Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights

Nation

Dakota

Not yet reviewed by this nation. What follows comes from public records and research. It does not speak for the nation.

Region
Plains

In the record

The United States made 4 treaties and agreements that name Dakota as a party, from Treaty with the Sioux (Pike), 1805 to Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Lakota (Sioux) and Arapaho.

C. C. Royce’s 1899 schedule records 4 cessions of land from Dakota: about 3.1 million acres by this atlas’s estimate, counting overlaps once. 4 of them came through executive orders. The largest was Land of the Santee Sioux in South Dakota, ceded 1869 (area 523), about 2.9 million acres.

The atlas records 4 broken treaty promises involving Dakota: Dakota 1851 treaties, 1862 war and the Act of Feb. 16, 1863, Fort Laramie 1868 and the Black Hills: abrogation by the Act of Feb. 28, 1877, Act of March 2, 1889: the Great Sioux Reservation divided and about 9 million acres opened and 1 more. One court case turned on its rights: United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians.

The records group it with Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) and Sioux (as named in treaty records). Today, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota, Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota, Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska and 5 more carry this history, as their own pages or research records say. Land has come back: White Horse Hill returned to Spirit Lake Nation.

Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources. This is what the United States’ treaty record says, not the nation’s own account.

Executive orderShapes from the 1899 federal record: approximate, not legal boundaries.

The record over time

178018001850190019502000todayTreatiesTreaty of Prairie du Chien (1830), Sauk, Fox, Sioux, Omaha, Iowa, Oto, Missouri (1830)Oto, Missouri, Omaha, and Sioux (Yankton and Santee Bands) at Bellevue, Upper Missouri (1836) (1836)Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Lakota (Sioux) and Arapaho (1868)Treaty with the Sioux (Pike), 1805 (1805)Land takenLand of the Santee Sioux in South Dakota, ceded 1869 (area 523) (1869)Land of the Santee Sioux in Nebraska, taken 1869 (area 526) (1869)Land of the Santee Sioux in Nebraska, ceded 1885 (area 556) (1885)Promises brokenFort Laramie 1868 and the Black Hills: abrogation by the Act of Feb. 28, 1877 (1874)Act of March 2, 1889: the Great Sioux Reservation divided and about 9 million acres opened (1889)Dakota 1851 treaties, 1862 war and the Act of Feb. 16, 1863 (1862)Lake Traverse Reservation (Sisseton-Wahpeton) and DeCoteau v. District County Court (1975) (1889)In courtUnited States v. Sioux Nation of Indians (1980)Land returnedWhite Horse Hill returned to Spirit Lake Nation (2025)

Circles are land the United States recorded as ceded, sized by acres and colored by how it was taken. Bars are treaties, broken promises, court cases and land returns.

Names

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Self-names

Names in treaties and records

Other names in English

Peoples within this name

Land recorded as ceded

Dakota About 3 million acres recorded as ceded by the end of 1894
  • Executive order3 million

Estimate from Royce’s maps; overlapping cessions counted once. Not a survey or legal measure.

4 cessions. Follow Dakota through the years on the map

Who is doing the work

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Connections

These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.

Land recorded in this nation’s name 20

Show all 20

Present-day governments that carry this history 11

Named in 6

Party to 4

Includes 4

Part of 2

Governed by 1

Organizations that work with this nation 1

Sources

  1. lowersioux.com/about-us/unclassified
    consisted of four bands known as the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute (together comprising the "lower bands"), and the Sisseton and the Wahpeton
  2. plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.na.107.htmlreference work
    The Isantis (Santees), Dakota speakers, occupy the east and are comprised of four council fires
  3. uppersiouxcommunity-nsn.gov/historyreference work
    the Dakota Oyate (Nation), for thousands of years
  4. prairieisland.org/who-we-are/our-historyunclassified
    We are the Dakota Oyate (people), are also commonly referred to as the Minnesota Sioux.
  5. walk2unlock.ne.gov/markers/santee-sioux-tribe-dakota/reference work
    The Isanti (Santee) Nation is located within Knox County
Kind
Nation
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Medium
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