Brulé

The Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands (sometimes called "sub-tribes") of the Teton (Titonwan) Lakota American Indian nation. They are known as Sičháŋǧu Oyáte (in Lakota), or "Burnt Thighs Nation," and so, were called Brulé (lit. "burnt") by the French. The name may have derived from an incident where they were fleeing through a grass fire on the plains.

Many Sicangu people live on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, where they are federally recognized as the Rosebud Sioux Tribe or Sicangu Oyate. A smaller population lives on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, on the west bank of the Missouri River. The two tribes are politically completely independent of each other.

Historic Brulé Tiyošpaye or bands
Together with the Oglala Lakota, who are based at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, they are often called Southern Lakota. They were divided in three great regional tribal divisions:
 * Upper Brulé (Heyata Wicasa Oyate)
 * Lower Brulé (Kul Wicasa Oyate)
 * Brulé of the Platte

According to the Brulé Medicine Bull (Tatánka Wakan) the divisions were further divided in these tiyošpaye or bands, which were broken up in various local tiwahe (engl. Camps oder family circle):


 * Iyakoza
 * Chokatowela
 * Shiyolanka
 * Kanghi yuha
 * Pispiza wichasha
 * Waleghaunwohan
 * Wacheunpa
 * Shawala
 * Ihanktonwan
 * Nakhpakhpa
 * Apewantanka

Notable Sicangu (Brulé)

 * Iron Nation, chief
 * Iron Shell, chief
 * Hollow Horn Bear, chief
 * Two Strike, chief
 * Mary Brave Bird, author
 * Arnold Short Bull was a well-known Sicangu holy man, who brought the Ghost Dance to the Lakota in South Dakota in 1890
 * Spotted Tail or "Sinte Gleska", 19th-century chief
 * Standing Elk (Brulé), 19th-century chief (to be distinguished from Standing Elk (Cheyenne)
 * Moses Stranger Horse, artist
 * Michael Spears, actor
 * Eddie Spears, actor
 * Albert White Hat, Lakota language teacher
 * Rosebud Yellow Robe, educator and author
 * Leonard Crow Dog, spiritual leader, American Indian Movement activist
 * Paul Eagle Star (1866-1891), activist. He attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School, enrolling in November 1882. In early 1891, he was recruited as a free man under contract to perform in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which went on a traveling tour to England. He died a few days after breaking his ankle when he fell off a horse in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. His interment was at Brompton Cemetery. His casket was exhumed in March 1999. The reburial took place in Winner two months later.