The Lakota tribe is a Native American group in North and South Dakota, with three regional subgroups and a migratory lifestyle focused on buffalo hunting. They traditionally lived in tipis and used all parts of the buffalo for food, clothing, and tools. There are over 103,000 enrolled Lakota tribal members, with five reservations and a proposed Lakota Republic that includes parts of five states.
The Lakota tribe is a group of Native Americans living primarily in North and South Dakota. It is the westernmost of the three major Sioux groups within the Great Sioux Nation, which also includes eastern and western Dakota. The Lakota people traditionally speak Lakota, one of the three Sioux dialects.
The Lakota tribe is further divided into three regional subgroups, each with its own bands, or subtribes. The Hunkpapa and Sihasapa belong to the Northern Lakota. The Central Lakota includes the Minniconjou, Sans Arc and Two Kettles, while the Oglala and Brule bands belong to the Southern Lakota.
Historically, the Lakota tribe lived in the Great Lakes region of present-day Minnesota, along with other Sioux groups, but they moved west due to pressure from European settlers. The Lakota tribe was the first Sioux tribe to move west from their historical territory. By the 18th century, the Lakota had settled in the Dakotas and adopted the horse into their culture, allowing them to hunt buffalo.
The importance of buffalo hunting to the Lakota tribe has led to a migratory lifestyle. In addition to hunting buffalo, the Lakota also gathered wild plants and traded with sedentary cultures. The Lakota used all the parts of the buffalo they killed, for their food, clothing, shelter and tools. They dried and prepared the meat they didn’t eat right away to make pemmican and dried meat that would keep for years.
The Lakota traditionally lived in tipis (teepees), made of wooden posts covered with buffalo hide. This type of portable dwelling suited their nomadic lifestyle. While the men of the tribe were responsible for hunting buffalo, the women tanned the hides and used them to make clothing, tipis, bags, and other useful items.
There are currently over 103,000 enrolled Lakota tribal members, about half of whom live on one of the five Lakota reservations in the Dakotas or one of the other Sioux reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The Lakota reservations are the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, Lower Brule Indian Reservation, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Rosebud Indian Reservation, and Standing Rock Reservation, each with its own tribal government and constitution.
In 2007, a group of Lakotas called the Lakota Freedom Delegation declared independence from the United States in Washington, DC The proposed Lakota Republic includes parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming, on basis of the boundaries established in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the Lakota and the United States. The Lakota Republic’s goals include developing wind and solar energy and increasing sugar beet cultivation for biofuels, and a fully immersive Lakota language school.
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