Brulé

This article is about the Lakota Sioux sub-tribe. For the musical group, see Brulé (band).

Janeen Antoine (Sicangu Lakota), curator, educator, and director of American Indian Contemporary Arts

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.

Historic Brulé Thiyóšpaye or bands

Together with the Oglala Lakota they are oft called Southern Lakota and were divided in these thiyóšpaye or bands:

• Upper Brulé (Heyata Wicasa Oyate)
• Lower Brulé (Kul Wicasa Oyate)
• Brulé of the Platte

Famous Sicangu (Brulé)

Chief Iron Nation

• Iron Nation, chief
• Two Strike, chief
• Mary Brave Bird, author
• Short Bull was a well-known Sicangu holy man, who brought the Ghost Dance to the Lakota in South Dakota in 1890
• Spotted Tail or "Sinte Gleska", Chief
• Standing Elk (Brulé) (to be distinguished from Standing Elk (Cheyenne), Chief
• Moses Stranger Horse, artist
• Michael Spears, actor
• Eddie Spears, actor

Spotted Tail and Standing Elk were Brulé chiefs at the time of Red Cloud's War

External links

• Official website of the Kul Wicasa Oyate (Lower Brule)
• Official website of the Sicangu Oyate
• Indian genealogy
• Rosebud Sioux