South Dakota (/- dəˈkoʊtə/ (About this soundlisten)) is a U.S. state in the upper Midwestern United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large portion of the population and historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the seventeenth largest by area, but the 5th least populous, and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. It is either the 39th or 40th state 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.[10] Pierre is the state capital, and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 187,200,[11] is South Dakota's largest city.
South Dakota is bordered by the states of 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). The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River".[12]
Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state's population, and the area's fertile soil is used to grow a variety of crops. 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. Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination, is there. South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west. The state's ecology features species typical of a North American grassland biome.
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. Key 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 an industrialization of agriculture that has reduced family farming.
While several Democrats have represented South Dakota for multiple terms in both chambers of Congress, the state government is largely controlled by the Republican Party, whose nominees have carried South Dakota in each of the last 13 presidential elections. Historically dominated by an agricultural economy and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently sought to diversify its economy in areas to attract and retain residents. South Dakota's history and rural character still strongly influence the state's culture.
Geography
Main article: Geography of South Dakota
Terrain and primary geographic features of South Dakota
South Dakota is in the north-central United States, and is considered a part of the Midwest by the U.S. Census Bureau;[13] it is also part of the Great Plains region. The culture, economy, and geography of western South Dakota have more in common with the West than the Midwest.[12][14] South Dakota has a total area of 77,116 square miles (199,730 km2), making the state the 17th largest in the Union.[1]
Black Elk Peak, formerly named Harney Peak, with an elevation of 7,242 ft (2,207 m), is the state's highest point, while the shoreline of Big Stone Lake is the lowest, with an elevation of 966 ft (294 m).[3] South Dakota is bordered to the north by North Dakota; to the south by Nebraska; to the east by Iowa and Minnesota; and to the west by Wyoming and Montana. The geographical center of the U.S. is 17 miles (27 km) west of Castle Rock in Butte County.[3] The North American continental pole of inaccessibility is between Allen and Kyle, 1,024 mi (1,648 km) from the nearest coastline.[15]
The Missouri River is the largest and longest river in the United States. Other major South Dakota rivers include the Cheyenne, James, Big Sioux, and White Rivers. Eastern South Dakota has many natural lakes, mostly created by periods of glaciation.[16] Additionally, dams on the Missouri River create four large reservoirs: Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case, and Lewis and Clark Lake.
Regions and geology
South Dakota can generally be divided into three regions: eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills.[17] The Missouri River serves as a boundary in terms of geographic, social, and political differences between eastern and western South Dakota. The geography of the Black Hills, long considered sacred by Native Americans, differs from its surroundings to such an extent it can be considered separate from the rest of western South Dakota. At times the Black Hills are combined with the rest of western South Dakota, and people often refer to the resulting two regions divided by the Missouri River as West River and East River.[12][14]
Badlands National Park
Eastern South Dakota generally features higher precipitation and lower topography than the western part of the state. Smaller geographic regions of this area include the Coteau des Prairies, the Dissected Till Plains, and the James River Valley. The Coteau des Prairies is a plateau bordered on the east by the Minnesota River Valley and on the west by the James River Basin.[16] Further west, the James River Basin is mostly low, flat, highly eroded land, following the flow of the James River through South Dakota from north to south.[18] The Dissected Till Plains, an area of rolling hills and fertile soil that covers much of Iowa and Nebraska, extends into the southeastern corner of South Dakota. Layers deposited during the Pleistocene epoch, starting around two million years ago, cover most of eastern South Dakota.[19] These are the youngest rock and sediment layers in the state, the product of several successive periods of glaciation which deposited a large amount of rocks and soil, known as till, over the area.[20]
The Great Plains cover most of the western two-thirds of South Dakota. West of the Missouri River the landscape becomes more arid and rugged, consisting of rolling hills, plains, ravines, and steep flat-topped hills called buttes.[21] In the south, east of the Black Hills, lie the South Dakota Badlands. Erosion from the Black Hills, marine skeletons which fell to the bottom of a large shallow sea that once covered the area, and volcanic material all contribute to the geology of this area.[19][22][23]
The Black Hills, a low mountain range, is located in Southwestern South Dakota.
The Black Hills are in the southwestern part of South Dakota and extend into Wyoming. This range of low mountains covers 6,000 sq mi (16,000 km2), with peaks that rise from 2,000 to 4,000 feet (600 to 1,200 m) above their bases. The Black Hills are the location of Black Elk Peak (7,242 ft or 2,207 m above sea level), the highest point in South Dakota and also the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.[3] Two-billion-year-old Precambrian formations, the oldest rocks in the state, form the central core of the Black Hills.[19][24] Formations from the Paleozoic Era form the outer ring of the Black Hills;[25] these were created between roughly 540 and 250 million years ago. This area features rocks such as limestone, which were deposited here when the area formed the shoreline of an ancient inland sea.[25]
National parks and monuments
Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills
South Dakota has several sites administered by the National Park Service. Two national parks have been established in the state, both in its southwestern region. Wind Cave National Park, established in 1903 in the Black Hills, has an extensive cave network and is home to a large herd of bison.[46] Badlands National Park was established in 1978,[47] and features an eroded, brightly colored landscape surrounded by semi-arid grasslands.[48] Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills was established in 1925. The sculpture of four U.S. Presidents was carved into the mountainside by sculptor Gutzon Borglum.[49]
Other areas managed by the National Park Service include Jewel Cave National Monument near Custer, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, which features a decommissioned nuclear missile silo and a separate missile control area several miles away, and the Missouri National Recreational River.[50] The Crazy Horse Memorial is a large mountainside sculpture near Mount Rushmore being built using private funds.[51] The Mammoth Site near Hot Springs is another privately owned attraction in the Black Hills. It is a working paleontological dig and has one of the world's largest concentrations of mammoth remains.[52]
History
Main article: History of South Dakota
See also: Timeline of South Dakota
Humans have lived in what is today South Dakota for several thousand years. The first inhabitants were Paleoindian hunter-gatherers, and disappeared from the area around 5000 BC.[53] 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, in which several hundred men, women, and children were killed near the Missouri River.[54]
By 1500, the Arikara (or Ree) had settled in much of the Missouri River valley.[55] European contact with the area began in 1743, when the LaVérendrye brothers explored the region. The LaVérendrye group buried a plate near the site of modern-day Pierre, claiming the region for France as part of greater Louisiana.[56] In 1762 the entire region became part of the Spanish Louisiana until 1802.[57][58] By the early 19th century, the Sioux had largely replaced the Arikara as the dominant group in the area.[59]
In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory, an area that included most of South Dakota, from Napoleon Bonaparte, and President Thomas Jefferson organized a group commonly referred to as the "Lewis and Clark Expedition" to explore the region.[60] In 1817, an American fur trading post was set up at present-day Fort Pierre, beginning continuous American settlement of the area.[61] In 1855, the U.S. Army bought Fort Pierre but abandoned it in 1857 in favor of Fort Randall to the south.[61] Settlement by Americans and Europeans was by this time increasing rapidly, and in 1858 the Yankton Sioux signed the 1858 Treaty, ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to the United States.[62]
Deadwood, like many other Black Hills towns, was founded after the discovery of gold.
Land speculators founded two of eastern South Dakota's largest present-day cities: Sioux Falls in 1856[63] and Yankton in 1859.[64] In 1861, the Dakota Territory was established by the United States government (this initially included North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Montana and Wyoming).[65] Settlement of the area, mostly by people from the eastern United States as well as western and northern Europe, increased rapidly,[66] especially after the completion of an eastern railway link to Yankton in 1873.[67]
In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills during a military expedition led by George A. Custer[68][69] and miners and explorers began illegally entering land promised to the Lakota. Custer's expedition took place despite the fact that the Sioux had been granted the entire western half of present-day South Dakota (West River) in 1868 by the Treaty of Laramie as part of the Great Sioux Reservation.[70] The Sioux declined 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.[71] Eventually the U.S. won and broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into five reservations, settling the Lakota there.[61] In 1980 the Supreme Court and Congress ordered compensation but the Lakota still refuse to accept it, insisting on return of their land.[72]
A harvest in South Dakota, 1898
A growing population and political concerns caused Dakota Territory to be divided in half and President Benjamin Harrison signed proclamations formally admitting South Dakota and North Dakota to the union on November 2, 1889.[73][74] Harrison had the papers shuffled to obscure which one was signed first and the order went unrecorded.[74][75]
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 Lakota Sioux Nation, the massacre resulted in the deaths of at least 146 Sioux, many of them women and children.[76] 31 U.S. soldiers were also killed in the conflict.[76]
A South Dakota farm during the Dust Bowl, 1936. Normal tilling practices turn South Dakota's fragile soil into a fine, loose powder that blows away, and sometimes covered vehicles, equipment, and buildings with dust during the Dust Bowl.[77]
During the 1930s, several economic and climatic conditions combined with disastrous results for South Dakota. A lack of rainfall, extremely high temperatures and inappropriate cultivation techniques produced what was known as the Dust Bowl in South Dakota and several other plains states. Fertile topsoil was blown away in massive dust storms, and several harvests were completely ruined.[78] The experiences of the Dust Bowl, coupled with local bank foreclosures and the general economic effects of the Great Depression, resulted in many South Dakotans leaving the state. The population of South Dakota declined by more than 7% between 1930 and 1940.[79]
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.[80] 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 in South Dakota.[81] Flood control, hydroelectricity, and recreational opportunities such as boating and fishing are provided by the dams and their reservoirs.[81]
In recent decades, South Dakota has been transformed from a state dominated by agriculture to one with a more diversified economy. The tourism industry has grown considerably since the completion of the interstate system in the 1960s, with the Black Hills becoming more important as a destination. 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 been followed by several other financial companies. South Dakota was the first state to eliminate caps on interest rates.[82]
In 2007, the site of the recently closed Homestake gold mine near Lead was chosen as the location of a new underground research facility, the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.[83] Despite a growing state population and recent economic development, many rural areas have been struggling over the past 50 years with locally declining populations and the emigration of educated young adults to larger South Dakota cities, such as Rapid City or Sioux Falls, or to other states.[84] Mechanization and consolidation of agriculture has contributed greatly to the declining number of smaller family farms and the resulting economic and demographic challenges facing rural towns.[85] However, the state often ranks highly for its way of life, and Gallup's well-being index in 2018 named South Dakota the happiest, healthiest state in the United States.[86]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of South Dakota
South Dakota population density map
Historical population
Census Pop. %±
1860 4,837 —
1870 11,776 143.5%
1880 98,268 734.5%
1890 348,600 254.7%
1900 401,570 15.2%
1910 583,888 45.4%
1920 636,547 9.0%
1930 692,849 8.8%
1940 642,961 −7.2%
1950 652,740 1.5%
1960 680,514 4.3%
1970 665,507 −2.2%
1980 690,768 3.8%
1990 696,004 0.8%
2000 754,844 8.5%
2010 814,180 7.9%
2020 886,667 8.9%
Source: 1910–2020[87]
Population
According to the 2020 Census, the population of South Dakota was 886,667 on April 1, 2020, an 8.90% increase since the 2010 United States Census, only North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, a
