South Dakota History Guide

Human beings have lived in what is today South Dakota for at least several thousand years. French and other European explorers in the 1700s encountered a variety of groups including the Omaha and Arikara (Ree), but by the early 1800s the Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) were dominant.

In 1743, the LaVerendrye brothers, two French Canadian fur traders and explorers, buried a plate near the site of modern day Pierre, claiming the region for France as part of greater Louisiana.

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, and President Thomas Jefferson organized a group commonly referred to as the "Lewis and Clark Expedition" to explore the newly-acquired region. The abundance of animals they found encouraged fur companies to set up trading posts along the Big Sioux, Vermillion, James, and Missouri Rivers. The most important was built in 1817 at the mouth of the Bad River.

Land speculators founded two of eastern South Dakota's largest present-day cities: Sioux Falls in 1856 and Yankton in 1859. In 1861, Dakota Territory was established by the United States government (this initially included North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Montana and Wyoming).

During the mid-1860s, gold was discovered in Wyoming. The U.S. Army built military posts, and surveyed land to build a road through Sioux hunting grounds into Wyoming. The Sioux believed this would ruin their hunting grounds and began a series of raids known as Red Cloud's War. In 1868, the Laramie Treaty created the Great Sioux Reservation. This gave the Sioux all of South Dakota west of the Missouri River.

In 1874, General George Custer led soldiers into the Black Hills. The discovery of gold brought several prospectors into Indian Territory; they founded the towns of Lead and Deadwood. This invasion led to several Indian attacks organized by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. In 1876, a new treaty was signed that gave Black Hills to the U.S. sent most of the Sioux to western South Dakota. On December 29, 1890, the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Commonly cited as the last major armed conflict between the United States and the Sioux Nation, the massacre resulted in the deaths of an estimated 300 Sioux, many of them women and children. 25 U.S. soldiers were also killed in the conflict.

An increasing population caused Dakota Territory to be divided in half and a bill for statehood for North Dakota and South Dakota (as well as Montana and Washington) titled the Enabling Act of 1889 was passed on February 22, 1889 during the Administration of Grover Cleveland. It was left to his successor, Benjamin Harrison, to sign proclamations formally admitting North and South Dakota to the Union on November 2, 1889. Harrison directed his Secretary of State James G. Blaine to shuffle the papers and obscure from him which he was signing first and the actual order went unrecorded.

A severe drought stopped many from moving to South Dakota during the late 1800s. The drought ended ten years later, but the economy continued to experience huge ups and downs during the early 1900s. As the federal government opened Indian land for white settlement, the population of South Dakota reached almost 584,000 people in 1910. The following year, drought again caused many to lose land and leave South Dakota.

Economic stability returned with the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941, when demand for the state's agricultural and industrial products grew as the nation mobilized for war. Over 68,000 South Dakotans served in the armed forces during the war, of which over 2,200 were killed.

In 1944, the Pick-Sloan Plan was passed as part of the Flood Control Act of 1944 by the U.S. Congress, resulting in the construction of six large dams on the Missouri River, four of which are at least partially located in South Dakota. Flood control, hydroelectricity and recreational opportunities such as boating and fishing are provided by the dams and their reservoirs.

Agriculture is a cultural and economic mainstay, but it no longer leads the state in employment or share of gross state product. Durable-goods manufacturing and private services have evolved as the drivers of the economy. Tourism is also a booming industry in the state, generating over a billion dollars' worth of economic activity each year. The financial service industry began to grow in the state as well, with Citibank moving its credit card operations from New York to Sioux Falls in 1981, a move that has since been followed by several other financial companies.

South Dakota is the second-largest producer of flaxseed and sunflower seed in the nation. It is the third-largest producer of hay and rye.

South Dakota Famous People

• Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) (1876 - 1938) Sioux writer and pan-Indian activist.
• Norm Van Brocklin (1926 - 1983) Football player; born in Eagle Butte.
• Tom Brokaw (1940 - ) News anchor that hosts NBC Nightly News; born in Webster.
• Tom Daschle (1947 - ) Senator; born in Aberdeen.
• Mary Hart (1951 - ) Co-host of Entertainment Tonight; born in Madison.
• Crazy Horse (1849 - 1877) Oglala Indian chief that fought for Sioux land from the U.S. government; born east of the Black Hills.
• Hubert Humphrey (1911 - 1978) Served as vice-president of the United States from 1965-1969; born in Wallace.
• Cheryl Ladd (1951 - ) Actress. She was famous for her role in the TV series Charlie's Angels; born in Huron.
• Ernest O. Lawrence (1901 - 1958) Nobel prize winning scientist that built the first cyclotron, a machine that smashes atoms; born in Canton.
• Sitting Bull (1831  - 1890) Chief of Hunkpappa Sioux. He defended Black HIlls, led the Teton Sioux to Canada, and was killed during arrest; born on the Grand River.