South Dakota, South Dakota (SD), United States

Facts & Statistics
Place Name	South Dakota
Place Status (Type)	state
Capital is	PIERRE
Population	729,034 (1995)
Location	South Dakota, United States, North America
Latitude	unknown
Longitude	unknown

South Dakota , state ( 77,121 sq mi/199,743 sq km; 1995 est. pop. 729,034), N central U.S., admitted to the Union in 1889 simultaneously with N.Dak. (they are the 40th and 39th states); Pierre. The largest cities are Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Bounded N by N.Dak., E by Minn. (with the Minnesota R. forming part of the state line) and Iowa (from which it is separated by the Big Sioux R.), S by Nebr. (with the Missouri R. forming part of the state line), and W by Wyo. and Mont. S.Dak. shows some of the earliest geologic history of the continent in the rock formations of the anc. Black Hills and in the Badlands. At their extreme bet. the White R. and the S fork of the Cheyenne R., the Badlands display in their deeply eroded clay gullies not only colorful, fantastic shapes but also a wealth of easily accessible marine and land fossils (the Badlands Natl. Monument preserves the area for its startling scenery and geologic interest). The whole of S.Dak. has a continental climate; summer brings a succession of hot, cloudless days, and in the winter blizzards sweep across bare hillsides, filling the coulees with deep snow. The average annual rainfall is low and declines from E to W across the state, and in years of drought summer winds blow away acres of topsoil in “black blizzards.” From E to W the state rises some 6,000 ft/1,829 m to Harney Peak (7,242 ft/2,207 m) in the Black Hills, highest point in the U.S. E of the Rockies. Through the center of the state the Missouri R. cuts a wide valley S; other principal rivers include the James and Big Sioux to the E, and the Cheyenne, Belle Fourche, the Moreau, the Grand, and the White rivers to the W. Almost ⅓ of the region W of the Missouri R., a semiarid, treeless plain, belongs to Native Americans, most of whom live on reservations such as Cheyenne R., Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and Standing Rock. Much of the remaining area is divided into large ranches; there cattle and sheep ranching provide the major source of income, with soybeans and wheat growing secondary. In the more productive region E of the Missouri, livestock and livestock prods. comprise the primary source of income. Corn, hay, soybeans, and wheat are S.Dak.'s chief cash crops; oats, flaxseed, and barley are also grown. Although there is a certain amount of diversified industry in the main cities of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, meatpacking and food processing constitute by far the major industries of the state. Gold is S.Dak.'s most important mineral, and the town of Lead in the Black Hills is among the country's leading gold-mining centers. In 1988 the state ranked 3d in the nation in gold production. Stone, sand and gravel, and cement are also important minerals. At the time of Eur. exploration, S.Dak. was inhabited by Native Americans of the agr. Arikara and the nomadic Dakota Sioux. By the 1830s the Dakota Sioux had driven the Arikara from the area. Part of the region that is now S.Dak. was explored in the mid-18th cent. by sons of the sieur de la Verendrye. The U.S. acquired the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase, and it was partially explored by Lewis and Clark in their Missouri R. expedition of 1804-1806. Later explorers became well acquainted with the Sioux, who continued to dominate the region during the period of the fur trade down to the mid-19th cent. Individual traders from the time of Pierre Dorion in the late 18th cent. made the region their home, and the posts founded by Pierre Chouteau and the Amer. Fur Company were the 1st bases for settlement (Fort Pierre was est. 1817.). It was not until land speculators and farmers moved W from Minn. and Iowa in the 1850s that any real settlement developed. Two land companies were est. 1856 at Sioux Falls, and in 1859 Yankton, Bon Homme, and Vermillion were laid out. A treaty with the Sioux opened the land bet. the Big Sioux and the Missouri, and in 1861 Dakota Territory was set up, embracing not only present-day N.Dak. and S.Dak. but also E Wyo. and E Mont. Yankton was the capital. Settlers were discouraged by droughts, conflict with the Native Americans, and plagues of locusts; however, by the time the RR pushed to Yankton in 1872, the region had received the 1st of the Eur. immigrants who later came in great numbers, contributing significant Ger., Scandinavian, and Rus. elements to the Dakotas. Rumors of gold in the Black Hills, confirmed by a military expedition led by George A. Custer in 1874, excited natl. interest, and Americans began to pour into the area. However, much of the Black Hills region had been granted (1868) to the Sioux by treaty, and when they refused to sell either mining rights or the reservation itself, warfare with the Sioux again broke out. The defeat (1876) of Custer and his men by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Gall in the battle of Little Bighorn (in what is now Mont.) did not prevent the whites from gradually acquiring more and more Native Amer. land, including the gold-lined Black Hills. Near extinction of the buffalo herds as well as Sitting Bull's death (1890) at the hands of army-trained Native Amer. police and the subsequent massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee Creek were factors leading to the permanent end of Native Amer. resistance here. Tribal organization was weakened by the Dawes Act of 1887 (although the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 attempted to restore tribal ownership of repurchased lands, the younger generations have been moving to the cities in increasing numbers). During the 1870s the gold fever mounted; Deadwood had its day of gaudy glory, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane created frontier legends, and the town of Lead began its long, productive career. Although gold did not make the fortune of S.Dak., it laid the foundation by stimulating cattle ranching—herds of cattle were 1st brought to the grasslands of W S.Dak. partly to supply food for the miners. Settlement in the E also increased, and the period from 1878 to 1886, following the resumption of RR building after the financial depression earlier in the decade, was the time of the great Dakota land boom, when pop. increased threefold. Agitation for statehood developed; in 1888 the Republican party adopted the statehood movement as a campaign issue, and in 1889 Congress passed an enabling act. The Dakotas were divided; S.Dak. became a state with Pierre as capital. The new state was affected by the unusually severe winter of 1886-1887, which had destroyed huge herds of cattle in the W, ruining the great bonanza ranches and promoting among the ranchers the trend—since dominant—of having smaller herds with provisions for winter shelter and feeding. Cattle grazed on public domain and were rounded up only for branding and shipment to market. Recurrent droughts added to the difficulties of the farmers, who sought relief in the cooperative ventures of the Farmers' Alliance and political action in the Populist party, which won a resounding victory in 1896. Initiative and referendum were adopted (1898; S.Dak. was the 1st state to adopt them) and other progressive measures of the day were enacted, but prosperity quickly returned S.Dak. to political conservatism and the Republican party. The extension of RRs (particularly the Milwaukee, which was the only transcontinental line passing through S.Dak.) encouraged further expansion of agr., but new droughts (esp. that of 1910-1911) brought a brief period of emigration. Many new farmsteads were abandoned, and a turn toward political radicalism developed. The Progressive party, led by Peter Norbeck (governor 1917-1921) and operating as a branch of the Republican party, revived the attempts of Populist reform programs to regulate RR rates and raise assessments of corporate property and entered in experiments in state ownership of business. New prosperity-depression cycles occurred after the boom of World War I. The combination of droughts and the Great Depression brought widespread calamities in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and the state's pop. declined by 50,000 bet. 1930 and 1940. Vigorous measures of relief were instituted under the New Deal, and higher farm prices during World War II and the ensuing years brought a new era of optimism. The 1950s inaugurated a period of Democratic strength in state politics. George McGovern was elected to the House in 1956 and to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974. In 1972 McGovern ran unsuccessfully for President. In 1973, a militant Native Amer. group occupied a courthouse at Custer and the resulting gun battle with Federal marshals and related conflicts at Wounded Knee highlighted the Native Amer. resentment of broken treaties with the U.S. govt. In the postwar period adoption of improved farming techniques resulted in a steady increase in agr. and livestock production. This was accompanied, however, by the consolidation of small farms into large units and the displacement of many small farmers. Irrigation projects, extension of hydroelectric power, and protective measures against wind and water erosion have been pushed to avoid the threat of new disasters. In 1981, a major N.Y. bank relocated its credit card operations to Sioux Falls, marking the beginning of a shift toward service, finance, and trade industries as well as significant economic growth. Some casino gambling was legalized in 1989 as tourism continues to be one of the state's top sources of income. S.Dak. is governed under its 1889 constitution. The legislature consists of 35 senators and 70 representatives, all elected for 2-year terms. The governor is elected for 4 years. George Mickelson, a Republican, was elected in 1986 and reelected in 1990. He was killed in an airplane crash in 1993. The state chooses 1 U.S. representative and 2 senators and has 3 electoral votes. Among the state's attractions are Wind Cave Natl. Park, Jewel Cave and Badlands natl. monuments, and the famous mammoth carvings of the Mt. Rushmore Natl. Memorial. Institutions of higher learning include Augustana Col., at Sioux Falls; S.Dak. School of Mines and Technology, at Rapid City; S.Dak. State Univ., at Brookings; the Univ. of S.Dak., at Vermillion; and Northern State Col., at Aberdeen. S.Dak. has 66 cos.: Armstrong, Aurora, Beadle, Bennett, Bon Homme, Brookings, Brown, Brule, Buffalo, Butte, Campbell, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Codington, Corson, Custer, Davison, Day, Deuel, Dewey, Douglas, Edmunds, Fall River, Faulk, Grant, Gregory, Haakon, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Harding, Hughes, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jackson, Jerauld, Jones, Kingsbury, Lake, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lyman, McCook, McPherson, Marshall, Meade, Mellette, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Pennington, Perkins, Potter, Roberts, Sanborn, Shannon, Spink, Stanley, Sully, Todd, Tripp, Turner, Union, Walworth, Yankton, Ziebach.,