The Lakota Tribes of the Great Plains. The Lakota were one of the original native Americans tribes, often known as Red Indians, who lived and hunted all over the Rocky Mountain ranges before the arrival of European travellers.n the 17th Century they lived in Wisconsin, and in the forests in southern Minnesota where they had established reservations of many tribal generations. The name “Sioux” of which the native tribes are commonly known originates from the tribal name “Nadowe-is-iw”, the area of treacherous snakes near their settlements.