Spirit Lake Tribe Spirit Lake Tribe The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: "Mni Wakan Oyate", formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux) is a federally recognized tribe based on a reservation located in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake. It is made up of people of the Pabakse ("Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna"), Sisseton ("Sisíthuŋwaŋ") and Wahpeton ("Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ") bands of the Dakota tribe. Established in 1867 in a treaty between Sisseton-Wahpeton Bands and the United States government, the reservation, at , consists of of land area, primarily in Benson and Eddy counties. Smaller areas extend into Ramsey, Wells and Nelson counties. According to
Native American recognition in the United States to be classified as Indian. At times a person's membership in a federally recognized tribe was not sufficient for classification as Indian in the eyes of the courts. The Major Crimes Act of 1885 placed seven major crimes under federal jurisdiction if committed by a Native American in Native American Territory. The Department of Justice required that a defendant be an enrolled member of a tribe to be covered by the Major Crimes Act. In his 1935 Memorandum to John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Assistant Solicitor, Felix S. Cohen, discussed the rights of a group of non-tribal Indians