South Dakota (SD).

• Region: Upper Midwest
• Population: 909,824 (ranked 46th) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Pierre (pop. 13,969) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Sioux Falls (pop. 202,078) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 66
• State nickname: Mount Rushmore State; Coyote State; Sunshine State
• State motto: "Under God the people rule"
• State flag: Blue field with state seal and sunburst, with the words "South Dakota" above and "The Mount Rushmore State" below

South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889, the same day as North Dakota. Both were originally part of the Dakota Territory. South Dakota is considered the fortieth state and North Dakota the thirty-ninth, based on alphabetical order. The actual order is unknown, because President Benjamin Harrison did not want to give precedence to either state. Bordered by North Dakota on the north, this rich agricultural and ranching state is bordered by Wyoming and Montana on the west, Nebraska on the south, and Minnesota and Iowa on the east. The state contains numerous American Indian reservations, many of them belonging to Dakota or Sioux tribes. Famous residents include nineteenth-century pioneer and author Laura Ingalls Wilder and Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate for president. Tourism is an important part of the South Dakota economy, focusing on the state’s scenic beauty as well as the American Indian and frontier heritage.

State Name: North and South Dakota, both originally part of the Dakota Territory, were named for the Dakota or Lakota Indians (otherwise known as the Sioux). South Dakota is nicknamed the "Mount Rushmore State," because of the immense sculptures of four US presidents’ faces on Mount Rushmore. Another nickname is the "Coyote State," due to the presence of a large coyote population.

Capital: Pierre is the capital of South Dakota. The original capital of the Dakota Territory was Yankton, but was moved to Bismarck (now North Dakota), in 1883.

Flag: The South Dakota flag includes a sky-blue union or background, upon which is placed the state seal. Around the seal is a golden sun with streaming rays. Around this central design are placed the words, "South Dakota, The Mount Rushmore State." The seal shows a mixture of symbols which represent the state’s heritage, including a farmer plowing, cattle grazing, and a riverboat traveling upriver.

Official Symbols

• Flower: American pasqueflower
• Bird: Ring-necked pheasant
• Tree: Black Hills spruce
• Animal: Coyote
• Fish: Walleye
• Song: "Hail, South Dakota" by DeeCort Hammitt

State and National Historic Sites

• Black Hills Playhouse Historic Site (Custer)
• Camp Custer Log Cabins Historic Site (Custer)
• Crazy Horse Memorial (Crazy Horse)
• Crystal Theater (Flandreau)
• Fort Sisseton Historic State Park (Lake City)
• Hilton House (White Lake)
• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (Southwestern South Dakota)
• Moccasin Springs Historic Site (Hot Springs)
• Mount Rushmore National Memorial (Keystone)
• Sitting Bull and Sakakawea Monuments (near Mobridge)
• The Meridian Bridge Historic Site (Yankton)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 909,824 (ranked 46th) (2022 estimate)
• Population density: 11.7/sq mi (2020 estimate)
• Urban population: 57.2% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 42.8% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 24.1% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 18.0% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 84.2% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 2.6% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 4.9% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 8.5% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 1.8% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.1% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 2.8% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $33,468 (ranked 37th; 2021 estimate)
• Unemployment: 2.1% (2022 estimate)

American Indians: South Dakota's very name, like that of neighboring North Dakota, indicates the historic predominance of the Dakota American Indians (also known as the Lakota or Sioux). Other tribes include the Arikara and Mandan. The explorers Lewis and Clark, on their famous expedition, encountered Mandan American Indians in what is now North Dakota.

The struggle between the Dakota Territory tribes and White settlers forms a major chapter in the history of the "Old West." In 1874, an expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills. This event brought thousands of gold-hungry settlers to the territory. In 1876, Sioux chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse killed Custer and much of the US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The US Army increased its war against the Sioux, and within twenty years, had forced the tribes to accept life on the reservations. In 1973, the American Indian Movement (AIM), led by Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means, occupied Wounded Knee for seventy-one days, in a standoff with federal law enforcement. Two people were killed and almost 1,200 people were arrested.

Today, much of western South Dakota is part of American Indian reservations, all part of the Great Sioux Nation. There are nine federally recognized tribes: the Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux, Flandreau-Santee Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Standing Rock Sioux, and Yankton Sioux. The state handles relations with these tribes by means of the Department of Tribal Relations.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 77,116 sq mi (ranked 17th)
• Land area: 75,811 sq mi (98.3% of total area)
• Water area: 1,305 sq mi (1.7% of total area)
• National parks: 6
• Highest point: Harney Peak (7,242 feet)
• Lowest point: Big Stone Lake (966 feet)
• Highest temperature: 120° F (Gann Valley; Fort Pierre, July 5, 1936; July 15, 2006)
• Lowest temperature: -58° F (McIntosh, February 17, 1936)

Topography: South Dakota is dominated by plains, but the Missouri River divides the state into two plains regions. To the east, the terrain is mostly prairie; to the west, the state is part of the Great Plains. The Black Hills, which are actually mountains, are located in South Dakota's southwestern corner. Harney Peak, the state's highest point, is located in this region. The Black Hills also contain two of the nation's most striking and immense sculptures—Mount Rushmore and the nearby statue of Lakota chief Crazy Horse. Much of the state is treeless, though there are some wooded areas, as in the Black Hills. The Badlands region, which extends into North Dakota, is a mixture of grass prairie and sharply rising buttes.

Major Lakes

• Angosturra Reservoir
• Belle Fourche Reservoir
• Lake Francis Case
• Lake Oahe
• Lake Sharpe
• Lake Traverse
• Lewis and Clark Lake
• Mud Lake Reservoir
• Pelican Lake
• Storm Lake
• Waubay Lake

Major Rivers

• Belle Fourche River
• Big Sioux River
• Cheyenne River
• Grande River
• James River
• Missouri River
• Moreau River
• White River

Most of South Dakota's lakes and rivers drain into the Missouri River, which flows south to the Mississippi River and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.

State and National Parks: South Dakota has more than fifty state parks and recreation areas; many of these are located near lakes and streams, such as Pelican Lake Recreation Area and Oahe Downstream Recreation Area. Other state parks preserve historic areas such as the Spirit Mound Historic Prairie in Vermillion, a site visited in 1804 by Lewis and Clark's expedition.

There are also six national parks. Perhaps the best known of them is Mount Rushmore National Memorial, from which the state takes its nickname. This massive sculpture, located in the Black Hills, shows four US presidents' heads carved into the mountainside. The head of each president—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln—is about 60 feet high. Other important sites include Badlands National Park, in the southwestern part of the state, which features grass prairie and sharply rising buttes.

Natural Resources: South Dakota's resources focus on agriculture and mining. The eastern part of the state has good soil for farming, while the semi-arid western part is suitable for ranching of sheep and cattle. Gold has been an important mineral resource since the nineteenth century.

Plants and Animals: South Dakota possesses a wide variety of wildlife, including big game such as white-tail deer, mule deer, and antelope. Game fowl include pheasant, quail, grouse, and turkey, ducks, and geese. The federal government has reintroduced the black-footed ferret, once a highly endangered mammal, to Badlands National Park. The state is home to a number of eagle species, including the bald eagle, the national symbol.

Climate: South Dakota has a continental climate, with hot summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature is about 44.79 degrees Fahrenheit. The average winter temperature is near 18.75 degrees Fahrenheit, while the average summer temperature is approximately 69.79 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual precipitation is about 18.30 inches, with severe blizzards in winter. Because of climate change, the state had experienced a warming by the 2020s and increasing amounts of yearly precipitation.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• Augustana University (Sioux Falls)
• Black Hills State University (Spearfish)
• Dakota State University (Madison)
• Dakota Wesleyan University (Mitchell)
• Mount Marty University (Yankton)
• Northern State University (Aberdeen)
• Oglala Lakota College (Kyle)
• Sinte Gleska University (Rosebud)
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (Rapid City)
• South Dakota State University (Brookings)
• University of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls)
• University of South Dakota (Vermillion)

Major Museums

• Adams Museum and House (Deadwood)
• National Music Museum (Vermillion)
• Dahl Arts Center (Rapid City)
• Mammoth Site of Hot Springs (Hot Springs)
• Museum of Geology (Rapid City)
• Siouxland Heritage Museums (Sioux Falls)
• South Dakota Air and Space Museum (Box Elder)
• South Dakota Art Museum (Brookings)
• South Dakota National Guard Museum (Pierre)
• South Dakota State Agricultural Heritage Museum (Brookings)
• South Dakota State Historical Society Museum (Pierre)
• Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences (Sioux Falls)

Major Libraries

• K. O. Lee Aberdeen Public Library (Aberdeen)
• Hilton M. Briggs Library, South Dakota State University (Brookings)
• I. D. Weeks Library, University of South Dakota (Vermillion)
• McKusick Law Library, University of South Dakota (Vermillion)
• Siouxland Libraries (Sioux Falls)
• South Dakota State Historical Society Library (Pierre)
• South Dakota State Library (Pierre)

Media

South Dakota's major cities have daily newspapers, and there are numerous weeklies as well. Sioux Falls, the state's largest city, hosts the daily Sioux Falls Argus Leader. The city also is home to a number of weeklies. Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, has a far smaller population and supports one daily, the Pierre Capital Journal. South Dakota has a number of television and radio stations. The Dakota Radio Group, a multistation commercial enterprise, is based in Pierre. South Dakota Public Broadcasting is based in Vermillion.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 67,570.7 (ranked 46th) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: 0.5%

Major Industries: In 2022, finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing was the largest industry in the state, accounting for 25.6 percent of the state’s GDP. Government services are also important to the economy, as are educational and health-care services, ranching, agriculture, and manufacturing.

Tourism: Much of South Dakota's tourist trade focuses on the state's scenic beauty, as well as historic sites such as Mount Rushmore and the city of Deadwood. Other visitors come to enjoy outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing.

Energy Production: Wind power accounts for the bulk of South Dakota's net energy production, with approximately 55 percent of the state’s net electricity generation coming from this source in 2022 (renewable resources provided 84 percent of South Dakota's electricity in 2022, with the second largest source of renewable energy being hydroelectricity). The power produced by South Dakota's dams in the state is marketed and delivered throughout the central and western United States. The largest dams are on the Missouri River. The Fort Randall Dam plant, which commenced operation in the 1950s, has a capacity of more than 300,000 kilowatts. Smaller hydroelectric plants, many of which operate on the larger streams in the Black Hills region, provide the rest of the state's power. South Dakota has limited natural gas and fossil fuel resources, but has sixteen ethanol production plants and was the fourth-largest producer of the fuel in the United States in 2022. It produces between one and two million barrels of oil per year.

Agriculture: Major crops in South Dakota include corn and soybeans as well as hay, wheat, and sunflower seed. The state is a major producer of livestock.

Airports: South Dakota has a number of commercial airports around the state, providing regional transportation within the Midwest. These include facilities at Aberdeen, Brookings, Huron, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, and Watertown.

Seaports: South Dakota, a landlocked state, has little water traffic. Most of the state's transportation is handled by rail or interstate highway.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Kristi Noem (Republican)
• Present constitution date: 1889
• Electoral votes: 3
• Number of counties: 66
• Violent crime rate: 501.4 (per 100,000 residents)
• Death penalty: Yes

Constitution: South Dakota still uses the constitution it adopted in 1889, upon entering the Union.

Branches of Government

Executive: The governor, the state's highest executive officer, is elected to a four-year term. Duties include proposing, vetoing, and passing legislation; overseeing the executive departments; and serving as commander in chief of the state military forces. The lieutenant governor serves as governor in case of the incumbent's disability, removal, or death, and also serves as president of the Senate.

Legislative: The South Dakota legislature has two houses, the State Senate and the House of Representatives. There are thirty-five senators and seventy representatives. All members of the legislature are elected to two-year terms. A 1992 constitutional amendment limits legislators to four consecutive terms or eight consecutive years in one house.

Judicial: South Dakota has a "Unified Judicial System," a centralized structure with three levels: a State Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and lower courts known as Magistrate Courts. The five-member Supreme Court, the state's highest court, is the primary appeals court and also has original jurisdiction over cases of state constitutional law. The members are appointed by the governor to an initial three-year term. After that, they must run for reelection on a nonpartisan ballot for an eight-year term. The justices choose one of their own number to serve as the chief justice.

The Circuit Courts are the state's courts of original jurisdiction and handle all civil and criminal cases. They also handle appeals from the Magistrate Courts. Judges are elected by the circuit's voters (on a nonpartisan ballot) to an eight-year term, but the governor can also appoint Circuit Court judges. Each circuit has a presiding circuit judge, appointed by the Supreme Court chief justice.

The Magistrate Courts handle minor criminal and civil cases, including small-claims cases. They are presided over either by magistrate judges (who are licensed attorneys) or lay magistrates (who are high-school graduates).

HISTORY

1738 French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, in search of a water route to the Pacific, becomes the first European to explore the Dakotas. He reaches the Upper Missouri River while traveling southward from Canada.

1743 Le Verendrye's sons, Louis-Joseph and François, continue to explore the Dakota region.

1803 President Thomas Jefferson purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. He appoints Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead a "Corps of Discovery" to explore the region, with $2,500 in funding from Congress.

1803–6Lewis and Clark Expedition. Leaving their camp near St. Louis in mid-May 1813, the Corps of Discovery travels westward up the Missouri River. They arrive in present-day North Dakota over a year later, in mid-October 1804. Late in October 1804 the expedition arrives at the five Knife River Indian villages (Mandan and Hidatsa tribes), near the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers. There, Lewis and Clark hire French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau and his pregnant wife Sacagawea (Sakakawa), a sixteen-year-old Shoshone, as their guides. In November 1804, the expedition constructs Fort Mandan on the east bank of the Missouri River. Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste (called "Pomp"), is born in February 1805. In April 1805, the expedition heads westward for the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, they are helped by the Nez Perce tribe. Having crossed the Continental Divide over the Rocky Mountains, the expedition reaches the Pacific on November 1805 and constructs Fort Clatsop (December 30, 1805) on the Oregon coast. After wintering there, the Corps of Discovery begins the journey back to St. Louis in March 1806, reaching their destination in September of that year.

1812 Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk (in Scotland), establishes a farming colony of Scots and Irish immigrants in the Great Plains, in what is now Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota. The Red River Settlement at Pembina (now North Dakota) faces intense opposition from the fur-trading North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, which see it as a challenge to their market dominance. Over the next decade, the trading companies clash violently with the settlers. Selkirk is eventually ruined by legal battles with the companies, and the Pembina settlement folds, but the Red River settlements overall become permanently established by the early 1820s.

1817 The first permanent settlement in present-day South Dakota is established at Fort Pierre.

1818 The United States and Britain sign a treaty giving the United States control of the northeastern part of what is now North Dakota.

1823 The United States takes control of the Pembina region.

1851 Pembina, the first permanent White farming community, is established in what becomes the Dakota Territory. This is the only such settlement there when the territory is organized ten years later.

1857 The federal government begins establishing frontier forts in the Dakota region. The first is Fort Abercrombie.

1861 Congress establishes the Dakota Territory, with the capital at Yankton. President James Buchanan signs the measure on March 2, just two days before Abraham Lincoln takes office. The territory, whose name means "friend" in the Dakota (Sioux) language, includes the present-day states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

1862 The territorial legislature charters University of Dakota as a public institution of higher learning, but the school does not open its doors until 1882.

1861-65 The Civil War. The War Department authorizes the raising of two cavalry companies from Dakota Territory to defend the frontier against American Indian tribes. One company is raised at Yankton, while the other is raised at Sioux City, Iowa. They are organized as the 1st Battalion Cavalry, serving both in the Dakota Territory and in Iowa.

1863-66 The US Army leads a series of campaigns against the Sioux of the Dakota Territory. The two sides sign a peace treaty in 1868, but this does not prevent continued conflict or efforts to encroach upon tribal lands.

1870s–1880s Railroad construction begins in the Dakota Territory, bringing with it thousands of immigrants. The railroad arrives in Yankton in 1872.

1874 Gold is discovered in the Black Hills by an expedition under the command of Lt. Col. George A. Custer. This sets off a gold rush and wave of settlement, and heightens friction between White settlers and the local tribes.

Late 1870s Residents of the Dakota Territory begin trying for statehood. Some supporters of the idea want a single state, while others want to divide the territory into two states.

1870s–1880s The Dakota Territory experiences a sudden rush of prosperity due to a land boom.

1876 Much of the US Army's 7th Cavalry and their commander, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, are killed by the Sioux at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Sioux are led by chiefs Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapas and Crazy Horse of the Oglala.

That same year, lawman Wild Bill Hickok is gunned down in the mining town of Deadwood.

1878 The first cattle ranch is established in the Dakota Territory.

1880 The town of De Smet is settled. The community is named for nineteenth-century missionary priest Father Pierre Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit (1801–1873). Early residents include the family of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who later recounts her experiences in her Little House series of autobiographical novels.

1882 The University of Dakota opens at Vermilion. In 1891, following statehood, the school is renamed the University of South Dakota.

1883 The territorial capital is moved from Yankton to Bismarck.

1883–1886 Theodore Roosevelt, who would later become president, spends time cattle-ranching in the Dakota Badlands region, in the Little Missouri River region.

1886–1887 The extremely harsh winter drives many ranchers, including Theodore Roosevelt, out of business.

1889 On November 2, South Dakota enters the Union as the fortieth state. That same year, Wovoka, a Paiute Indian, starts the religious movement known as the Ghost Dance. Initially, believers claim that the dance will reunite them with their deceased friends and relatives. But the movement soon becomes apocalyptic; Ghost Dancers claim that their rituals will cause the earth to open up and swallow all White people. Settlers and the federal government seek to put down the movement.

1890 Sitting Bull, now living on a reservation, is killed in a confrontation with reservation police. This event lead to the December 29 massacre at Wounded Knee, in which around five hundred troops of the US 7th Cavalry kill more than three hundred unarmed Sioux men, women, and children. The massacre takes place at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation, as the Cavalry is trying to disarm the captured Ghost Dance leader Chief Big Foot of the Miniconjou Lakota. This incident ends major military action against the Sioux.

The city of Pierre builds a temporary wooden structure to serve as the State Capitol. It serves in this capacity until 1910.

1898 South Dakota becomes the first state to adopt the progressive electoral measures of initiative and referendum.

1904 The city of Pierre is chosen as the permanent state capital.

1910 The new State Capitol is built of stone in modified Greek Ionic style.

1922 Radio station KUSD (AM) receives its first license for regular programming. It is one of the first educational radio stations in the country.

1923 Gladys Pyle, the first woman to serve in the South Dakota legislature, enters the State House of Representatives. She serves until 1927, when she becomes South Dakota's secretary of state.

1926Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (born Zitkala-Sa), a Yankton Sioux writer, founds the National Association of American Indians.

1927–1941 Sculptor Gutzon Borglum shapes the faces of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington into the side of Mount Rushmore, part of the Black Hills. Borglum dies shortly before completion of the project in 1941, and the work is finished by his son, Lincoln. The completed faces are 60 feet high.

1934 Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, which recognizes the sovereignty of American Indian tribal governments. This represents a major shift in federal policy.

1937 The State capitol suffers damage due to settling. The beauty of the original interior decoration suffers from the repairs.

1938 Gladys Pyle is appointed to the US Senate in November to fill the vacancy left by the death of Senator Peter Norbeck. She does not run for reelection and leaves office when the congressional session ends in January 1939.

1939 The Badlands are designated a National Monument.

1941–45World War II. Marine aviator Joe Foss, a native of Sioux Falls, becomes one of the nation's most decorated fighter pilots by shooting down twenty-six Japanese planes. He is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1948 Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor, begins carving a huge figure of Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse out of the side of a mountain in South Dakota's Black Hills, about 17 miles from Mount Rushmore. His goal is to produce a mounted figure over 500 feet tall.

1949 The state establishes the Office of Indian Affairs, to handle relations with the various tribes.

1955–1959 Joe Foss serves as governor.

1960 Oscar Howe, a Yankton Sioux artist, is named the state's artist laureate. He also served as a professor and artist in residence at the University of South Dakota.

1961 Station KUSD TV, Channel 2, goes on the air as South Dakota's first educational television station. It eventually becomes the flagship station for South Dakota public television.

1971 The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council establishes a center for higher education, based in Kyle. The school begins awarding associate degrees in 1974, and in 1978 changes the name to the Oglala Sioux Community College. The college received accreditation as a four-year institution in 1983 and changed its name to Oglala Lakota College.

1972 South Dakota Senator George McGovern runs unsuccessfully as the Democratic presidential candidate, against Republican incumbent President Richard Nixon.

1973 The American Indian Movement (AIM), led by Russell Means and other activists, seizes the village of Wounded Knee to demonstrate against the US-supported tribal government. AIM occupies the village for seventy-one days, in a standoff with federal law enforcement. By the end of the standoff, two people had been killed, twelve people had been wounded, and almost 1,200 people had been arrested.

1986 South Dakota's US Representative Tom Daschle, a Democrat, is elected to the US Senate.

1988 Russell Means runs for president of the United States as a Libertarian candidate. Former South Dakota governor Joe Foss becomes president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and serves until 1990.

1989 The state completes restoration of the State Capitol, a project begun in 1975. The repairs and restoration return the building to its original 1910 appearance.

1993 The Sioux Falls Canaries become a charter member of the revived Northern League baseball association. The city previously had a Northern League franchise under the same name during the 1940s and 1950s.

1994 Former Republican Governor William Janklow, who first served from 1979 until 1987, is again elected to the governorship.

1995 Senator Daschle becomes Senate minority leader, serving in that post until June 6, 2001. He became majority leader in 2001, when Democrats won control of the Senate. The state's Office of Indian Affairs is renamed the Office of Tribal Government Relations.

1998 Governor Janklow is reelected.

2002 The Republicans win control of both houses of Congress in the November elections, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle again becomes Senate minority leader.

2004 Senator William Janklow, the former governor, resigns his seat in the Senate as he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter during an accident on August 18, 2003, in which a motorcyclist was killed. A special election, held to fill the senator's position, was won by Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. Sandlin became the first female senator for the state of South Dakota.

2006 The gubernatorial election is held on November 7. Incumbent Mike Rounds wins reelection.

2008 The US Senate election is held on November 4. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Johnson wins reelection to a third term.

2010 The 2010 gubernatorial election is held on November 2. Republican Dennis Daugaard defeats the Democratic candidate.

2014 South Dakota celebrates its 125th anniversary of statehood.

2015 The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe passes a resolution declaring that the Dakota Access Pipeline, which passes from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois, poses a risk to tribal survival, water supply, and cultural resources.

2016 The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sues the US Army Corps of Engineers for failing to adequately consult them before approving the Dakota Access Pipeline and for violating the National Historic Preservation Act. Dakota Access LLC countersues the tribe for protesting and holding up the pipeline's construction schedule. Protests continue, as does the legal fight over whether construction should proceed. By the end of the year, the Army Corps stops construction and states that it will issue an environmental impact statement with public input and analysis before approving an easement for the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe.

2017 President Donald Trump signs an executive memo directing the Army Corps to expedite its review and approval of the rest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In February, the Army Corps grants the easement and construction of the pipeline resumes; law enforcement clears the protest camps. The Cheyenne River Sioux and Standing Rock Sioux request a restraining order to block construction and later file a motion for summary judgement against both the Army Corps and a subsidiary of the pipeline company. A district judge denies the tribes' preliminary injunction against pipeline construction and use upon completion. Oil begins to flow through the pipeline on June 1.

2019 The language of the Great Sioux Nation, which is comprised of the dialects Dokota, Lokota, and Nakota, becomes an official language of the state.

2021 Legislation legalizing medical marijuana in the state goes into effect.

2022 Governor Kristi Noem, who was first elected to the office in 2018, wins reelection.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

James Abourezk, 1931–2023 (Wood) , US senator; supporter of Arab American rights.

Sparky Anderson, 1934–2010 (Bridgewater) , Baseball manager.

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), 1876–1938 (Pine Ridge) , Yankton Sioux author.

Tom Brokaw, 1940– (Webster) , TV broadcaster.

Crazy Horse, c.1842–1877 (near the Black Hills) , Oglala Sioux chief.

Tom Daschle, 1947– (Aberdeen) , US senator.

Vine Deloria Jr., 1933–2005 (Martin) , American Indian author and activist.

Joseph J. Foss, 1915–2003 (Sioux Falls) , Marine fighter pilot; World War II ace; governor.

Oscar Howe, 1915–83 (Joe Creek) , Yankton Sioux artist; art professor at the University of South Dakota.

Hubert H. Humphrey, 1911–78 (Wallace) , US senator from Minnesota; vice president of the United States.

January Jones, 1978– (Sioux Falls) , Actor.

Cheryl Ladd, 1951– (Huron) , Actor.

Rose Wilder Lane, 1886–1968 (De Smet) , Writer; daughter of pioneer and author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence, 1901–58 (Canton) , Physicist; Nobel Prize winner.

George McGovern, 1922–2012 (Avon) , US senator; presidential candidate.

Russell Means, 1939–2012 (Pine Ridge Reservation) , Oglala Lakota activist; actor.

Sitting Bull, c. 1831–90 (Grand River region) , Hunkpapa Sioux chief.

Dorothy Provine, 1937–2010 (Deadwood) , Actor.

Theodore William Schultz, 1902–98 (near Arlington) , Agricultural economist; Nobel Prize winner.

Norm Van Brocklin, 1926–83 (Parade) , Football player.

Mamie Van Doren, 1931– (Rowena) , Actor.

Hildreth Marie Twostars Venegas, 1919–2013 (Sisseton) , Native American health service employee.

Madeline Melba White, ca. 1944–2009 (Sisseton) , Painter.

TRIVIA

• Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills, bears the 60-foot-high faces of four American presidents sculpted into the rock. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum worked from 1927 to 1941 to carve the faces of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington into the side of the mountain. Over 2.5 million visitors travel to Mount Rushmore each year.
• Pioneer author Laura Ingalls Wilder, famous for her autobiographical Little House on the Prairie novels, lived with her family in De Smet during the 1880s. Her book The Long Winter recounts the severe blizzards of the winter of 1880–1881. In 1974, the books were adapted into a long-running TV series.
• World War II fighter ace Joe Foss, a Marine aviator who downed twenty-six Japanese planes and won the Congressional Medal of Honor, served as governor of South Dakota in the 1950s. He served from 1959 to 1966 as commissioner of the American Football League (AFL), and from 1988 to 1990 as president of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
• Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor, worked decades to carve a huge figure of Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse out of the side of a mountain in South Dakota's Black Hills, about 17 miles from Mount Rushmore. He began in 1948, and his family continued the project after his death. In 2000, the nine-story-tall face of Crazy Horse was finished. The total statue, showing Crazy Horse mounted, will be over 500 feet tall.
• Russell Means, the Oglala Lakota activist who helped lead the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, was also an actor. He appeared as Chingachgook in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day Lewis.

Bibliography

"Economic Profile for South Dakota." US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 31 Mar. 2023, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2023.

Schell, Herbert S. History of South Dakota. 4th ed., rev. ed., South Dakota State Historical Society, 2004.

"South Dakota." Quick Facts, US Census Bureau, 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/SD/PST045221. Accessed 21 Sept. 2023.

"South Dakota: State Profile and Energy Estimates; Profile Overview." US Energy Information Administration, 20 July 2023, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=SD. Accessed 21 Sept. 2023.

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Straub, Patrick. It Happened in South Dakota: Remarkable Events That Shaped History. Globe Pequot, 2010.

Eric Badertscher