Rosebud Sioux Tribe Enrollment Program: PO Box 335, Rosebud SD, 57570

As of December 17, 2003 the last identification number issued is: 34,946

As of December 17, 2003 the total number of deceased members is: 9,564

Members who relinquished from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe: 255

Total Living Members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe:  24,994 

Total members who live on the Rosebud Reservation est. by 85%: 21,245

Total members who live off the Reservation est. by 15%:  3,749
Tribal Government...

The United States Government as defined by the United States Constitution has governmental relationships with international, Tribal, and State entities.  The Tribal nations have a government-to-government relationship with the United States.  The bands of the Great Sioux Nation signed treaties in the 1800's with the United States, which are the legal documents that established our boundaries and recognized us as sovereign nations.

The U.S. Congress originally reduced the rosebud Sioux Tribal lands to a reservation with defined boundaries in the Act of March 2, 1889, which identified all the Lakota/Dakota reservations in what is known as the Great Sioux Agreement.  The Tribal governments maintain jurisdiction within the boundaries of the reservation including all rights-of-way and water system on any part of the reservation and to such other lands as may hereafter be added to the reservation under the laws of the United States.  The Tribal government operates under a constitution consistent with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and approved by the Tribal membership and Tribal Council of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.  The Tribal Council consists of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, a Sergeant-At-Arms, and twenty additional Council members who are elected by the Tribal members from thirteen districts based on apportionment of council representatives according to the population of each district.

The Tribal Council President is the administrative head of the Tribe and serves a two-year term.  The President and Vice-President of the Tribal council are elected at large; the Tribal Council who is elected from their districts appoints the Secretary, Treasurer, and the Argent-At-Arms.
Land...

The Rosebud Sioux Tribal members are descendants of the Sicangu Oyate of the Tetonwan Division of the great Sioux Nation.  The Tribal homelands originally recognized by the 1851 and 1868  Treaties were reduced to the current boundaries by the 1989 Act and subsequent Homestead Acts.  The Reservation is located in south central South Dakota and borders the Pine Ridge Reservation on the northwest corner to the Nebraska border, which is the southern boundary of the reservation.  The Todd county lines are the northern and eastern borders.

The Rosebud Reservation is located in Todd County, south central south Dakota.  The Rosebud Service Unit encompasses a great deal more than the reservation proper.  Included in the service unit are the following South Dakota counties; Gregory, Mellette, Todd, and Tripp, plus Cherry County in Nebraska for a total of 5,961 square miles.  There are many small communities with in the service unit boundaries.  The community of Rosebud is the central agency location for business, commerce, health, government, and the Indian Health Service (IHS) Hospital.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)) Agency is located in Mission, SD, which is 18 miles east of Rosebud, SD.  The Tribal headquarters in Rosebud is approximately 270 miles from the BIA and IHS Aberdeen Area Office.
History behind the names ROSEBUD and SIOUX...

The words "ROSEBUD" and "SIOUX" are actually NOT part of the Lakota vocabulary. ROSEBUD is the site name for the Federal Agency designated for the Sicangu People in 1877, so named because of the abundance of wild rosebuds that grew in the area. Sioux is derived from the French spelling of an OJIBWA word, Nadowisiwug (Nadowe - snake and Iwug - small thus little snakes or enemy) given to the SANTEE in the mid-1600s. The U.S. government officially recognized the LAKOTA as "SIOUX" in 1825 and has applied this alien term to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota in official documents ever since. 
History behind the name"SICANGU"...
The word SICANGU is pronounced "see-CHONG-ghoo".

More properly known as SICANGU (Burnt Thigh), the Rosebud Sioux are from the Teton Lakota Band of the OCETI SAKOWIN (Seven Council Fires). The name SICANGU, according to oral history, originated when a sudden prairie fire destroyed a Lakota village. Many children, as well as men and women, on foot some distance from the village, were burned to death. People who could get to a nearby lake saved themselves by jumping in. Many were badly burned about the upper legs from running through tall, burning grass and this led to the name SICANGU (Battiste Good's Winter Count 1862-63), which the French later translated as BRULE or BURNT.