Cheyenne River
The Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation was originally a central part of the Great Sioux Reservation which was established on April 29, 1868 by the treaty of Fort Laramie. Prior to the making of this treaty and prior to the coming of the white-man; there existed a period of time which is often called the Golden Age of Siouan culture, dating from the year 1775.
During the GOLDEN AGE of Siouan dominance and control of the northern plains, the Siouan people developed a nomadic hunter/gather existence which came into fruition with the coming of the horse. The Lakota people make up the Seven Council Fires. This is a name which signifies that the Lakota people are sub-divided into seven different independent bands that constitute the western division of the Siouan people.
Since 1868 with the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty, the Siouan lands had been shrinking year by year as homesteaders and California and Oregon bound pioneers continued to cross into and over the lands of the Great Sioux Nation. What was once a vast territorial holding that extended into North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and all of South Dakota west of the Missouri river; now shrank to a minuscule holding encompassing only the area north of the Cheyenne river to a point just 10 miles north of the Moreau river.
In just twenty-one short years of experiencing white contact the Siouan people lost over 90% of their land base. The three divisions of people went from controlling one quarter of the continental United States to holding onto a meager portion of so called "set aside/trust" lands that were divided up into separate reservations within the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
Since it lies in a centralized location on the reservation, the Eagle Butte community has grown and prospered over the ensuing years to become the largest population center. Eagle Butte is now the hub of the tribal government and the location of its offices and services: the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the Indian Health Service; and the BIA school system which serves the main school in Eagle Butte and oversees Day School operation located out in the districts. Eagle Butte also hosts the tribal Police Department, the tribal Housing Authority, and the Tribal Telephone Authority. Several small businesses that are privately owned and operated have helped the community to expand and grow since 1959 and, as a tribe of Indians; the people of Cheyenne River are proud to say that their "government" has indeed succeeded in making their reservation one of the most prominent and prosperous of all the Indian reservations in the United States.