Downtown Sioux City is the cultural and entertainment hub of the tri-state region. With unique architecture, new upscale residential housing and impressive entertainment venues, you'll want to spend time exploring all that our downtown has to offer.

Twice named an All-America City by the National Civic League and designated as an Iowa Great Place, Sioux City, Iowa serves as the regional hub for business, employment, industry, retail trade, medical care, educational opportunities and tourism in Northwest Iowa, Southeast South Dakota and Northeast Nebraska.

Sioux City (population 85,013) was named in honor of the Sioux Indians and the Big Sioux River when Dr. John Cook platted the city in 1854. Sioux City is located in northwest Iowa on the Missouri River at the intersection of the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota in an area sometimes referred to as Siouxland.

little snakes Background Info: The name "sioux" is short for Nadowessioux, meaning "little snakes", which was a spiteful nickname given to them by the Ojibwe, their longtime foe. The fur traders abbreviated this name to Sioux and is now commonly used.

Settlement and founding Theophile Bruguier, a French-Canadian fur trader, is considered the first white settler on land that would become Sioux City. According to one legend, he told his friend Chief War Eagle of the Yankton Sioux about a dream he had regarding a rich land where two rivers joined near a high bluff.

The name Sioux originates from the Ottawa word na-towe-ssi (which in term was derived from a word from an earlier language meaning “foreigner”); the French wrote it as Nadouessioux. The Sioux subgroup names Lakota and Dakota are Siouan words meaning “friend” or “ally.”

Susan Ballion Siouxsie Sioux, the lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976-1996), one of the original punk bands, was born Susan Ballion in London, England, to a Belgian Walloon father and an English/Scottish mother.

Tribal groups belonging to today's Great Sioux Nation have sixteen reservations and communities across five western U.S. states - Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana - as well as several Canadian reserves.

Eventually, the Sioux settled in the Great Plains, with a massive territory spanning the modern states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska - the Great Sioux Nation.

The Sioux are one of the largest and oldest Native American tribes in North America, dating back three thousand years. With a territory that spanned thousands of square miles at the peak of their strength, the Sioux are one of the most well-known and influential tribes in the history of the United States.

Siouan language Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 30,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken Indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit languages, and Ojibwe.