What tribes were in South Dakota?
No one really knows what tribes lived in South Dakota before about 1500, other than the ancestors of the Arikara and Mandan. While there is some debate among archaeologists and historians, it is generally felt that, during the 1500s and 1600s, ancestors of the Apaches, Kiowas, Kiowa-Apaches, Arapahos and Comanches inhabited parts of western South Dakota during the course of their southward migrations. The Crow tribe also lived in western South Dakota. Central South Dakota at that time was the homeland of the Arikaras, Mandans, and, for at time, the Cheyenne. Eastern South Dakota was occupied by the Lakota, Omahas, Poncas, and perhaps Iowas and Otos. By the 1700s, the Cheyenne moved west, followed by the Lakota. The Mandans moved wholly into North Dakota, and eventually so did the Arikara. The Poncas and Omahas moved south into Nebraska, displaced by bands of eastern Sioux, the Dakota and Nakota peoples, moving into South Dakota from Minnesota. By the mid-1800s, the Sioux peoples occupi
