Rosebud Indian Reservation

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Rosebud Indian Reservation
Location of Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota
Location of Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota
Country United States
State South Dakota
Counties Todd, Tripp, Lyman, Mellette, Gregory
Established 1889
Government
 - Governing body General Tribal Council
Area
 - Total 1,970.362 sq mi (5,103.214 km²)
Population (2000)
 - Total 10,469
Time zone CST (UTC-6)
 - Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
Website: Official Rosebud Sioux Tribe Website

The Rosebud Indian Reservation (RIR) is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the Sicangu Oyate, also known as Sicangu Lakota, the Upper Brulé Sioux Nation, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. "Sicangu Oyate" translates from Lakota to English as "Burnt Thigh Nation" and is sometimes also translated via French as "Brulé Sioux".

The RST 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 inside the 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, and with 40.23 percent of its population living on it. The total land area of the reservation with its trust lands is 5,103.214 km² (1,970.362 sq mi) with a population of 10,469 in the 2000 census. The main reservation (Todd County) has a land area of 3,595.225 km² (1,388.124 sq mi) 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 was moved from northwestern Nebraska to the banks of Rosebud Creek near its confluence with the Little White River. Other major towns in the Reservation are Saint Francis, located southwest of Rosebud and the home of Saint Francis Indian School, a private institution. Saint Francis, with a current population of about 2000, is the largest incorporated town in South Dakota without a state highway for access. Mission, also incorporated and the trade center for the Oyate and Todd County, is third in population, and located at the intersections of US Highways 18 and 83. Its near neighbor of Antelope is one of the many tribal band communities established in the late 1870s and growing since then.

The RST is the home of the tribally-owned and operated 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, while power for the casino is furnished in part by one of the nation's first tribally-owned electrical-generating windmills, and a new Indian community is being built just to the north.

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

The RST population is estimated at 25,000 (2005), and is supported by a large Oyate administration and agencies, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affair's Rosebud Agency, Todd County School District, Saint Francis Indian School, the Rosebud Indian Health Service Hospital, and Sinte Gleska University.

The Rosebud Indian Reservation was established in 1889 by the partition of the Great Sioux reservation created to cover all of West River, South Dakota in 1868.

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