Boundaries: In essence, North and South Dakota, Southern Saskatchewan (no farther west than the ruins of Regina, Southern Manitoba (no farther north than Dauphin Lake), most of Minnesota (to state highway 71 or so) to bits of eastern Wyoming and Montana.
Government: Confederated Tribal council
Legal Code: combination of written and oral customs vaguely derived from Old US and tribal folklore.
Climate: Dwa
Population: ~75,000 throughout the above defined region.
Economics: Nomadic herding (think mongol style herding instead of neolithic hunter-gathering), some craft and salvage based permanent settlements, trading posts (Rapid City, Souix Falls, Branson, Duluth) and mining around the Black Hills and Duluth
Agriculture: maize, wheat, soy, peppers in semi-permanent settlements along river valleys.
Trade: Arts, crafts, salvage and animal by products.
Religion: Post Rapture Order of the Redeemer 25%, Gaianism / new age animism, 60%, Wiccan 10%, Unaffiliated 5%.
Standard of Living:
Rural:
Urban: Almost non existent outside of Duluth.
Gender Equity: Absolute.
Armed Forces: There is no professional military. Conversely, most men and many women between the ages of 16 - 60 can be considered part of an informal ‘warrior’ culture.
Dominant Arcane Tradition: Shamanism
Noteworthy things:
The Minneapolis Eater Tribes: If you keep heading east beyond ThousandLakes, you get to the ruins of Minneapolis - or Myknee as it is generally called. It essentially the western outpost of cannibal barbarians (also frequently called “Neobarb’s” for some reason) that stretch from MyKnee to Garystown. Many a young Dakota has earned his spurs with the scalp of one of these Neobarbs.
The wastes of Minot: Out in North Dakota there is a crescent of devastation around the pre-rapture city of Minot. Evidently this was an important military location in the Old U.S. and as a result was extensively targeted during the war. The only similar locations are Sinkhole Montana and the wasted fields of northeast Wyoming. All sorts of the unnatural emerge from this area from time to time and it is generally considered a good way to get killed if you must go there.
Treaty with FRM: The Black Hills Grand Council and Great Falls have signed a treaty agreeing forbidding expansion of the rail line further east than Peck. This agreement was reached 4 years ago after the Dakota learned of a project to connect Peck to the town of Glendive (a at that point nominally independent town that answered to the Council). This was viewed not only as aggressive expansion, but as a potentially lethal development for the Bison. The treaty ended nearly a decade of skirmish and battles between the two nations.
The rail lines headed toward Saskatoon and Sheridan are making the Dakota decidedly nervous.
Duluth: This town is emerging as one of the important urban centers of the Dakota Lands. Between the Croft iron mines to the North, the proximity to ‘Myknee’ and acting as a gateway to the East through its harbor Duluth is rapidly growing. In some ways this is causing problems with the Black Hills Council, as there is concern about Duluth becoming a competing cultural point, as the long term inhabitants forget the traditional Dakota ways.