The county is entirely within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and contains part of Badlands National Park.
Oglala Lakota County is one of two counties in South Dakota that does not have its own county seat (Todd County is the other). Hot Springs in neighboring Fall River County serves as its administrative center. It is also one of five South Dakota counties that are entirely on an Indian reservation. (The others are Corson, Dewey, Todd, and Ziebach.)
Until 1982 Shannon and Washabaugh County, South Dakota, were the last unorganized counties in the United States. And in 2015 Shannon County was renamed Oglala Lakota County. Although it was organized and received a home rule charter in 1982, Oglala Lakota, as noted above, contracts with Fall River County for its Auditor, Treasurer, and Register of Deeds.[2]