{{Short description|Traditional tribal grouping within the Lakota people}} {{Redirect|Brulé|the musical group|Brulé (band)| Métis people|Bois-Brûlés|other uses|Brule (disambiguation){{!}}Brule}} {{Infobox ethnic group |group=Sičhą́ǧu<br/>Brulé |image=180px |caption=Janeen Antoine (Sičhą́ǧu Lakóta), curator and educator<ref>[https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/NATIVE-AMERICAN-HERITAGE-MONTH-3122000.php "Native American Heritage Month: S.F. gallery director wins praise for breaking with past."] ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' 12 Nov 1995 (retrieved 20 Dec 2009)</ref><ref>[https://ybgfestival.org/event/native-contemporary-arts-festival-2026/ "Native Contemporary Arts Festival."] ''Yerba Buena Gardens.'' 1 May 2026 (retrieved 13 May 2026)</ref> |poptime= |popplace= United States<br/>(South Dakota) |rels=traditional tribal religion, Sun Dance,<br/>Native American Church, Christianity |langs=Lakȟóta, English |related=other Lakȟóta people }}
The '''Sicangu''' are one of the seven ''oyates'', nations or council fires, of Lakota people,<ref name="roots">{{cite web |last1=Howe |first1=Craig |last2=Katz |first2=Abe |title=Traditional Lakota Governance |url=https://rootstalk.grinnell.edu/past-issues/volume-i-issue-1/howe-katz/ |website=Rootstalk |publisher=Center for Prairie Studies |access-date=23 June 2024 |date=Spring 2015}}</ref> an Indigenous people of the Northern Plains. Today, many Sicangu people are enrolled citizens of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation and Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation in South Dakota.
==Distribution== Many Sičhą́ǧu people live on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota and are enrolled in the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, also known in Lakȟóta as the ''Sičhą́ǧu Oyáte.'' A smaller population lives on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, on the west bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota, and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also in South Dakota, directly west of the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The different federally recognized tribes are politically independent of each other.
== Name == The Sicangu Lakota are known as '''Sičhą́ǧu Oyáte''' in Lakȟóta, which translates to "Burnt Thighs Nation". Learning the meaning of their name, the French called them the ''Brûlé'', also Brulé, meaning "burnt". The name may have derived from an incident where they were fleeing through a grass fire on the plains.
thumb|Sičhą́ǧu The term "Sičhą́ǧu" appears on pages 3 to 14 of ''Beginning Lakhóta''.<ref>''Beginning Lakhóta, Volume 1'' (Boulder: University of Colorado Lakhóta Project, 1976).</ref>
<blockquote> "Ká Lakȟóta kį líla hą́ske. 'That Indian (over yonder) is very tall.'"<br /> "Hą, hé Sičhą́ǧú. 'Yes, that's a Rosebud Sioux.'" </blockquote>
It appears to be a compound word of the Thítȟųwą Lakȟóta dialect, meaning "burned thigh".<ref>{{cite book|title=Famous Indians of Northwest Nebraska|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FqchAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Chadron Centennial Committee|page=34}}</ref>
== Historic Sicangu Thiyóšpaye or bands == Together with the Oglála Lakȟóta, who are mostly based at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, they are often called ''Southern Lakȟóta''.
They were divided in three great regional tribal divisions:
* '''Lower Brulé''' (''Khúl Wičháša Oyáte'', "Lowland People", lived along the White River to its mouth at the Missouri River (Mnišóše) as well in the Missouri River Valley in South Dakota; some ventured south to the Niobrara River).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lbst.org/ |title=Lower Brule |access-date=2010-02-06 |archive-date=2015-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502042403/http://www.lbst.org/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> * '''Upper Brulé''' (''Ȟeyáta Wičháša Oyáte'' - ″Highland People″, ventured further south and west onto the Plains along the Platte River between the North and South Platte River in Nebraska in the search for buffalo. The allied Southern Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho accepted the Upper Brulé into their alliance, as well as upon their claimed lands along the Loup River - the former center of the Skidi Pawnee. They went south to plunder enemy Pawnee and Arikara camps, and were therefore also known as ''Kheyatawhichasha'', or ″People away from the (Missouri) River″) * '''(Upper) Brulé of the Platte River''' (a splinter group of the Upper Brulé and the southernmost Sicangu group, generally along the South Platte River in Colorado, with hunting bands south to the Republican River - home to the enemy ''Kithehaki / Kitkehaxki'' of the South Bands Pawnee, also known as: ''Kheyatawhichasha'' - ″People away from the (Missouri) River″)
According to the Kul Wicasa (Lower Brulé) Medicine Bull (Tatȟą́ka Wakȟą́), the people were decentralized and identified with the following ''thiyóšpaye'', or extended family groups, who collected in various local ''thiwáhe'' (English: camps or family circles):
* Apewantanka * Chokatowela * Ihanktonwan * Iyakoza{{efn|Also spelled ''A-a-ko-za'' or ''Aakoza''.<ref name="clark">{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Patricia Roberts |title=Tribal Names of the Americas: Spelling Variants and Alternative Forms, Cross-Referenced |date=21 October 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5169-2 |page=10 |language=en}}</ref>}} * Kanghi yuha * Nakhpakhpa * Pispiza wichasha * Shawala * Shiyolanka * Wacheunpa * Waleghaunwohan
==Ethnobotany== The Sicangu give pulverized roots of green comet milkweed to children with diarrhea. Nursing mothers take an infusion of the whole plant to increase their milk flow.<ref>Rogers, Dilwyn J, 1980, ''Lakota Names and Traditional Uses of Native Plants by Sicangu (Brule) People in the Rosebud Area, South Dakota, St. Francis, SD''. Rosebud Educational Society, page 34</ref> They brew the leaves of prairie redroot into a tea.<ref>Rogers, Dilwyn J., 1980, ''Lakota Names and Traditional Uses of Native Plants by Sicangu (Brulé) People in the Rosebud Area, South Dakota, St. Francis, SD''. Rosebud Educational Society, page 56</ref>
==Notable Sicangu== thumb|180px|Chief Iron Nation * Bob Barker, game show host of ''Truth or Consequences'' and ''The Price is Right'' * Pappy Boyington, WWII Marine Corps fighter ace and Medal of Honor recipient * Mary Brave Bird, author * Leonard Crow Dog, spiritual leader, American Indian Movement activist * Paul Eagle Star, performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show * Hollow Horn Bear, chief * Iron Nation, chief * Iron Shell, chief * Little Thunder, chief * Lone Feather, Republican public administrator from South Dakota, first Lakota elected to the U.S. House of Representatives * Arnold Short Bull, a Sicangu holy man, who brought the Ghost Dance to the Lakota in South Dakota in 1890 * Eddie Spears, actor * Michael Spears, actor * Spotted Tail or "Sinte Gleska", 19th-century chief<ref name=bury>{{cite book |author=Brown, Dee |author-link=Dee Brown (writer) |title=Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, ch. 6 |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1970 |isbn=0-553-11979-6}}</ref> * Nellie Star Boy Menard, quiltmaker * Moses Stranger Horse, artist * Two Strike, chief * Frank Waln, rapper * Albert White Hat, Lakota language teacher * Dyani White Hawk, contemporary painter and former curator of All My Relations Arts gallery * Rosebud Yellow Robe, folklorist, educator and author
==See also== * Bois-Brûlés
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Brulé Sioux}} * [http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/ Official website of the Sicangu Oyate], Rosebud Sioux Tribe * [http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/brulehist.htm Indian genealogy] * [https://www.lowerbrulesiouxtribe.com/ Official website of the Kul Wicasa Oyate (Lower Brule)]
{{Lakota people}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Sicangu Category:Great Sioux War of 1876