Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe

Creeks with names like Red Earth and Thunder Butte flow through the “Wakpa Wasté Oyanke” or “Good River Reservation.” The mighty Missouri River borders its eastern edge, the rugged Cheyenne River forms its southern border, and the Moreau River flos through the heart of the reservation. This land of sprawling prairies and abundant waters is home to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Other boundaries include the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to the north, and Meade and Perkins counties to the west. The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created as a result of the U.S. Congress Act of 1889, which broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into smaller reservations. Today the reservation covers almost all of Dewey and Ziebach counties in South Dakota, however, much of the land inside the boundaries is privately owned. In addition, there are many small parcels of off-reservation trust land in surrounding counties. The total reservation land area is 1.4 million acres, making it the fourth-largest Indian reservation in land area in the United States. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s (CRST) headquarters is located at Eagle Butte, the largest community on the reservation. US Highway 212 and SD Highways 65, 63 and 20 pass through the reservation.

The name Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe was given by the US government when the Cheyenne Agency was moved from Fort Bennett, which was located at the mouth of the Cheyenne River. The name was created by the Dawes Act of 1887 and is not to be confused with the Cheyenne Nation of Montana and other areas.

The reservation is the home of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, or Cheyenne River Lakota Nation (Oyate), which is made up of parts of four of the traditional seven bands of the Lakota Nation: Plants by the Water or Minicoujou, Sans Arc or Itazipco, Black Foot or Sihasapa, and Two Kettles or Oohenumpa. These bands speak Lakota.

Lakota people believe they emerged from Wind Cave in the Black Hills, or “Paha Sapa.” These Lakota ancestors roamed the vast areas east of the Rocky Mountains to the Eastern Seaboard.

Reprinted from A Guide to Tribal Natives: Oceti Sakowin Homelands published by Travel South Dakota