The Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands (sometimes called "sub-tribes") of the Teton (Titonwan) Lakota Sioux American Indian nation. They are known as Sičháŋǧu Oyáte (in Lakota), or "Burnt Thighs Nation," and so, were called Brulé (lit. "burnt") by the French. (The name may have derived from an incident where they were fleeing through a grass fire on the plains.)
Many Sicangu people live on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, with a small population living on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, on the west bank of the Missouri River. The two tribes are completely independent of each other, politically.
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Together with the Oglala Lakota they are oft called Southern Lakota and were divided in these thiyóšpaye or bands:
Spotted Tail and Standing Elk were Brulé chiefs at the time of Red Cloud's War[3]