota and Cheyenne attacking the Crow over the next two years. In 1858, the failure of the United States to prevent the mass immigration of miners and settlers into Colorado during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, also did not help matters. They took over Indian lands in order to mine them, "against the protests of the Indians," and founded towns, started farms, and improved roads. Such immigrants competed with the tribes for game and water, straining limited resources and resulting in conflicts with the emigrants. The US government did not enforce the treaty to keep out the immigrants.Paragraph 35 Report to the President by the Indian Peace Commission, January 7, 1878
The situation escalated with the Grattan massacre in 1854 when a detachment of US soldiers illegally entered a Sioux encampment to arrest those accused of stealing a cow, and in the process sparked a battle in which Chief Conquering Bear was killed.See e.g. Bettelyoun, Susan Bordeaux and Josephine Waggoner: With My Own Eyes. A Lakota Woman Tells Her People's History. Lincoln and London, 1998, pp. 53–54. Fowler, Loretta: Arapaho and Cheyenne Perspectives. From the 1851 Treaty to the Sand Creek Massacre. American Indian Quarterly, Fall 2015, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 364–390, p. 367.
Though intertribal fighting had existed before the arrival of white settlers, some of the post-treaty intertribal fighting can be attributed to mass killings of bison by white settlers and government agents. The US Army did not enforce treaty regulations and allowed hunters onto Native land to slaughter buffalo, providing protection and sometimes ammunition.Andrew C. Isenberg, The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750–1920 Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 127 One hundred thousand buffalo were killed each year until they were on the verge of extinction, which threatened the tribes' subsistence. These mass killings affected all tribes thus the tribes were forced onto each other's hunting grounds, where fighting broke out.Carolyn Merchant, American Environmental History: An Introduction, Columbia University Press, 2007, p.20John C. Ewers, Intertribal Warfare as the Precursor of Indian-White Warfare on the Northern Great Plains, The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Oct., 1975), pp. 397–410
On July 20, 1867, an act of Congress created the Indian Peace Commission "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes". The Indian Peace Commission was generally seen as a failure, and violence had reignited even before it was disbanded in October 1868. Two official reports were submitted to the federal government, ultimately recommending that the US cease recognizing tribes as sovereign nations, refrain from making treaties with them, employ military force against those who refused to relocate to reservations, and move the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the Department of the Interior to the Department of War. The system of treaties eventually deteriorated to the point of collapse, and a decade of war followed the commission's work. It was the last major commission of its kind.
From 1866 to 1868, the Lakota fought the United States Army in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory in what is known as Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War). The war is named after Red Cloud, a prominent Lakota chief who led the war against the United States following encroachment into the area by the US military. The Sioux victory in the war led to their temporarily preserving their control of the Powder River country.* The war ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868.
The treaty overall, and in comparison with the 1851 agreement, represented a departure from earlier considerations of tribal customs, and demonstrated instead the government's "more heavy-handed position with regard to tribal nations, and ... desire to assimilate the Sioux into American property arrangements and social customs." According to one source, "animosities over the treaty arose almost immediately" when a group of Miniconjou were informed they were no longer welcome to trade at Fort Laramie, being south of their newly established territory. This was notwithstanding that the treaty did not make any stipulation that the tribes could not travel outside their land, only that they would not permanently occupy outside land. The only travel expressly forbidden by the treaty was that of white settlers onto the reservation.
The government eventually broke the terms of the treaty following the Black Hills Gold Rush and an expedition into the area by George Armstrong Custer in 1874 and failed to prevent white settlers from moving onto tribal lands. Rising tensions eventually lead again to open conflict in the Great Sioux War of 1876. The 1868 treaty was modified three times by the US Congress between 1876 and 1889, each time taking more land originally granted, including unilaterally seizing the Black Hills in 1877. The treaty formed the basis of the 1980 Supreme Court case, United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, in which the court ruled that tribal lands covered under the treaty had been taken illegally by the US government, and the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018, this amounted to more than $1 billion. The Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the return of their land.
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 between the Lakota people, Northern Cheyenne, and the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills and settlers began to encroach onto tribal lands, and the Sioux and Cheyenne refused to cede ownership to the United States. The earliest engagement was the Battle of Powder River, and the final battle was the Wolf Mountain. Included are the Battle of the Rosebud, Battle of Warbonnet Creek, Battle of Slim Buttes, Battle of Cedar Creek, and the Dull Knife Fight.
Among the many battles and skirmishes of the war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn, often known as Custer's Last Stand, the most storied of the many encounters between the US army and mounted Plains Indians. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota people 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, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.Kappler, Charles J (1904): Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2. Washington, pp. 1008–1011.
The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, who were led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, and had been inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull. The US 7th Cavalry, a force of 700 men, suffered a major defeat while under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Five of the 7th Cavalry's twelve companies were annihilated and Custer was killed. The total US casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded (six died later from their wounds), including four Crow Nation scouts and at least two Arikara scouts. The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument honors those who fought on both sides. That victory notwithstanding, the US leveraged national resources to force the tribes to surrender, primarily by attacking and destroying their encampments and property. The Great Sioux War took place under the presidencies of Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes. The Agreement of 1877 (, enacted February 28, 1877) officially annexation Sioux land and permanently established Indian reservations.
The Wounded Knee Massacre was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota and the United States. It was described as a by General Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. , March 13, 1917. On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, supported by four (a lightweight artillery piece capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of the Lakota bands of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to Omaha, Nebraska. By the time it was over, 25 troopers and more than 150 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children. It remains unknown which side was responsible for the first shot; some of the soldiers are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" because the shooting took place at point-blank range in chaotic conditions. Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, many of whom may have died from hypothermia.
Following a three-day blizzard, the military hired civilians to bury the dead Lakota. The burial party found the deceased frozen; they were gathered up and placed in a mass grave on a hill overlooking the encampment from which some of the fire from the Hotchkiss guns originated. It was reported that four infants were found alive, wrapped in their deceased mothers' shawls. In all, 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children reportedly died on the field, while at least seven Lakota were mortally wounded.Josephy, Jr., Alvin M., Trudy Thomas, and Jeanne Eder. Wounded Knee: Lest We Forget. Billings, Montana: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1990.
For this 1890 offensive, the American army awarded twenty Medals of Honor, its highest commendation. Contemporary Native American activists have urged the medals to be withdrawn, calling them "medals of dishonor". According to Lakota William Thunder Hawk, "The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty". In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the Medals of Honor awards and called on the US government to rescind them.
After the boundaries of these five reservations was established, the government opened up approximately , one-half of the former Great Sioux Reservation, for public purchase for ranching and homesteading. Much of the area was not homesteaded until the 1910s, after the Enlarged Homestead Act increased allocations to for "semi-arid land".Raban, Bad Land, p. 23
Boarding schools were intended to "kill the Indian to save the man", which meant the destruction of Dakota and Lakota societies: children were taken away from their families, their traditional culture and kinship roles. They were dressed in Eurocentric clothing, given English names, had their hair cut and were forbidden to speak their languages. Their religions and ceremonies were also outlawed and forbidden. The goal was to teach academic studies in English, vocational skills suited to Euro-American society such as farming in order to replace traditional lifeways. These schools were overcrowded and had poor sanitary conditions, which led to infectious diseases and students running away or dying while at the schools. The schools achieved mixed outcomes of traumatic experiences for many while others such as Charles Eastman, Ella Cara Deloria, Luther Standing Bear and Zitkala-Sa were able to use the education to their advantage to help their people.
Despite the IRA giving more land rights to the tribes, the federal government seized thousands of acres of land through the Flood Control Act of 1944 by creating the Oahe Dam. As a result of the dam's construction the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation lost bringing it down to today. The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation lost leaving it with . Much of the land was taken by eminent domain claims made by the Bureau of Reclamation. Over and above the land consumption, most of the reservations' prime agricultural land was included in the loss. Most of the land was unable to be harvested (to allow the trees to be cut down for wood) before the land was flooded over with water.Peter Carrels (1999). 080326397X, University of Nebraska Press. 080326397X One visitor to the reservations later asked why there were so few older Indians on the reservations and was told that "the old people had died of heartache" after the construction of the dam and the loss of the reservations' land. As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.
The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 encouraged many tribal members to leave their reservation homes for cities. Some tribes had a dramatic loss of population: the Yankton Sioux Tribe fell to only 1,000 members living on the reservation in the 1950s; the Santee Sioux Reservation lost 60 percent of its population (by 1962, only 2,999, mostly elderly people remained). Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty brought new schools, roads, health clinics, and housing to the reservations.
The members of AIM were protesting what they said was the local corrupt government, along with federal issues affecting Indian reservation communities, as well as the lack of justice from border counties. Native Americans from many other communities, primarily urban areas, mobilized to come and join the occupation. The FBI dispatched agents and US Marshals to cordon off the site. Later a higher-ranking DOJ representative took control of the government's response. Through the resulting siege that lasted for 71 days, twelve people were wounded, including an FBI agent left paralyzed. In April at least two people died of gunfire, after which the Oglala Lakota called an end to the occupation). Additionally, two other people, one of them an African American civil rights activist, Ray Robinson, went missing, and are believed to have been killed during the occupation, though their bodies have never been found. Afterward, 1200 American Indians were arrested. Wounded Knee drew international attention to the plight of American Indians and AIM leaders were tried in a Minnesota federal court. The court dismissed their case on the basis of governmental prosecutorial misconduct. However, Leonard Peltier was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
In 2011, the Lakota people made national news when NPR's investigative series called Lost Children, Shattered Families aired. It exposed what many critics consider to be the "kidnapping" of Lakota children from their homes by the state of South Dakota's Department of Social Services. The NPR investigation found South Dakota has the most cases which fail to abide by the ICWA. In South Dakota, Native American children make up less than 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half of the children in foster care. The state receives thousands of dollars from the federal government for every child it takes from a family, and in some cases, the state gets even more money if the child is Native American.
Lakota activists Madonna Thunder Hawk and Chase Iron Eyes worked with the Lakota People's Law Project as they sought to end what they claimed were unlawful seizures of Native American Lakota children in South Dakota and to stop the state practice of placing these children in non-Native homes. They are currently working to redirect federal funding away from the state of South Dakota's Department of Social Systems to a new tribal foster care programs. In 2015, in response to the investigative reports by NPR, the Lakota People's Law Project as well as the coalition of all nine Lakota/Dakota reservations in South Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs updated the ICWA guidelines to give more strength to tribes to intervene on behalf of the children, stating, "The updated guidelines establish that an Indian child, parent or Indian custodian, or tribe may petition to invalidate an action if the Act or guidelines have been violated, regardless of which party's rights were violated. This approach promotes compliance with ICWA and reflects that ICWA is intended to protect the rights of each of these parties." The new guidelines also not only prevent courts from taking children away based on socioeconomic status but give a strict definition of what is to be considered harmful living conditions. Previously, the state of South Dakota used "being poor" as harmful.
The conflict sparked a nationwide debate and much news media coverage. Thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous supporters joined the protest, and several camp sites were set up south of the construction zone. The protest was peaceful, and alcohol, drugs and firearms were not allowed at the campsite or the protest site. On August 23, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe released a list of 87 tribal governments who wrote resolutions, proclamations and letters of support stating their solidarity with Standing Rock and the Sioux people. Since then, many more Native American organizations, environmental groups and civil rights groups have joined the effort in North Dakota, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka, and many more. The Washington Post called it a "National movement for Native Americans."
The earlier linguistic three-way division of the Sioux language identified Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota as varieties of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee-Sisseton and Nakota = Yankton-Yanktonai. However, the latest studies show that Yankton-Yanktonai never used the autonym Nakhóta, but pronounced their name roughly the same as the Santee (i.e. Dakȟóta).
These later studies identify Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages, with Sioux being the third language. Sioux has three similar dialects: Lakota, Western Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai) and Eastern Dakota (Santee-Sisseton). Assiniboine and Stoney speakers refer to themselves as Nakhóta or Nakhóda (cf. Nakota).
The term Dakota has also been applied by anthropologists and governmental departments to refer to all Sioux groups, resulting in names such as Teton Dakota, Santee Dakota, etc. This was mainly because of the misrepresented translation of the Odawa word from which Sioux is derived.
The Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and communities in North America: in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana in the United States; and in Manitoba, and southern Saskatchewan in Canada. Today, many Sioux also live outside their reservations.
Migrations of Ojibwe from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, with muskets supplied by the French and British, pushed the Dakota further into Minnesota and west and southward. The US gave the name Dakota Territory to the northern expanse west of the Mississippi River and up to its headwaters. Today, the Santee live on reservations, reserves, and communities in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada. However, after the Dakota war of 1862 many Santee were sent to Crow Creek Indian Reservation and in 1864 some from the Crow Creek Reservation were sent to the Santee Sioux Reservation.
They were involved in quarrying Catlinite. The Yankton-Yanktonai moved into northern Minnesota. In the 18th century, they were recorded as living in the Mankato region of Minnesota. (2026). 087351453X, Minnesota Historical Society. 087351453X
Their traditional diet includes American bison and corn. They traditionally acquired corn mostly through trade with the eastern Sioux and their linguistic cousins, the Mandan and Hidatsa along the Missouri River prior to the reservation era. The name Teton or Thítȟuŋwaŋ is archaic among the people, who prefer to call themselves Lakȟóta. Today, the Lakota are the largest and westernmost of the three groups, occupying lands in both North Dakota and South Dakota.
In Minnesota, the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 left the Dakota with a reservation wide on each side of the Minnesota River.
Today, half of all enrolled Sioux in the United States live off-reservation. Enrolled members in any of the Sioux tribes in the United States are required to have ancestry that is at least 1/4 degree Sioux (the equivalent to one grandparent).
In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as First Nations. The land holdings of these First Nations are called .
| Fort Peck Indian Reservation | Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes | Hunkpapa, Upper Yanktonai (Pabaksa), Sisseton, Wahpeton, and the Hudesabina (Red Bottom), Wadopabina (Canoe Paddler), Wadopahnatonwan (Canoe Paddlers Who Live on the Prairie), Sahiyaiyeskabi (Plains Cree-Speakers), Inyantonwanbina (Stone People), and Fat Horse Band of the Assiniboine | Montana, US |
| Spirit Lake Reservation (Formerly Devil's Lake Reservation) | Spirit Lake Tribe (Mni Wakan Oyate) | Wahpeton, Sisseton, Upper Yanktonai | North Dakota, US |
| Standing Rock Indian Reservation | Standing Rock Sioux Tribe | Lower Yanktonai, Sihasapa, Upper Yanktonai, Hunkpapa | North Dakota, South Dakota, US |
| Lake Traverse Indian Reservation | Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate | Sisseton, Wahpeton | South Dakota, US |
| Flandreau Indian Reservation | Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton | South Dakota, US |
| Cheyenne River Indian Reservation | Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe | Minneconjou, Sihasapa, Two Kettle, Sans Arc | South Dakota, US |
| Crow Creek Indian Reservation | Crow Creek Sioux Tribe | Lower Yanktonai, Mdewakanton | South Dakota, US |
| Lower Brule Indian Reservation | Lower Brule Sioux Tribe | Sicangu (Brule) | South Dakota, US |
| Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation | Yankton Sioux Tribe | Yankton | South Dakota, US |
| Pine Ridge Indian Reservation | Oglala Lakota | Oglala, few Sicangu | South Dakota, US |
| Rosebud Indian Reservation | Rosebud Sioux Tribe (also as Sicangu Lakota or Upper Brulé Sioux Nation) (Sičháŋǧu Oyate) | Sićangu (Brulé), few Oglala | South Dakota, US |
| Upper Sioux Indian Reservation | Upper Sioux Community (Pejuhutazizi Oyate) | Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpeton | Minnesota, US |
| Lower Sioux Indian Reservation | Lower Sioux Indian Community | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute | Minnesota, US |
| Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation (Formerly Prior Lake Indian Reservation) | Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute | Minnesota, US |
| Prairie Island Indian Community | Prairie Island Indian Community | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute | Minnesota, US |
| Santee Indian Reservation | Santee Sioux Nation | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute | Nebraska, US |
| Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* | Sioux Valley First Nation | Sisseton, Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute | Manitoba, Canada |
| Dakota Plains Indian Reserve 6A | Dakota Plains First Nation | Wahpeton, Sisseton | Manitoba, Canada |
| Dakota Tipi 1 Reserve | Dakota Tipi First Nation | Wahpeton | Manitoba, Canada |
| Birdtail Creek 57 Reserve, Birdtail Hay Lands 57A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* | Birdtail Sioux First Nation | Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Yanktonai | Manitoba, Canada |
| Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation, Oak Lake 59A Reserve, Fishing Station 62A Reserve* | Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation | Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Yanktonai | Manitoba, Canada |
| Standing Buffalo 78 | Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation | Sisseton, Wahpeton | Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Whitecap Reserve | Whitecap Dakota First Nation | Wahpeton, Sisseton | Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Wood Mountain 160 Reserve, Treaty Four Reserve Grounds Indian Reserve No. 77* | Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation | Assiniboine (Nakota), Hunkpapa | Saskatchewan, Canada |
During the 20th and 21st centuries Sioux population has rebounded, reaching 207,456 in the USA according to the 2020 census.
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