It was created in 1938 when 746 acres (3.02 km2) of land were returned to the tribe by the federal government, under the Indian Reorganization Act encouraging tribal self-government.

Every August, the Upper Sioux community holds its Pejhutazizi Oyate traditional wacipi (pow-wow).

In 1938 the federal government returned 746 acres (3.02 km2) of land to the tribe, who were mostly landless, under the Indian Reorganization Act of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

In 2024, Minnesota returned around 2 square miles (5.2 km2) from the Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the tribe.

[5] A decade later, the federal government began to promote the Indian termination policy, to end recognition of tribes they thought could successfully assimilate to mainstream society.

The Minnesota Governor's Commission on Human Rights also opposed the legislation, indicating that it would "not adequately protect the interests of the Indians..." The bill died in committee, never reaching the Senate floor.