^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Sisseton & Wahpeton Sioux - North Dakota & South Dakota (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 31 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

The Flag

Like nearly all flags of Dakota branches, the Sisseton and Wahpeton flag features the tepee as a significant design element. As the rulers of the northern Plains, the Sioux constantly traveled, following the vast buffalo herds and using the tepee as a nomadic shelter. While the tepee is a unifying symbol among the various Sioux, the Sisseton did not begin to use the tepee until being forced westward and the Wahpeton never used the tepee at all. They relied instead on a bark-covered tipi tonka as a summer house and a domed earthen lodge for their winter dwelling (http://swcc.cc.sd.us/culture2.html).

The Tribe's light blue flag bears the triangular map of the reservation in dark blue. On it, seven red tepees, accented in white, represent the seven districts of the reservation. On the "official" flags displayed in the tribal offices, each district is named. Arching over the reservation map, in white, is SISSETON and WAHPETON and below is SIOUX TRIBEs.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 31 January 2008

From http://www.nsuok.edu/news/story.php?1875:

"Northeastern State University student Randy Boucher, of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe of South Dakota, donated his tribal flag to the NSU Center for Tribal Studies.

The flag, depicting the seven districts of the Sisseton-Wahpeton tribe, will hang with 20 other tribal flags during the annual Symposium on the American Indian, American Indian Graduation Convocation, and other special events throughout the year.

"The Center for Tribal Studies has a goal to collect tribal flags from all the tribes represented at NSU among students, staff and faculty," said Dr. Phyllis Fife, director of the Center for Tribal Studies."

Jan Mertens, 12 March 2008