The Lakota Native Americans are a group of people with a shared history and language, related to other Sioux tribes. They became nomads after being introduced to horses and hunted buffalo for survival. They gained land but were eventually defeated by white settlers, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre. Today, they live on reservations and continue their culture through pow wows and traditional ceremonies. There have been movements to regain sovereignty.
The Lakota Native Americans are a clan or group of people who have a shared history, speak the same language, and claim some cultural continuity. The Lakota or Lakhota are related to the other seven Sioux Indian tribes of North America and Canada. Lakota means “an alliance of friends”.
Historically, the Lakota were the first of the Sioux lines to travel west. The Cheyenne introduced the horse or “mystery dog” to the Lakota in the 1730s. With the horse, the Lakota Native Americans became part of the culture of the Great Plains and could move as nomads. They hunted buffalo as their primary means of survival. The Lakota gained land from other tribes and moved into areas where many reservations still stand today, particularly in North and South Dakota.
However, the tribe wasn’t the only people interested in settling in the west. Shortly thereafter, white American and European pioneers began passing through and encroaching on the lands. The first of many treaties was signed in 1851; the Treaty of Fort Laramie was named after the Army fort established in Wyoming. The treaty was designed to allow travelers safe passage on the Oregon Trail in exchange for Lakota Native American ownership and land tenure in North and South Dakota as long as “the rivers ran and the eagles flew.”
The peace would not last long and the Native Americans continued to attack the settlers. In Nebraska on September 3, 1855, 700 soldiers under public pressure to take revenge against the Lakota tribes, attacked and killed 100 men, women and children in their village. Raids and insurrection wars followed.
Lakota Native Americans revere the Black Hills or Pahá Sápa in the Dakotas. In 1868, another Fort Laramie treaty was signed that no people not of Native American descent would inhabit the Black Hills. A quick and total breach of the treaty occurred in 1872 when gold was discovered. Prospectors swarmed the land, effectively denying the treaty in Native American eyes.
This breach of the treaty sparked the Great Sioux War. The Cheyenne and other Native American tribes allied with the Lakota and fought the United States Army and General George Custer. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, General Custer and over 300 of his men were annihilated by Lakota leader Sitting Bull. Shortly thereafter, the US Congress expanded the military. Through systematic raids, the decimation of buffalo, and food rations only for those living on reservations, the Lakota were eventually defeated. Sitting Bull himself was killed 14 years later in 1890, and the Wounded Knee Massacre followed.
In modern times, Lakota Native American groups live on reservations and continue their culture and traditions. Each reservation has its own government, usually headed by a tribal council of elders directly elected by the voters. The United States Office of Indian Affairs provides oversight at the state and national levels.
Pow wow rallies are very common. During the ceremonies traditional dances are performed and the peace pipe is smoked. As many Native American tribes believe, traditional Lakota spirituality includes ascending prayers to the Great Spirit on wisps of smoke. Potlatching or trading between tribe members takes place in pow wows. Sweat lodge ceremonies are performed by specialized clan members.
There have been movements to regain sovereignty from Lakota Native American groups. This has included petitions to the US government made by traditional matriarchal leaders.
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