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

Standing Rock 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

Standing Rock Sioux - North Dakota & South Dakota

The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is one of nine Sioux reservations spreading from northern Nebraska to North Dakota. The reservation centers on the town of Fort Yates, North Dakota, and straddles the border between the two Dakotas. It was created in 1873 out of land set aside under the treaty of 1868 as the "Great Sioux Reservation" and is home to the Yanktonai and Hunkpapa bands of the Teton Sioux.

According to legend, the Standing Rock was the Arikara wife of a Dakota warrior, who with her child had been turned to stone. The stone was considered wakan, or holy, by the Sioux people. They transported it whenever they moved, carrying it on a lavishly decorated travois pulled by a specially adorned horse. When the Sioux settled on the current reservation, they placed the Standing Rock on a brick pedestal outside the reservation agency's office where it remains to this day ("Symbols of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation", NAVA News, May/June 1989, 6).

The Flag

The flag of the Standing Rock Sioux is medium blue with the tribal seal in the center (provided by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Headquarters). The seal's outer ring is white, edged by two narrow red bands, and bears, in red, "STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE" above and "JULY 1873" below.

The seal contains a circle of eight white tepees reminiscent of the Oglala Sioux flag [see Oglala Sioux], representing the eight districts of the reservation, all on a red background. The ring of outward-pointing tepees encloses a yellow disk depicting the Standing Rock in white on its red pedestal. Around the disk are the names of the eight districts in red, starting with the Fort Yates district at the top. [According to Chairman Charles Murphy, only one copy of the flag exists. It cost over US$500 and is kept in the tribal headquarters in Fort Yates.]

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