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 policy of the Barack Obama administration Obama signed Executive Order 13592, which seeks to improve educational opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Natives.Obama has been praised by many tribal leaders, including those who claim he has done more for Native Americans than all of his predecessors combined. Many Native American peoples struggle to trust federal governments at all; as Tex "Red Tipped Arrow" Hall, tribal chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota said, "our fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers have gone to Washington, and there's been no promises made and no promises kept. That's why we’ve not trusted the federal government."