North American Indian tribe occupying the northern Great Plains from Minnesota westward into the Dakotas and southward into Nebraska. Under chief Sitting Bull and other excellent leaders the Lakota Sioux dominated the other northern Plains tribes and after 1860 strongly resisted the invasion of their sacred sites and hunting areas by the white man, fighting a series of often successful battles with the U.S. Army, including the battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876, before being finally crushed in 1890 at Wounded Knee, Dakota Territory.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
