Sicangu
federally recognized Native American Nation
The Sicangu are one of the seven oyates, nations or council fires, of Lakota people, 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.
The term "Sičhą́ǧu" appears on pages 3 to 14 of Beginning Lakhóta.
"Ká Lakȟóta kį líla hą́ske.
The public source identifies “Sicangu” as federally recognized Native American Nation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sicangu, federally and recognized.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q992401. The Library of Congress control number is sh85017309. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sicangu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.