The Lakota are a Native American tribe. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three tribes of the Great Sioux Nation. Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term is an exonym created from a French transcription of the Anishinaabe term "Nadouessioux", and can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and Lakota.
Oglala is a census-designated place (CDP) in West Oglala Lakota Unorganized Territory equivalent, Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,290 at the 2010 census. Its location is northwest of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Badlands National Park is an American national park located in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The National Park Service manages the park, with the South Unit being co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe.
Red Cloud was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents that the United States Army faced in its mission to occupy the western territories, defeating the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the Fetterman Fight, with 81 U.S soldiers killed, and was the worst military defeat suffered by the United States Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was created by the Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888. in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border. Today it consists of 3,468.85 sq mi (8,984.3 km2) of land area and is one of the largest reservations in the United States, larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
Whiteclay is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 14 at the 2000 census.
The Great Sioux Nation is the traditional political structure of the Sioux in North America. The peoples who speak the Sioux language are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires. The seven member communities are sometimes grouped into three regional/dialect sub-groups, but these mid-level identities are not politically institutionalized. The seven communities are all individually members of the historic confederacy. In contemporary culture, the designation is primarily a linguistic, cultural, and for some, political grouping.
The Great Sioux Reservation was the original area encompassing what are today the various Sioux Indian reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska.
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota in the United States. It has a land area of 421.658 square miles (1,092.09 km2) and a 2000 census population of 2,225 persons. The major town and capital of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is Fort Thompson.
The Rosebud Indian Reservation (RIR) is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Sicangu Oyate – also known as Sicangu Lakota, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST), a branch of the Lakota people. The Lakota name Sicangu Oyate translates into English as "Burnt Thigh Nation"; the French term "Brulé Sioux" is also used.
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 and Ziebach counties in South Dakota. In addition, many small parcels of off-reservation trust land are located in Stanley, Haakon, and Meade counties.
Cecilia Fire Thunder is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004, she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeached on June 29, 2006, several months short of the two-year term. The major controversy was over her effort to provide for women on the reservation needing family planning services after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state. The tribal council impeached her for proceeding without gaining their consensus.
Benjamin Reifel, also known as Lone Feather was a Lakota Sioux public administrator and politician. He had a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, retiring as area administrator. He ran for the US Congress from the East River region of South Dakota, and was elected as the first Lakota to serve in the House of Representatives. He served five terms as a Republican United States Congressman from the First District.
The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States.
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 is adjacent to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation on the east bank of the river. The Kul Wicasa Oyate (lower…men…nation), the Lower Brulé Sioux, are members of the Sicangu, one of the bands of the Lakota Tribe. Tribal headquarters is in Lower Brule.
Red Shirt Table is a table mountain in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The table, named after Chief Red Shirt is approximately 10 miles (16 km) long, generally extending in a north-south direction, and is located along the western boundary of Badlands National Park's Stronghold Unit. The park's highest point is located at the southern end of the table at 3,340 feet (1,020 m). The irregularly shaped southern portion of the table is connected to the more rectangular northern portion by a narrow section less than 800 feet (240 m) wide; the northern portion is up to two miles (3 km) wide and is composed of two elongated lobes with a runoff channel between them. The top surface of the table slopes gently downhill as it extends northward, with the north edge being at about 2,800' in elevation. It drops off steeply from almost all sides, up to 300'. French Creek flows to the northeast, and the intermittent Cedar Creek drains the entire east side of the table.
Spotted Elk, was the name of a chief of the Miniconjou, Lakota Sioux. He was a son of Miniconjou chief Lone Horn and became a chief upon his father's death. He was a highly renowned chief with skills in war and negotiations. A United States Army soldier, at Fort Bennett, coined the nickname Big Foot – not to be confused with Oglala Big Foot.
Pine Ridge Airport is a public use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) east of the central business district of Pine Ridge, in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The airport is owned by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which has its tribal headquarters at Pine Ridge on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. According to the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2009–2013, it is categorized as a general aviation facility.
Oglala Lakota College (OLC) is a public tribal community college in Kyle, South Dakota. It enrolls 1,456 students enrolled part- and full-time. OLC serves the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which has a population of about 26,000 and covers 3,468 square miles in southwestern South Dakota.
