LAKOTA (SIOUX) Sioux means "Lesser Snake" in Chippawa. They call themselves Lakota which means "friend." The Lakota lived on the plains with many other Indians like the Cheyenne and Oto. On the plains they survived by hunting buffalo and following the herds from place to place. Today the Lakota have a reservations in North and South Dakota and Montana.

SIOUX TRIBES The Lakota (sometimes called Tetons -"prairie dwellers") have 7 bands:

Oglala ("they scatter their own", or "dust scatterers"), Sicangu (or Brule - "Burnt Thighs"), Hunkpapa ("end of the circle"), Miniconjous ("planters beside the stream"), Sihasapa (or Blackfeet, not to be confused with the separate Blackfeet tribe), Itazipacola (or Sans Arcs: "without bows"), and Oohenupa ("Two Boilings" or "Two Kettle").

The Dakota Sioux (also called Santee Sioux) with 4 bands: Mdewakantonwon Wahpeton Wahpekute Sisseton living in South Dakota, as well as in Minnesota, Nebraska, and ND.

The Nakota - Yankton Sioux with 3 bands in modern times:

Yankton Upper Yanktonai Lower Yanktonai, living in SD, ND, and MT.

In North America the territory of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation covers some 200,000 km2 in the present day state of South Dakota and neighboring states. The Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation (also known as the Great Sioux Nation) descends from of the original inhabitants of North America and can be divided into three major linguistic and geographic groups: Lakota (Teton, West Dakota), Nakota (Yankton, Central Dakota) and Dakota (Santee, Eastern Dakota). The total number of native North Americans is approximately 1,5 million, of which around 100,000 are Lakota. They reside near the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.