IV.

Contemporary Life

In the 2000 U.S. census about 108,000 people identified themselves as Sioux only; an additional 45,000 people reported being part Sioux. Most live on reservations in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska. There are also Sioux First Nations in Canada, with reserves in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Many Sioux now live in urban areas, such as Minneapolis-St. Paul. Tribal elders are striving to pass on dialects and traditional customs to Sioux youth. Some Sioux bands, especially in Minnesota, have turned to gaming for tribal income.

The Sioux have been active in the modern Native American civil rights movement, seeking restoration of their land base and the institution of a modernized form of traditional life. They have been particularly involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a civil rights group that has actively protested government treatment of Native Americans since the late 1960s. In 1973 AIM, in concert with a group of Oglala Lakota who were angered by reservation abuses, seized the community of Wounded Knee for 71 days and demanded a United States Senate investigation into Native American living conditions.

See also Native Americans of North America: Great Plains; Native American Languages.