The Lakota are the typical first thing that comes to mind when people think about indians, feather headresses, horses, teepees, buffalo. All of these images are of the Lakota. They inhabited the Northern Great Plains around North and South Dakota, and travelled to the hot springs of Arkansas to hunt and take the water. Even if they ran into an enemy tribe there they would come together peacefully. Eventually in the mid to late 1800's when white settlers started to increase in number around the area constant conflict became more of a way of life for the Lakota. During this time they signed treaties with the U.S. that allowed them to live on a "Great Sioux Reservation" with other tribes that covered the western half of South Dakota. In 1877, the reservation was broken up into about six small reservations, and today about half of the Lakota indians live on or near the six reservations. Today there are roughly 70,000 Lakota indians and less than half of them speak the language which is a dialect of the Sioux language.