used the spelling tipi throughout her writings, including in her essential book The Dakota Way of Life. Lakota linguist Albert White Hat developed his own Lakota orthography and used tipi as the spelling. The tipi image is used on almost all Dakota/Lakota tribal flags or seals, and tipi is the spelling used by Dakota and Lakota tribes today.

The spelling tipi is the one most common in Canadian English whereas the spelling tepee is the most common one according to American English dictionaries