The Lakota were originally part of the seven council fires (Otchenti Chakowin - also said: Oceti Sakowin), made up of 7 bands: 4 Dakota, 2 Nakota (3 later counting the Assiniboin), and one Teton or Lakota band. The Dakota were the predominant people in this arrangement. First recorded contact with the Dakota was by Jesuits in 1640 and 1658, in the area of present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in the forests in southern Minnesota. These people had lived in this area for many generations. The nearby Chippewa called the Oceti Sakowin - "Nadowe-is-iw" - meaning little or treacherous snakes. It was natural for tribes to have less-than-complimentary terms for their enemies. The French later corrupted the term to "Nadowessioux", which the English, still later, shortened to "Sioux".

In 1680 the Teton or Lakota (who also called themselves 'tiyospaye', meaning 'extended family') were identified as living further west, on the upper Mississippi in central Minnesota. But the continuing wars between the eastern tribes over the fur trade had driven the Chippewa westward to this area. They were well-armed by the French, and gradually forced the Oceti Sakowin westward, out of their forest-and-lake range, and onto the Great Plains west of the Mississippi.

By 1750, the Teton (Lakota), mostly Oglala and Brule bands, had moved further west to the south-eastern and south-central area of present-day South Dakota, near the Missouri River. They ran into the Arikara, who had earlier been forced northwards from their original homeland in present-day Nebraska by the Omaha and Iowa tribes. The Lakota attacked and pushed the Arikara out of the area, probably because competition for food in this area was fierce, and the Arikara were settled in villages and blocked the way across the Missouri.

Sioux Tribes Original name: 'Oceti Sakowin' or the seven council fires

The Lakota (sometimes called Tetons - "prairie dwellers") have 7 bands: Oglala ("they scatter their own", or "dust scatterers"), Sicangu (or Brule - "Burnt Thighs"), Hunkpapa ("end of the circle"), Miniconjous ("planters beside the stream"), Sihasapa (or Blackfeet, not to be confused with the separate Blackfeet tribe), Itazipacola (or Sans Arcs: "without bows"), and Oohenupa ("Two Boilings" or "Two Kettle"). There are also Dakota Sioux with 4 bands: Mdewakantonwon, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, living in South Dakota, as well as in Minnesota, Nebraska, and ND. The third branch of the Sioux Nation is the Nakota (also called Yankton Sioux) with 3 bands in modern times: Yankton, Upper Yanktonai, Lower Yanktonai, living in SD, ND, and MT.