Land area
Land of the Sioux in North Dakota and South Dakota, ceded 1879 (area 614)
- 1875
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “President sets apart tract on E. side of Missouri river as an addition to reservation established by treaty Apr. 29, 1868”
- 1875
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “President sets apart tract as further addition to reservation established by treaty of Apr. 29, 1868”
- 1876
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “President makes another addition on E. side of Missouri river to Sioux reserve”
- 1879
Taken back by the United States
The 1899 record: “President restores to public domain part of the lands set apart by Executive orders of Jan. 11 and Mar. 16, 1875, and all the lands set apart by Executive orders ..”
In the record
Added to the Great Sioux reservation by executive orders in 1875 and 1876, then returned to the public domain by an August 1879 executive order. The area covers about 6.6 million acres in what is now North Dakota and South Dakota.
The 1899 record names Sioux (as named in treaty records) as the people of this land.
Today, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota and 10 more carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Working with these nations
- Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Oyate) Nation government Pe' Sla (1,942 acres, Nov 30, 2012)
- Owamniyomni Okhodayapi (formerly Friends of the Falls) Native-led Dakota-led restoration and return of care for sacred St. Anthony Falls (Owamniyomni) site in Minneapolis, with… Give on their site Website
- Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) Native-led Youth programs Website
- Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (Lakota Land Systems) Native-led Lakota-led regenerative community development on Pine Ridge: Lakota Land Systems Give on their site Website
- Siċaŋġu Co (Sicangu Community Development Corporation; Wolakota Buffalo Range) Native-led Sicangu Lakota economic engine incl. Wolakota Buffalo Range, food sovereignty initiative, local foods Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- Native Governance Center Native-led Strengthening Native nation governance and capacity to exercise sovereignty Give on their site Website
- Tanka Fund Native-led Returning buffalo to Native American lands, lives and economies via animals, grants and technical assistance to… Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
- Honor the Earth Native-led Pipeline resistance, sovereignty, energy justice Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 18
- Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montanamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Cheyenne River Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Crow Creek Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Dakotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Lower Brule Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Oglala Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Oyate)matched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraskamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Show all 18
- Sioux (as named in treaty records)as named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyatematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Spirit Lake Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Standing Rock Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Upper Sioux Community, Minnesotamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Yankton Sioux Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Located in 2
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1875-01-11primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1875-05-20primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1879-08-09primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Dakota 2 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 614
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1875-01-11; 1875-05-20; 1876-11-28; 1879-08-09
- Kind of instrument
- Executive order
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Sioux
- States
- ND; SD
- Counties
- Brule; Buffalo; Campbell; Charles Mix; Edmunds; Emmons; Faulk; Hand; Hughes; Hyde; McIntosh; McPherson; Potter; Sully; Walworth
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Dakota 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium