Nation
Yankton · yankton · Ihanktonwan · Ihanktunwun · Yankton Sioux TribeYankton
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 6 treaties and agreements that name Yankton as a party, from Yankton Sioux at Portage des Sioux (1815) to Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1858.
C. C. Royce’s 1899 schedule records 3 cessions of land from Yankton: about 13 million acres by this atlas’s estimate, counting overlaps once. 3 of them came through treaties made under documented pressure. The largest was Land of the Yankton Sioux in South Dakota, ceded 1858 (area 410), about 12 million acres, ceded under Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1858.
One court case turned on its rights: South Dakota v. Yankton Sioux Tribe.
The records group it with Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation). Today, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Yankton Sioux Tribe carry this history, as their own pages or research records say.
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.
The record over time
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
Each name shows where it comes from. A nation’s own name is shown as the nation writes it.
Self-names
- IhanktonwanDakota/Nakota (Latin)
Official names
Names in treaties and records
- IhanktunwunNakota (Latin)
Land recorded as ceded
- Treaty under documented pressure13 million
Estimate from Royce’s maps; overlapping cessions counted once. Not a survey or legal measure.
3 cessions. Follow Yankton through the years on the map
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
- Yankton Sioux Tribe
- Cheyenne River 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
- Oglala Sioux Tribe
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.
Party to 6
- Yankton Sioux at Portage des Sioux (1815)1815
- Sioux (Teton, Yankton, and Yanktonai) at Fort Look-out Near the Three Rivers of the Sioux Pass (1825)1825
- Treaty of Prairie du Chien (1830), Sauk, Fox, Sioux, Omaha, Iowa, Oto, Missouri1830
- Oto, Missouri, Omaha, and Sioux (Yankton and Santee Bands) at Bellevue, Upper Missouri (1836)1836
- Yankton Sioux at Washington, DC (1837)1837
- Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 18581858
Land recorded in this nation’s name 3, as named in the 1899 record
Present-day governments that carry this history 2
Part of 1
Named in 1
Sources
- plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.na.107.htmlreference work
two council fires: the Ihanktunwun (Yanktons) and Ihanktunwanna (Yanktonais)
- govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htmprimary record
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
- sdtribalrelations.sd.gov/tribes/Yankton-Sioux-Tribe.aspxreference work
Bands: Ihanktonwan
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