South Dakota's Native tourism offers rich cultural experiences

When you visit the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with TatankaRez Tourz on a near-perfect summer day, the wind blows softly across the green rolling prairies, and you can see the Black Hills Mountains tower. The skies are blue, and you may be taken by the view. As your Indigenous guide Warren “Guss” Yellowhair speaks, you can feel how sacred the land is to his people. “Hello relatives,” he says to your group, in his original Lakota tongue. “I greet you with a hearty handshake.”

From a high point, you can see for miles, as Guss Yellowhair and his daughter and business partner, Tianna Yellowhair, take you on a journey through the Lakota way of life. A herd of bison grazes in the distance. Once wild and hunted to the brink of extinction, the animals are now carefully tended across the state on cultivated farms by multiple tribal families. Guss Yellowhair tells you the bison’s history, what they have meant to his people, and a bit about the 28,000-acre Wolak̇ota Buffalo Range, home to over a thousand buffalo, the largest Native-owned bison herd in the world.

"Some of the stories that we share are the creation story and our emergence from the Black Hills, one of our sacred sites. The Black Hills are a paradise in a sea of plains,” Guss Yellowhair says. "Our people believe in animism, that everything made by the Creator, including Tatanka, or buffalo, has a purpose and a right to live here on the beautiful, beautiful earth.”

Before tourists walked here, iconic Indigenous historical figures such as Crazy Horse and Black Elk lived amongst the bison and fought for their people. The people of the Oglala Lakota Oyate tribe, such as Mr. Guss Yellowhair, believe that the land is a being, with consciousness and memory. Tatanka educates tourists about the history of South Dakota Native people and share stories of how they experienced genocide. "We don’t sugar coat it,” Tianna Yellowhair says. “We tell stories that are raw, and sometimes it can be hard for people to hear, but it’s important.”

While most visitors to Pine Ridge want to visit the famous Wounded Knee Massacre Site south of Porcupine on BIA 27, the Yellowhairs hope to broaden outsider understanding also ensuring their tours have a healthy dose of Native humor, so guests leave with a sense of balance and understanding.

Native tourism on the rise

According to the South Dakota Tourism, nearly 15 million people visited South Dakota in 2025. However, most of them miss one of the state’s most meaningful travel experiences: the opportunity to learn about the rich Indigenous cultures and people who have always been there. Home to nearly100,000 Native residents, South Dakota has seen a growing interest in Indigenous tourism.

These destinations are not often on tour bus stops but provide economic self-sufficiency to the nine nations of Native people and offer travelers a chance to connect with the region’s history, art and traditions in ways no roadside monument can match. And these lands are vast: it could take you days to experience the many different territories in the state. But curious travelers will reap the rewards of the journey.

"We want our youth to be the next leaders of cultural tourism, entrepreneurs and ambassadors for our tribal nations,” says Sarah Kill In Water of her efforts with the South Dakota Tourism Alliance (SDNTA), a nonprofit that since 2019 has been working to support, grow and promote local Indigenous businesses from the nine tribal nations that have called South Dakota home for countless generations. With a 70-80% local unemployment rate in Pine Ridge, building Native businesses that benefit from tourism, the second largest revenue stream in South Dakota, is high on the agenda.

"My daughter and I have been working in the tour industry for ten years,” Guss Yellowhair says. “We tell guests our traditional stories, explain the local flora and fauna, show them some Lakota dances, and tell them what really happened to our people at some of the more famous sacred sites where there was a lot of bloodshed, so they can take that knowledge back home. Most of what they learned in school is wrong.”

In Pine Ridge, the Čhatkú Arts Center is operated by the Red Cloud Indian School. It preserves and celebrates Lakota art, culture and language with galleries that feature contemporary and traditional works by Native artists.

Stay, bead, cook with the Natives

After a busy day of hiking in the Black Hills, rest for the night nearby in Kyle at the Odd Duck Inn. It is owned and run by Oglala Lakota tribal member Tilda Long Soldier St. Pierre and her husband, Mark St. Pierre, and sits on the Big Foot Trail, leading to Wounded Knee. Long Soldier can arrange classes on cooking traditional meals, hunting in season with guides, therapeutic massages, horseback trail rides, teach how to make traditional porcupine quill embroidery and a beadwork demonstration workshop.

Time is fluid on the prairies and in the hills, and a stop at the Oglala Lakota College Historical Center, which serves as an important archive for Lakota history and scholarship, this shows.

Drive on the Native American Scenic Byway, which crosses the Crow Creek Reservation. This route offers majestic views of the mighty Missouri River and the surrounding prairie. Stop at the Spirit of the Circle monument at Big Bend Dam and pay your respects to the 1,300 Dakota people who did not survive exile from Fort Thomson in 1863. Check out the Lode Star Casino and Hotel if you want to rest or are feeling lucky.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is in the Southeastern region, bordering Minnesota on the east. Covering nearly 5,000 acres of land, the area is called the Prairie Coteau and is mostly rolling hills where descendants of the Isanti division of the Great Sioux Nation, who call themselves Dakota people, live. The tribe keeps a herd of about 300 buffalo, which visitors can see by appointment. Catch the famous Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Rodeo Ground the first weekend in June, then stay at the Royal River Casino across the street.

On the Lower Brule Sioux tribal lands, the White River flows and you can birdwatch at the Big Bend, the largest natural meandering loop of river in the U.S. Hike the Narrows Recreational Trail to the top and look down on 6,200 acres of nature preserve, where 200 elk graze. While you’re there, pick up a giant bag of fresh popcorn kernels grown by Lakota Foods for generations on the banks of the Missouri River. More energy? Stop for the night at The Golden Buffalo Casino.

Located in south-central South Dakota, the Rosebud Sioux Reservation borders Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There, the Sicangu Heritage Center at Sinte Gleska University in Antelope, houses the official archives of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. An Indigenous-founded and run university, Sinte Gleska’s Heritage Center has its own bison ranch and herd, fostering and leading national research on bison and traditional Lakota buffalo ceremonies. The ranch and campus welcome visitors by appointment only at (605) 856-8100.

Visitors can experience Lakota hospitality and culture and learn about local traditions on the landscape of the Northern Plains. Many of the cafes and attractions across the region are not typical for-profit businesses, rather social enterprises designed to foster cultural sustainability and economic self-sufficiency. Honey Lodge, a Lakota youth-led social enterprise on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, produces raw honey and beeswax products, the sale of which supports youth training and entrepreneurship.

If you’d like to stay the night, Lakota Youth Development maintains a campsite complete with tipi stays — similar to an Airbnb rental. The camp, which is pronounced "Wee Cho tee Tee wah hay” or "family camp,” is in the Milks Community of the Rosebud Reservation. For information and booking call (605) 654-2050.

Speaking to the vastness of the South Dakota Native territories, three hours away is the Cheyenne River Youth Project’s Keya Cafe, where food and drink orders directly support Cheyenne River’s youth and their families.

Wherever you go in Indian Country, following cultural etiquette and showing respect around sacred sites is especially important.

"There are spiritual protocols we share with our guests,” Mr. Yellowhair says. "We tell them that some things here are sacred, and not for tourists, such as our Sundance ceremony and another (non-Native) tour guide might not know this about us.”