At the core of Oceti Sakowin history and values is the connection between human and nonhuman relatives. Pte Ska Win, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, organized the first treaty between humans and other-than-humans, recognizing plants, animals, and Earth as relatives. Estes explains that the white and Indigenous concepts of land are at odds—and that land was the driving force for the genocide of Indigenous peoples by white people in the US. White settlers view land as something to possess and profit from, directly contrasting with the Indigenous view of land and natural resources as nonhuman relatives.

White colonial settlers viewed the Missouri River and US land as untamed and wild. They created the name “Sioux” for tribes belonging to Oceti Sakowin; to white settlers, “Sioux” meant “criminal” and was used to justify Indigenous genocide. However, the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota nations did not use the name “Sioux,” instead adopting the name “Oceti Sakowin Oyate,” meaning “Nation of the Seven Council Fires” (69). Oceti Sakowin origin stories are deeply rooted in the land, but colonial settlers spread origin stories that claimed the “Sioux” were latecomers to the western Missouri River region.

The Oceti Sakowin followed a matriarchal society that revered women and Two-Spirits (gender nonconforming or gender-variant peoples).