Extensive categorization and cross-reference of all North American native american indian tribes of the US and Canada First Nations, by nations, bands, rancheria, pueblo, federally recognized, state recognized, unrecognized, petitions for recognition, by state or providence, and by language group and region of original occupation. You can also find a listing of official tribal web sites on the Internet.
SOUTH DAKOTA INDIAN TRIBES
Federal list last updated 3/07
FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation
Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (North Dakota and South Dakota)
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
STATE RECOGNIZED TRIBES (Not recognized by the Federal Governemnt)
None
UNRECOGNIZED / PETITIONING TRIBES
None
FIRST CONTACT TO PRESENT
By the time the first Europeans arrived in the area, the tribes living in South Dakota included the Arikaras, the Mandans, Crows, the Cheyenne, and the Pawnee.
Eventually, the Lakota people,(the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota are collectively called Sioux,)moved into the area from Wisconsin and other more eastern areas.
PRE-CONTACT SOUTH DAKOTA TRIBES
PRE-HISTORIC CULTURES IN SOUTH DAKOTA
11,000 years ago - Paleo-Indians Evidence that a band of Paleo-Indians hunted and killed two mammoths.
Clovis people
Folsom people
Plains Archaic
1,000 BC - 1700 A.D. Woodland people
1804 - Lewis and Clark reach South Dakota.
1812 - South Dakota is included within the borders when the Missouri Territory is organized.
1842 - Crazy Horse born in South Dakota.
1861 - The Dakota Territory was created. All land remaining from the Minnesota border to the Rocky Mountains are included in the Dakota Territory.
1883 - The US Supreme Court ruled that the Dakota Territory court had no jurisdiction in a case in which a member of the Lakota nation killed a fellow member on tribal land. The decision overturned a death sentence and effectively gave exclusive jurisdiction for crimes to tribes. In 1885 US Congress passed the Major Crimes Act taking away the tribes’ authority to prosecute serious crimes such as murder, manslaughter and rape.
1889 - A bill for statehood passes making South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington States of the Union.
1889 - The Great Sioux Reservation of the Dakotas was dismembered into 6 parts.
1889-1890 - Sioux warrior Kicking Bear became the leading spokesman for the new Indian religion, the "Ghost Dance," which promised a return to ancient ways for a people disheartened by reservation life. Kicking Bear continued to resist the U.S. Army for several weeks after many of his fellow Sioux were killed in the Massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1990.
1890 - Wounded Knee MassacreThe last major conflict of the Indian wars took place at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota after Colonel James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry tried to disarm Chief Big Foot and his followers. The seventy-year-old Sioux chief, Big Foot, was killed by the 7th U.S. Cavalry during the massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. Three days later his body was found frozen where he had been killed. The Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 is the site where the 7th Cavalry killed nearly 300 Lakota men, women and children. A monument near the town of Wounded Knee marks the site.
1890 - Dec 15, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a fracas with Indian police [US troops]. In an attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at his Standing Rock, South Dakota, cabin, shooting broke out and Lt. Bullhead shot the great Sioux leader.
1927 - Work on Mount Rushmore in the Sioux people's most sacred mountain began and was completed in 1941.
1948 - Jun 3, Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-1982), a self-taught sculptor, began blasting a figure of Crazy Horse into rock in the Black Hills of South Dakota under an invitation by the Lakota Sioux. Ziolkowski had worked under Gutzon Borglum at the Mount Rushmore site. The face of Crazy Horse, at the site known as Thunder Mountain, was completed and dedicated in 1998.
Archaeologists have found evidence that a band of Paleo-Indians hunted and killed two mammoths around 11,000 years ago in a swampy area that would eventually become the Badlands area of South Dakota.
These are first South Dakotans we know of. It is believed these people were part of a group called the Clovis people who were centered in New Mexico. We know from artifacts that they made arrowheads for hunting, but we know very little else about these people.
There is also evidence of another group of people, hundreds of years later, living in South Dakota. By this time, the land had changed and the swamps were now wide plains which supported large herds of giant buffalo (bison).
These people, called the Folsom people, hunted the bison and also lived on wild onions and prairie turnips. They made beautiful arrowheads that they used for hunting. Again, we do not know what happened to these people or why their culture died out.
After several more centuries passed, the climate became warmer and drier. A new people, called the Plains Archaic people, migrated to the area. By this time, the giant buffalo had died out and were replaced by smaller bison which these new people hunted along with deer and rabbits.
The Archaic people also learned how to store food for times of drought, and lived in small groups because the land could not support large settlements. This group also left the first written records in South Dakota in the form of images carved into the walls of caves. These symbols and pictures are called petroglyphs.
By about three thousand years ago, another group of people came to live and hunt in the area. This group, called the Woodland people, lived in larger groups. They were much more successful in hunting the American bison that lived on the land.
The Woodland people also traded with groups living further to the east, and honored their dead by building burial mounds. They lived in houses built of sod and grew corn, pumpkins, sunflowers, squash, tobacco and beans.
