Dakota people Dakota people The Dakota people are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota. The Eastern Dakota are the Santee ("Isáŋyathi" or "Isáŋ-athi"; "knife" + "encampment", ″dwells at the place of knife flint″), who reside in the eastern Dakotas, central Minnesota and northern Iowa. They have federally recognized tribes established in several places. The Western Dakota are the Yankton, and the Yanktonai ("Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ" and "Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna"; "Village-at-the-end" and "Little village-at-the-end"), who reside in
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."