South Dakota Magazine explores the state, looking for interesting people and places that define our culture, heritage, arts, nature and communities.

Natural beauty and wonder await you in South Dakota. Across the state, you will be inspired to expand your journey in the west from the Black Hills and Badlands, to the northeast to explore the glacial lakes and outdoor adventure. Along the way, you’ll follow the Missouri River as it flows down through central South Dakota and experience the history of Lewis and Clark. Discover the land of the southeast and its bustling cities, quiet country escapes and family attractions. As you venture back home, you will know you truly made memories that will last forever.

The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate consists of the Sisseton, or People of the Marsh or People of the Fish Village/Peninsula, and the Wahpeton, or People on Lake Traverse or People Among the Leaves/Leaf Shooters. The Sisseton and Wahpeton bands are subdivisions of the eastern or Dakota/Dakotah Indians and two bands of the eastern Isanti or Santee division who speak the Dakota dialect. 

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, more properly known as Sicangu Lakota Oyate, or Burnt Thigh People, are descendants of the Sicangu Oyate of the Tetonwan Division of the Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires.

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is comprised of descendants of the Dakota and Nakota people: the Ihanktowan or Yankton and Yanktonias/Dwellers at the End are Nakota, and the Isanti or Mdewakanton/Spirit Lake People are Dakota.

Covering 2.3 million acres, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is the fifth-largest reservation in the United States. The reservation is home to two bands of the Lakota Nation: the Sihasapa (or Blackfoot) and the Hunkpapa (or Campers at the Horn). The Dakota people of Standing Rock include the Upper Yanktonai (called the Ihanktonwana or Little End Village) and the Lower Yanktonai (called the Hunkatina or Cut Heads). 

This land of sprawling prairies and abundant waters is home to 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 Mnicoujou, Sans Arc or Itazipco, Black Foot or Sihasapa, and Two Kettles or Oohenumpa.

An Accredited Tribal University On The Rosebud Sioux Reservation

South Dakota is home to more than 71,000 American Indians, many whom live on South Dakota reservations. Learn more about each of the nine reservations located throughout South Dakota!

On the banks of the Missouri River, immediately downstream from Fort Randall Dam, hours can be spent peacefully watching the water flow, observing the animals and birds that frequent the area, and enjoying the breathtaking beauty of the surrounding shoreline.The reservation is the homeland of the Ihanktonwan or Yankton and the Ihanktowanna or Yanktonai who refer to themselves as Nakota. 

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is comprised primarily of descendents of the Mdewakantonwan and Wakpekute bands of the Isanti division of the Great Sioux Nation. They refer to themselves as Dakota, meaning friend or ally.

Majestic Badlands, rolling grassland and hills, dryland prairie and pine-dotted areas await you at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Oglala is a Lakota word meaning "to scatter one's own." The Oglala Lakota Nation is one of the seven bands of the Titowan (Lakota) division of the Great Sioux Nation.

The Kul Wicasa Oyate is a band of related families of the Lakota Nation called the Sicangu or Burnt Thighs. The Lower Brule Indian Reservation occupies an area of more than 400 square miles on the west side of the Missouri River Valley and in the uplands that roll westward from the Missouri River to the Black Hills.