Nation

Sioux (as named in treaty records)

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 33 treaties and agreements that name Sioux (as named in treaty records) as a party, from Treaty with the Sioux (Pike), 1805 to Black Hills Agreement (Act of February 28, 1877), Lakota.

C. C. Royce’s 1899 schedule records 41 cessions of land from Sioux (as named in treaty records): about 129 million acres by this atlas’s estimate, counting overlaps once. 14 of them came through treaties made under documented pressure. The largest was Land of the Sioux (Wahpeton and Sisseton Bands) in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, ceded 1851 (area 289), about 25 million acres, ceded under Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (Sisseton and Wahpeton), 1851.

The atlas records 2 broken treaty promises involving Sioux (as named in treaty records): Fort Laramie 1851: Pike's Peak gold rush invades treaty territory and Act of March 2, 1889: the Great Sioux Reservation divided and about 9 million acres opened. One court case turned on its rights: Hodel v. Irving.

The records group it with Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation). 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 this history, as their own pages or research records say. Land has come back: Pe' Sla returned to the Oceti Sakowin.

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.

Treaty or agreementTreaty under documented pressureAct of CongressExecutive orderShapes from the 1899 federal record: approximate, not legal boundaries.

Names

Each name shows where it comes from. A nation’s own name is shown as the nation writes it.

Names in treaties and records

SiouxEnglish (from Ojibwe via French)
NadousiouxFrench

Peoples within this name

DakotaEnglish/Siouan
LakotaEnglish/Siouan
NakotaEnglish/Siouan

Land recorded as ceded

Sioux (as named in treaty records) About 129 million acres recorded as ceded by the end of 1894

Treaty or agreement40 million
Treaty under documented pressure58 million
Act of Congress7 million
Executive order23 million

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

41 cessions. Follow Sioux (as named in treaty records) through the years on the map

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)
Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
Lakota People's Law Project (program of Sacred Defense Fund) Native-led Legal advocacy 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
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

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
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
Indian Law Resource Center Native-led Legal assistance to Indigenous nations to protect lands, resources, treaty and human rights Give on their site Website

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 41, as named in the 1899 record

Show all 41

Party to 33

Show all 33

Present-day governments that carry this history 16

Show all 16

Named in 4

Includes 3

Part of 1

Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation)

Sources

plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.na.107.htmlreference work
The French spelled the word Nadousioux, and the English and Americans shortened it to Sioux.
cheyenneriversioux.com/historyunclassified
The name Sioux is part of the Ojibway/Chippewa/Anishinabe word “Nadoweisiw-eg,” which the French shortened to Sioux.

Research notes

Exonym used by NARA/Kappler. Which bands signed differs per treaty.

Kind: Nation
Confidence: Medium
Nation review: Not yet reviewed by this nation

Correct this record