Rosebud Indian Reservation

Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation
Reservation
Location of Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota
Country	United States
State	South Dakota
Counties	Todd / Mellette / Tripp / Gregory / Lyman
Established	1889
Government
• Governing Body	Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council
Area
• Total	1,970.362 sq mi (5,103.214 km2)
Population (2000)
• Total	21,245
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Website	Rosebud Sioux Tribe

The Rosebud Indian Reservation (RIR) is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Sicangu Oyate (the Upper Brulé Sioux Nation) - also known as Sicangu Lakota, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST), a branch of the Lakota people. The Lakota name Sicangu Oyate translates into English as "Burnt Thigh Nation"; the French term "Brulé Sioux" is also used.

The Rosebud Indian Reservation was established in 1889 by the United States' partition of the Great Sioux Reservation. Created in 1868 by the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Great Sioux Reservation originally covered all of West River, South Dakota (the area west of the Missouri River), as well as part of northern Nebraska and eastern Montana. The reservation includes all of Todd County, South Dakota and communities and lands in the four adjacent counties, which had at one time been entirely part of the reservation.

Geography and population

The RIR is located in south central South Dakota, and presently includes within its recognized border all of Todd County, an unincorporated county of South Dakota. However, the Oyate also has communities and extensive lands and populations in the four adjacent counties, which were once within the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) boundaries: Tripp, Lyman, Mellette, and Gregory Counties, all in South Dakota. Mellette County, especially, has extensive off-reservation trust land, comprising 33.35 percent of its land area, where 40.23 percent of the population lives.

The total land area of the reservation and its trust lands is 1,970.362 sq mi (5,103.214 km²) with a population of 10,469 in the 2000 census. The main reservation (Todd County) has a land area of 1,388.124 sq mi (3,595.225 km²) and a population of 9,050. The RIR is bounded on the south by Cherry County, Nebraska, on the west by the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, on the north by the White River, and originally, on the east by the Missouri River.

The Oyate capital is the unincorporated town of Rosebud, established when the Spotted Tail Indian Agency (named after the 19th-century war chief, whose Lakota name was Sinte Gleska) was moved from northwestern Nebraska to the banks of Rosebud Creek near its confluence with the Little White River. The largest town on the reservation is Mission, located at the intersections of US Highways 18 and 83.

Mission's near neighbor of Antelope is one of the many tribal band communities established in the late 1870s and growing since then. Other major towns in the reservation are Saint Francis, located southwest of Rosebud and the home of Saint Francis Indian School, a private Catholic institution first established as a mission school. Saint Francis, with a current population of about 2000, is the largest incorporated town in South Dakota without a state highway for access.

Located on the Great Plains, just north of the Nebraska Sandhills, Rosebud Indian Reservation has large areas of Ponderosa Pine forest scattered in its grasslands. Deep valleys are defined by steep hills and ravines, often with lakes dotting the deeper valleys.

Economy and services

The RST owns and operates Rosebud Casino, located on U.S. Route 83 just north of the Nebraska border. Nearby is a fuel plaza, featuring truck parking and a convenience store. Power for the casino is furnished in part by one of the nation's first tribally owned electricity-generating wind turbines. The tribe allows alcohol sales on the reservation, which enables it to keep the sales taxes and other revenues generated, as well as to police and regulate its use. A new residential development, Sicangu Village, was recently built along Highway 83 near the casino and the state line.

The RST population is estimated at 25,000 (2005). It is served by the Oyate administration and agencies, as well as the BIA Rosebud Agency, Todd County School District, Saint Francis Indian School, the Rosebud Indian Health Service Hospital, and Sinte Gleska University. The tribal university is named after the 19th-century Sioux war chief and statesman, whose name in English was Spotted Tail.

General information

Janeen Antoine (Sicangu Lakota), curator, educator, and director of American Indian Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, grew up on the Rosebud Reservation.

• Land Area: 882,416 acres (3,571.01 km²)
• Tribal headquarters: Rosebud, South Dakota
• Time zone: Central
• Enrolled members living on reservation: 21,245
• Major employers: Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Todd County School District

Government

Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) re-established self-government, after adopting a constitution and bylaws, to take back many responsibilities for internal management from the BIA. It followed the model of elected government: president, vice-president, and representative council, adopted by many Native American nations. At the time and since then, many tribal members opposed the elected government, preferring their traditional form of clan chiefs selected for life, contingent on approval by women elders, and a tribal council that operated by consensus .

The elders of both men and women have continued to have influence within the nation, particularly among those who have followed more traditional lives. At times the political factions have developed and continued along ethnic and cultural lines, with full-blood Sioux following traditional ways. Others, sometimes of mixed-blood or having had more urban or European-American experiences, support the elected government.

The short two-year terms of office can make it difficult for elected officials to carry out projects over the long term. In addition, BIA officials and police retain roles on the reservations, which the historian Akim Reinhardt calls a form of "indirect colonialism".

• Law: charter, constitution, and bylaws (approved November 23, 1935)
• Governing Body: Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council (20 members)
• Executive Officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant-At-Arms

Elections

• Primary elections, fourth Thursday of August; general elections, fourth Thursday of October
• President and vice-president elected at large for two-year terms; Tribal Council elected from members' districts every two years; Council appoints the secretary, treasurer, and sergeant-at-arms
• Number of election districts: 13
• Proportion of representatives: one representative per 750 members

Council meetings

• Meetings are held once a month the second Wednesday and Thursday.
• Quorum: 11 members

Education and media

• Tribal College: Sinte Gleska University, Mission, SD
• Radio: KINI 96.1 FM, St. Francis, SD. KOYA 88.1 FM, Rosebud, SD.
• Newspaper: Todd County Tribune, Mission, South Dakota
• Schools: St. Francis Indian School (Sicangu Oyate Ho, Inc.), Todd County High School (Todd County School District 66-1)

Notable tribal members and residents

• Janeen Antoine (Sicangu Lakota), curator, educator, and founder in 1983 of the American Indian Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, grew up on the Rosebud Reservation. Her gallery was one of the first in the nation to feature contemporary American Indian art and is important in encouraging new work.
• Bob Barker grew up on the reservation, where his mother was a teacher. He became The Price Is Right television show host.
• Benjamin "Ben" Reifel (Rosebud Sioux) (1906-1990), five-term U.S. Congressman, was born near Parmelee. He served in the U.S. Army, worked as a field officer and regional administrator for the BIA, and earned master's and doctoral degrees in public administration from Harvard University. Reifel was elected as US Representative in 1960 and served until his retirement in 1971.
• Yvette Roubideaux (Rosebud Sioux), M.D., M.P.H., is Director of the Indian Health Service (IHS), appointed in 2009 as the first woman to hold the position.

Main article: Spotted Tail

• Chief Sinte Gleska, translated as "Spotted Tail", a Brulé Sioux (1823-1881) a relative of Crazy Horse, was a leading war chief in battles with the Pawnee. He later became a leader of the peace faction and a statesman of the Sioux tribe. In 1868 Spotted Tail signed a treaty with the US ceding Sioux lands along the Republican and the Platte rivers. Sinte Gleska University, a Tribal college located in Mission, SD, is named for him.
• Paul Eagle Star, (1864-1891) (Brulé Sioux). He attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School, enrolling in November 1882 and left the school six years later. He worked in the blacksmith shop at Rosebud Agency in July 1889. Two years later, Eagle Star was recruited and worked under contract to perform in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which toured in England. He died a few days after breaking his ankle when he fell off a horse in Sheffield. He was buried at West Brompton's cemetery. In March 1999 his remains were exhumed for transport and reburial in Rosebud's Lakota cemetery. Tribal descendants include two grandchildren, Moses and Lucy Eagle Star II.
• Chief Iron Shell, who led the Brulé Orphan Band during the Powder River War of 1866-1868.
• Hollow Horn Bear, son of Iron Shell, Sioux leader at the Fetterman Fight. He served as head of Indian police at the Rosebud Agency, and arrested Crow Dog for the murder of Spotted Tail.
• Richard Twiss (1954-2013), founder of Wiconi International ministry.
• Chauncey Yellow Robe ("Kills in the Woods") (Canowicakte) (1867-1930) was an educator, lecturer and Native American activist. Yellow Robe was raised in the Sicangu Lakota tradition, an honors graduate of the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and a founding member of the Society of American Indians. Yellow Robe was at the forefront in the fight for American Indian citizenship during the Progressive Era, and collaborated with American Museum of Natural History to produce "The Silent Enemy," the first movie and documentary with an all-Indian cast.

Black Hills

In United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, the people of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation joined the Oglala Lakota and other Sioux nations in suing the federal government in a land claim for its taking of the Black Hills. In 1980 the case was heard by the United States Supreme Court, which agreed with the nations that the US had acted illegally in 1877. The US government offered financial compensation, which the Sioux have refused. They still demand the return of the land to their nation. The compensation fund is earning interest and has increased in value.

Communities

The Rosebud Sioux Reservation has 20 communities represented on its tribal council:

• Antelope
• Okreek
• Parmelee
• Rosebud
• Saint Francis
• Spring Creek
• Two Strike
• Milks Camp
• Corn Creek
• Butte Creek
• Soldier Creek
• Upper Cut Meat
• Ring Thunder
• Black Pipe
• Bull Creek
• Swift Bear
• Grass Mountain
• Ideal
• He Dog
• Horse Creek

External links

• Official Rosebud Sioux Tribe Website
• South Dakota Office of Tribal Relations
• Official Organization helping Rosebud Sioux Tribe Charity Organization - NAHA
• Sinte Gleska University
• Rosebud Indian Reservation at DMOZ