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Crow Creek Sioux - South Dakota (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 3 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Crow Creek Sioux - South Dakota

The Crow Creek Reservation, located along the north shore of the Big Bend stretch of the Missouri River in South Dakota, was established in 1889 as a result of the Treaty of 1868.

The Flag

The flag of the Crow Creek Sioux is white (photograph provided by the United Sioux Tribes, Pierre, South Dakota), with the tribal seal in the center. The seal is a blue disk, upon which three tepees in white with black accents meet at the center, representing the three districts that form the reservation.

Circling this central disk is a golden yellow ring bearing, in black, "CROW CREEK SIOUX TRIBE" above and "1868", the treaty year, below. Outside the gold ring are the names of the three districts, first in Dakota, then, bracketed, in English. Toward the left is "KAHMI TANKA" [BIG BEND], toward the right is "KANGI OKUTE" [CROW CREEK], and at the base is "CUNKICAKSE" [FORT THOMPSON]-the reservation's capital. Separating the three district names are blue swatches, as if white lozenges were placed over a blue circle to form an outer ring. When used as a seal alone, the district names appear in white directly upon the blue circle and the name at the top of the gold ring is prefixed by "Seal of".

Tepees are used on the seal and flag of the Crow Creek Sioux as a unifying symbol of the Sioux peoples. Almost all Sioux flags and seals use the tepee, evoking the history of the Sioux as the dominant Nation of the northern Plains, a Nation which followed the buffalo and lived in dwellings made from its hide. The tepee is a symbol of home-the reservations of the various Sioux Nations are their modern homes, even to those who have left for cities. The tepee is also a symbol of welcome, especially when depicted with open flaps-as are the tepees on the seal and flag of the Crow Creek [see Rosebud Sioux, Yankton Sioux].

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 3 January 2008