Inherent Sovereignty

What is Inherent Sovereignty for the Lakota Oyate?

The Meaning

Inherent sovereignty is the original, Creator-given authority and responsibility of the Lakota Nation to live as a people. It is the right — and the duty — to govern ourselves, to care for our lands and waters, to protect our relatives, to sustain language and ceremony, and to determine our own future.

It exists because the Oyate exist. No outside government can “give” it or “take” it away.

The Foundations

Peoplehood: The Lakota Oyate are part of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires), with our own language, stories, kinship systems, and ceremonies.
History: Long before the United States was formed, Lakota people organized societies, leaders, and laws across vast homelands.
Treaties: Agreements such as the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties recognized Lakota nationhood. Treaties are not gifts — they are acknowledgments of sovereignty.
Law: U.S. courts and policies affirm that tribal sovereignty comes from original nationhood, not from the U.S. Constitution.

Living Sovereignty Today

Inherent sovereignty is not just history — it is alive and exercised every day:

Governance: Chiefs, Councils, courts, and Tiospaye decision-making based on Lakota values.
Education: Language immersion schools and Lakota-centered teaching.
Health & Wellbeing: Integrating community, ceremony, and modern medicine.
Land & Ecology: Protecting sacred sites, waters, animals, and plants.
Economy: Building systems of trade and livelihood rooted in reciprocity and balance.
Diplomacy: Engaging with local, federal, and international governments as a Nation.

Why It Matters

Protects language, culture, and ceremony from outside control.
Guides our relationship with other governments.
Upholds responsibilities to land and waters.
Ensures children and future generations inherit a strong Nation.

Inherent sovereignty flows from our identity and laws as Lakota — recognized in treaties and law, and lived out daily through responsibilities to community and to generations yet to come.

Remember what our Tunksasila Tatanka Iyotaka (Sitting Bull) said after the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn):

“Our victory at Pezi Sla (Greasy Grass) is sacred—but the battlefield is not a place for spoils. Let no one take anything from the soldiers, no weapon or relic. For if we do, we bring upon ourselves the shadow of hardship that will haunt our people in years to come.”