We are the Oceti Sakowin Oyate—the People of the Seven Council Fires.
For many generations our people thrived. We traded goods and developed elaborate traditions. We became known as fierce warriors, elegant dancers, and powerful healers. We held a deep reverence for Mother Earth, seeing ourselves as connected to one another and as part of a community of all living beings. Politically, we organized ourselves according to a system of kinship, centered around the tiospaye—extended family—and extending out to encompass the nation—tonawan. There were seven nations in our land and together we formed the Seven Council Fires.
But in the mid-1800s, the U.S. Government began to undermine our government and kinship system. Families were torn apart and communal lands divided. In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act and imposed a new form of government on the tribes. But these governments are foreign, based on the individual rather than the family, and we have not embraced them.
Restoring the Lakota People must mean restoring our kinship society and reviving the Seven Council Fires structure, allowing the people—Oyate—to govern themselves. To do this, the Lakota People’s Law Project is working with leaders to research the tiospaye and other kinship structures to identify historical and contemporary relationships.
Seven Council Fires Campaign
We are the Oceti Sakowin Oyate—the People of the Seven Council Fires.
For many generations our people thrived. We traded goods and developed elaborate traditions. We became known as fierce warriors, elegant dancers, and powerful healers. We held a deep reverence for Mother Earth, seeing ourselves as connected to one another and as part of a community of all living beings. Politically, we organized ourselves according to a system of kinship, centered around the tiospaye—extended family—and extending out to encompass the nation—tonawan. There were seven nations in our land and together we formed the Seven Council Fires.
But in the mid-1800s, the U.S. Government began to undermine our government and kinship system. Families were torn apart and communal lands divided. In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act and imposed a new form of government on the tribes. But these governments are foreign, based on the individual rather than the family, and we have not embraced them.
Restoring the Lakota People must mean restoring our kinship society and reviving the Seven Council Fires structure, allowing the people—Oyate—to govern themselves. To do this, the Lakota People’s Law Project is working with leaders to research the tiospaye and other kinship structures to identify historical and contemporary relationships.
Learn more by reading about the History of the Council Fires.