The Lakota people feel that they share the Earth as equal partners with their animal relatives, especially the buffalo. As the once- central provider for nearly all of life's needs, the buffalo is philosophically connected with the creation of life. The Lakota end their ceremonies with the words "all my relatives," an expression of the belief that all life is connected.

The Lakota and their neighbors relied on the buffalo, or American Bison, as their primary resource for meat, housing, tools, and clothing. After acquiring horses in sufficient numbers, the Lakota changed their living habits so that they could hunt more advantageously. They moved permanently onto the Plains from the woodlands of Minnesota, following the roaming buffalo herds from place to place across the great grasslands.

The Great Plains teemed with millions of buffalo at the beginning of the 1800s. By 1883, because of overhunting, not one buffalo remained in Lakota territory. The disappearance of the buffalo, the animal that was central to the Lakota's economic and religious life devastated them.

Today Plains people manage growing herds. Most tribes are members of the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative, which seeks to preserve and increase tribal herds.