Portal:South Dakota

The South Dakota Portal

South Dakota (/dəˈkoʊtə/ ^ⓘ; Siouan languages: Dakȟóta itókaga, pronounced [daˈkˣota iˈtokaga]) is a landlocked state in the Upper Midwest, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota Sioux tribe, which comprises a large portion of the population and has historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the 17th-largest by area, the fifth-least populous, and the fifth-least densely populated of the 50 United States. Pierre is the state capital, and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 213,900, is the most populous city. The Missouri River bisects the state into two geographically and socially distinct halves colloquially known as "East River" and "West River". South Dakota is bordered by 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.

Humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a gold rush in the Black Hills and the construction of railroads from the east. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union; President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them so that no one could tell which became a state first.

Major events in the 20th century included the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, increased federal spending during the 1940s and 1950s for agriculture and defense, and the industrialization of agriculture, which has reduced family farming. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of its population, and a variety of crops grow in the area's fertile soil. West of the Missouri River, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are in West River. The Black Hills, a group of low, pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, is in the southwest part of the state, and contains Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination. South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation levels ranging from moderate in the east to semiarid in the west. The state's ecology features species typical of a North American grassland biome. (Full article...)

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Daugaard in 2017

Dennis Martin Daugaard (born June 11, 1953) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 32nd governor of South Dakota from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the first chief executive of a U.S. state to be the child of deaf parents. Before being elected governor, he was a lawyer, banker, development director for a nonprofit organization; he also served as a state senator from 1997 to 2003 and the 37th lieutenant governor of South Dakota from 2003 to 2011. (Full article...)

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Sitting Bull, c. 1883

Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake [tˣaˈtˣə̃ka ˈijɔtakɛ]; c. 1831–37 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian agency police accompanied by U.S. officers and supported by U.S. troops on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.

Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw many soldiers, "as thick as grasshoppers", falling upside down into the Lakota camp, which his people took as a foreshadowing of a major victory in which many soldiers would be killed. About three weeks later, the confederated Lakota tribes with the Northern Cheyenne defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876, annihilating Custer's battalion and seeming to fulfill Sitting Bull's prophetic vision. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. In response, the U.S. government sent thousands more soldiers to the area, forcing many of the Lakota to surrender over the next year. Sitting Bull refused to surrender, and in May 1877, he led his band north to Wood Mountain, North-West Territories, now Saskatchewan. He remained there until 1881, when he and most of his band returned to U.S. territory and surrendered to U.S. forces. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various South Dakota-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A rodeo at Days of '76 in Deadwood. (from Culture of South Dakota)
Image 2Author Laura Ingalls Wilder used her experiences growing up near De Smet as the basis for four of her novels. (from Culture of South Dakota)
Image 3Map showing the general locations of the tribes and subtribes of the Sioux by the late 18th century; current reservations are shown in orange. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 4Detail from a map drawn by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, showing much of what would become eastern and central South Dakota. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 5Craven Canyon petroglyphs in the Black Hills. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 6Karl Bodmer's portrait of an Arikara warrior, early 1840s. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 7Deadwood, like many other Black Hills towns, was founded after the discovery of gold. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 8Huron (left) and Pierre (right) issued rival maps that claimed each as the best place voters should choose for the new state capital in 1890. (from History of South Dakota)
Image 9A South Dakota farm during the Dust Bowl, 1936 (from History of South Dakota)

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... that voters elected a dead man to the South Dakota House of Representatives?
... that Galena Schoolhouse in South Dakota was once leased to a historical society for $1 annually?
... that while recruiting for the Blair Colony, Betty Blair reportedly convinced potential settlers that there were no flies in South Dakota?
... that the Shakespeare garden in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, was the first of its kind in the state?
... that Yvette Greer-Albrecht was named as the Female College Athlete of the Year by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association in 1979?
... that US president Calvin Coolidge left Mystic, South Dakota, in a lumber wagon?

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Largest cities

Cities in South Dakota, with their populations (as of July 1, 2020, as enumerated by the 2020 United States census):

2020 rank	City	2020 census^[1]	2010 census^[2]	Change	County
1	Sioux Falls †	192,517	153,888	+25.10%	Minnehaha Lincoln
2	Rapid City †	74,703	67,956	+9.93%	Pennington
3	Aberdeen †	28,495	26,091	+9.21%	Brown
4	Brookings †	23,377	22,056	+5.99%	Brookings
5	Watertown †	22,655	21,482	+5.46%	Codington
6	Mitchell †	15,660	15,254	+2.66%	Davison
7	Yankton †	15,411	14,454	+6.62%	Yankton
8	Huron †	14,263	12,592	+13.27%	Beadle
9	Pierre ‡	14,091	13,646	+3.26%	Hughes
10	Spearfish	12,193	10,494	+16.19%	Lawrence

†	County seat
‡	State capital and county seat

See List of cities in South Dakota for a full list.

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