Tatanka Oyate

Previously "Wahpeton Dakota Developments LP"

Our name change more fully represents our heritage and role as good stewards of Mother Earth today and for future generations.

“Tatanka Oyate” is Dakota for “Bison Nation.” 

As told through one of our creation stories, the Bison and Dakota emerged from caves and began populating the earth. 

We found kinship living among our relatives, the bison. They provided a source of quality food, clothing, tools, and artifacts for spiritual rituals. 

Through colonization and genocide, the bison were slaughtered, and we lost our Wichohan (way of life). 

Today, once again, the bison roam our ancestral territory, renewing our lost kinship and revitalizing our spiritual rituals—our Wichohan (way of life)—and with it prosperity.

[photo: Bison grazing on Wahpeton Dakota Nation ancestral Territory.]