The Lakota

Sometimes also spelled “Lakhota,” this group consists of seven tribes who were known as warriors and buffalo-hunters. Sometimes called the Tetons (referring to their dialect and location west of the Dakota on the plains) the seven tribes include:

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• Ogalala (“they scatter their own,” or “dust scatterers”)

• Sicangu or Brule (“Burnt Thighs”)

• Hunkpapa (“end of the circle”),

• Miniconjou (“planters beside the stream”),

• Sihasapa or Blackfoot (Ntote confused with the separate Blackfoot tribe)

• Itazipacola (or Sans Arcs: “without bows”)

• Oohenupa (“Two Boilings” or “Two Kettle”)

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This band was found in the upper Mississippi Region in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. There were about 20,000 Lakota in the mid 18th century, a number which has increased to about 70,000 today, of which approximately 1/3 still speak their ancestral language.

The Lakota were located in and around present-day Minnesota when Europeans began to explore and settle the land in the 1600s.  Living on small game, deer, and wild rice, they were surrounded by large rival tribes. Conflict with their enemy, the Ojibwa eventually forced the Lakota to move west. By the 1700s, the Lakota had acquired horses and flourished hunting buffalo on the high plains of Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakotas, and as far north as Canada. The Tetons, the largest of the Lakota tribes dominated the region.

As white settlers continued to push west onto Sioux lands and multiple treaties were made and broken, the Sioux retaliated, resulting in three major wars and numerous other battles and skirmishes.

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The first major clash occurred in 1854 near Fort Laramie, Wyoming, when 19 U.S. soldiers were killed.  In retaliation, in 1855 U.S. troops killed about 100 Sioux at their encampment in Nebraska and imprisoned their chief.  In 1866-1867, Red Cloud’s War was fought that ended in a treaty granting the Black Hills in perpetuity to the Sioux. The treaty, however, was not honored by the United States; gold prospectors and miners flooded the region in the 1870s. In the ensuing conflict, General George Armstrong Custer and 300 troops were killed at Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, by the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and his warriors.

After that battle, the Sioux separated into their various groups. The massacre by U.S. troops of about 150 to 370 Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in December 1890 marked the end of Sioux resistance until modern times.

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The Rosebud Indian Reservation has large areas of Ponderosa Pine forest scattered in its grasslands; and deep valleys are defined by steep hills and ravines, often with lakes dotting the deeper valleys. It's 922,759 acres include 20 communities. The tribal headquarters is located in the community of Rosebud.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, more properly known as Sicangu Lakota Oyate, or Burnt Thigh People, are descendants of the Sicangu Oyate of the Tetonwan Division of the Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires. Historically, they were warriors and hunters and expert horsemen. Native plants and wildlife were very important to the Sicangu people and continue to be today.

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Chief Spotted Tail (1823-1881), or Sinte Gleska, was born in the White River area around 1823. A Brule Lakota, Spotted Tail distinguished himself as a warrior and a leader. He negotiated with the U.S. Government at Fort Laramie and eventually signed a peace treaty in June 1866. As a result, Spotted Tail and his followers were given permission to hunt buffalo along the Republican River. In 1868, Spotted Tail was tricked into signing another treaty which gave away Lakota lands along the Republican and Platte Rivers, forcing the tribe to move 30 miles to the west. In 1870, Spotted Tail and Red Cloud visited Washington, D.C., where peace negotiations led to the Lakota being allowed to move to the upper White River. In 1873, Spotted Tail took part in a raid on a Pawnee camp that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 men. Spotted Tail kept his followers out of the hostilities that led to the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. However, later that year, he was forced to sign a treaty that gave away the Black Hills to the U.S. Government. Spotted Tail was murdered by Crow Dog on August 5, 1881.

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