South Dakota

South Dakota is a landlocked state in the North Central United States, situated within the Great Plains. Its name honors the Dakota Sioux tribe, which has historically been the dominant group in the region and still makes up a significant part of the population. By area, it ranks 17th among the states, but it is the fifth-least populous and the fifth-least densely populated. The capital is Pierre, while Sioux Falls, with roughly 213,900 residents, is the largest city. The Missouri River splits the state into two distinct halves, commonly called "East River" and "West River," which differ in geography and social character. South Dakota shares borders with North Dakota to the north, Minnesota to the east, Iowa to the southeast, Nebraska to the south, Wyoming to the west, and Montana to the northwest. People have lived in the area for thousands of years. The Sioux became the dominant group by the early 1800s. In the late 1800s, European-American settlement surged following a gold rush in the Black Hills and the arrival of railroads from the east. This influx of miners and settlers sparked a series of Indian wars, which ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889, as the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, at the same time as North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states; President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them, so the order of admission is unknown. Key 20th-century events included the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, increased federal spending on agriculture and defense during the 1940s and 1950s, and the industrialization of agriculture, which reduced the number of family farms. Most of the population lives in eastern South Dakota, where fertile soil supports a variety of crops. West of the Missouri River, ranching is the main agricultural activity, and the economy relies more on tourism and defense spending. Most Native American reservations are located in West River. The Black Hills, a range of pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, lie in the southwestern part of the state and contain Mount Rushmore, a major tourist attraction. The climate is temperate continental, with four distinct seasons; precipitation ranges from moderate in the east to semiarid in the west. The state’s ecology includes species typical of a North American grassland biome. Although several Democrats have served multiple terms in Congress from South Dakota, the state government is largely controlled by the Republican Party, whose presidential candidates have won the state in the last 14 elections. Historically centered on agriculture and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently worked to diversify its economy to attract and keep residents. Its history and rural character continue to shape its culture. Humans have inhabited what is now South Dakota for several thousand years. The first inhabitants were Paleoindian hunter-gatherers, who disappeared from the area around 5000 BC. Between 500 AD and 800 AD, a semi-nomadic people known as the Mound Builders lived in central and eastern South Dakota. In the 14th century, the Crow Creek Massacre occurred, killing several hundred men, women, and children near the Missouri River. By 1500, the Arikara (or Ree) had settled much of the Missouri River valley. European contact began in 1743, when the LaVérendrye brothers explored the region and buried a plate near modern-day Pierre, claiming it for France as part of greater Louisiana. In 1762, the area became part of Spanish Louisiana until 1802. By the early 1800s, the Sioux had largely replaced the Arikara as the dominant group. In 1803, the United States bought the Louisiana Territory—which included most of South Dakota—from Napoleon Bonaparte. President Thomas Jefferson then organized the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the region. In 1817, an American fur trading post was established at present-day Fort Pierre, marking the start of continuous American settlement. In 1855, the U.S. Army purchased Fort Pierre but abandoned it in 1857 in favor of Fort Randall to the south. By 1858, the Yankton Sioux signed a treaty ceding most of eastern South Dakota to the United States. Land speculators founded Sioux Falls in 1856 and Yankton in 1859. The U.S. government created Dakota Territory in 1861, which initially included both Dakotas and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Settlement—mostly by people from the eastern U.S. and from western and northern Europe—accelerated after the Homestead Acts and especially after a railway link reached Yankton in 1873, a period called the Dakota Boom. In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills during a military expedition led by George A. Custer, and miners and explorers began illegally entering land promised to the Lakota. This happened despite the 1868 Treaty of Laramie, which had granted the Sioux the entire western half of present-day South Dakota as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux refused to grant mining rights or land in the Black Hills, and war broke out after the U.S. failed to stop white miners and settlers from entering the region. The U.S. eventually won and broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into five separate reservations.