Oglala flag

   The Lakota were originally part of the seven council fires (Otchenti Chakowin - also said: Oceti Sakowin), made up of 7 bands: 4 Dakota, 2 Nakota (3 later counting the Assiniboin), and one Teton or Lakota band. The Dakota were the predominant people in this arrangement. First recorded contact with the Dakota was by Jesuits in 1640 and 1658, in the area of present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in the forests in southern Minnesota. These people had lived in this area for many generations. The nearby Chippewa called the Oceti Sakowin - "Nadowe-is-iw" - meaning little or treacherous snakes. It was natural for tribes to have less-than-complimentary terms for their enemies. The French later corrupted the term to "Nadowessioux", which the English, still later, shortened to "Sioux".

Sioux Warrior

   In 1680 the Teton or Lakota (who also called themselves "tiyospaye", meaning "extended family") were identified as living further west, on the upper Mississippi in central Minnesota. But the continuing wars between the eastern tribes over the fur trade had driven the Chippewa westward to this area. They were well-armed by the French, and gradually forced the Oceti Sakowin westward, out of their forest-and-lake range, and onto the Great Plains west of the Mississippi.

   By 1750, the Teton (Lakota), mostly Oglala and Brule bands, had moved further west to the south-eastern and south-central area of present-day South Dakota, near the Missouri River. They ran into the Arikara, who had earlier been forced northwards from their original homeland in present-day Nebraska by the Omaha and Iowa tribes. The Lakota attacked and pushed the Arikara out of the area, probably because competition for food in this area was fierce, and the Arikara were settled in villages and blocked the way across the Missouri.

Sioux village, 1880

Sioux man

   In 1775-76, an Oglala war-party traveling west from the Missouri River area came to the Black Hills. The Black Hills were occupied at that time by the Cheyenne, along with Kiowa and Crow in the area. But by 1794, after constant warfare, the Oglala and Brule controlled the Black Hills, allowing the Cheyenne to remain in the area as allies, while driving away the other tribes. The rest of the Lakota followed the lead of the Oglala and Brule into this general area.

   The Indians in this area traded almost exclusively with the French until about 1817 (the Louisiana Purchase was in 1803) when the American traders began to compete for the buffalo fur business. In 1825, the US sewed up the trade business with the 1825 Treaty between the US and the Oglala branch of the Teton Sioux (and in separate treaties with other tribes).

Chief Red Cloud and his men

   The main purpose of the 1825 Treaty was stated in Article I: "It is admitted by the Sioune and Ogallala bands of Sioux Indians, that they reside within the territorial limits of the United States, acknowledge their supremacy, and claim their protection. The said bands also admit the right of the United States to regulate all trade and intercourse with them."

   The Oglala buffalo fur trade activity with Americans became centered around the American Fur Company trading post in eastern Wyoming in the 1830s. In the 1840s, an increasing flow of emigrants to Oregon and California brought cholera, smallpox, and measles to the Indians (the California gold rush occurred in 1848-49) as well as accelerated buffalo hunting for the fur trade. This caused hostility and some attacks against the emigrants and traders.