Encyclopedia
South Dakota is a
Midwestern state in the
United States. It is named after the
Lakota and
Dakota American Indian tribes.
South Dakota was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889.
North Dakota was admitted on the same day.
It is probably best known as the location of
Mount Rushmore.
Geography
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. It is one of the six states of the Frontier Strip.
The
Missouri River runs through the central part of South Dakota. To the east of the river lie low hills and lakes formed by glaciers. Fertile farm country covers the area. To the west of the river the land consists of deep canyons and rolling plains.
South Dakota consists of four major land regions: the
Drift Prairie, the
Dissected Till Plains, the
Great Plains, and the
Black Hills.
The Drift Prairie covers most of eastern South Dakota. This is the land of low hills and glacial lakes. This area was called Coteau des Prairies by early French traders. In the north, the Coteau des Prairies is bordered on the east by the
Minnesota River Valley and on the west by the James River Basin. The James River Basin is mostly flat land, following the flow of the James River through South Dakota from north to south.
The Dissected Till Plains lie in the southeastern corner of South Dakota. This area of rolling hills is criss-crossed by many streams.
The Great Plains cover most of the western two-thirds of South Dakota. The Coteau de Missouri hills and valleys lie between the James River Basin of the Drift Prairie and the Missouri River. West of the Missouri River the landscape becomes more rugged and consists of rolling hills, plains, canyons, and steep flat-topped hills called
buttes. These buttes sometimes rise 400 to 600
feet above the plains. In the south, east of the Black Hills, lie the South Dakota
Badlands.
The Black Hills are in the southwestern part of South Dakota and extend into Wyoming. This range of low mountains covers 6,000 square miles with mountains that rise from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above their bases. The highest point in South Dakota,
Harney Peak , is in the Black Hills. The Black Hills are rich in minerals such as
gold,
silver,
copper, and
lead. The Homestake Mine, one of the largest gold mines in the United States, is located in the Black Hills.
Major South Dakota rivers include the
Cheyenne River, Missouri River, James River, and the White River. Major lakes, all reservoirs, are
Lake Oahe, Lake Francis Case, and Lewis and Clark Lake.
Areas under the management of the
National Park Service include:
...
near
Hot SpringsHistory
Human beings have lived in what is today South Dakota for at least several thousand years.
French and other European explorers in the 1700s encountered a variety of groups including the Omaha and
Arikara , but by the early 1800s the
Sioux were dominant. In 1743, the LaVerendrye brothers buried a plate near the modern capital
Pierre claiming the region for
France as part of greater
Louisiana. In 1803, the United States purchased the
Louisiana Territory from
Napoleon, though the native peoples inhabiting most of this area were not aware of the transaction.
President
Thomas Jefferson organized a group called the Corps of Discovery, led by
Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark , to explore the newly-acquired region. In 1817, an American fur trading post was set up at present-day
Fort Pierre, beginning continuous American settlement of the area. Through much of the 19th century, exploratory expeditions such as those of Lewis and Clark and
Joseph Nicollet coincided with an increasing presence of the
U.S. Army. In 1855, the U.S. Army bought
Fort Pierre but abandoned it the following year in favor of
Fort Randall to the south. Settlement by Americans and Europeans was, by this time, increasing rapidly, and in 1858, the Yankton,
Dakota, and
Sioux resigned themselves to signing the 1858 Treaty, ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to the
United States. Of this, Yankton leader
Strike-the-Ree said "The white men are coming like
maggots. It is useless to resist them.... Many of our brave warriors would be killed, our women and children left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them."
Land speculators founded two of eastern South Dakota's largest present-day cities:
Sioux Falls in 1856 and Yankton in 1859. In 1861,
Dakota Territory was recognized by the United States government . Settlers from
Scandinavia,
Germany,
Ireland, and
Russia, as well as elsewhere in
Europe and from the eastern U.S. states, increased from a trickle to a flood, especially after the completion of an eastern railway link to the territorial capital of Yankton in 1872, and the discovery of gold in the
Black Hills in 1874 during a military expedition led by
George A. Custer. This expedition took place despite the fact that all of Dakota Territory west of the
Missouri River had been granted to the Sioux by the Treaty of 1868 as part of the Great Sioux Nation. 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.
Native Americans were unable to compete with the greater numbers and superior weaponry available to U.S. forces. They were also hampered by the sharp decline in numbers of the
buffalo, which was a major food source of the Sioux. Between 1878 and 1886, the Euro-American settler population of eastern Dakota Territory tripled. The last major incident in this struggle occurred on December 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek in present-day western South Dakota, when U.S. soldiers massacred as many as 300 Sioux, mostly women and children.
Just over a year earlier, on November 2, 1889, Dakota Territory was incorporated into the United States as the modern states of North Dakota and South Dakota.
Demographics
| Historical populations |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|---|
|
| 1860 | 4,837 |
| 1870 | 11,776 |
| 1880 | 98,268 |
| 1890 | 348,600 |
| 1900 | 401,570 |
| 1910 | 583,888 |
| 1920 | 636,547 |
| 1930 | 692,849 |
| 1940 | 642,961 |
| 1950 | 652,740 |
| 1960 | 680,514 |
| 1970 | 665,507 |
| 1980 | 690,768 |
| 1990 | 696,004 |
| 2000 | 754,844 |
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, South Dakota has an estimated population of 775,933, which is an increase of 5,312, or 0.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 21,093, or 2.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 19,199 people and an increase due to net migration of 3,222 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 3,957 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 735 people.
The five largest ancestry groups in South Dakota are:
German ,
Norwegian ,
Irish , Native American , English .
German-Americans are the largest ancestry group in most parts of the state, especially in the east, although there are also large Scandinavian populations in some counties. American Indians, largely Sioux, are predominant in several counties. South Dakota has the third highest proportion of Native Americans of any state, behind only
Alaska and
New Mexico.
6.8% of South Dakota's population were reported as under 5, 26.8% under 18, and 14.3% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.4% of the population.
Rural flight
South Dakota, in common with five other Midwest states , is experiencing a trend of falling populations. 89% of the total number of cities in these six states have fewer than 3,000 people; hundreds have fewer than 1000. Between 1996 and 2004, almost half a million people, nearly half with college degrees, left the six states. "Rural flight" as it is called has led to offers of free land and tax breaks as enticements to newcomers.
The effect of rural flight has not been spread evenly through South Dakota, however. Although most rural counties and small towns have lost population, the Sioux Falls area and the Black Hills have gained population. This growth has compensated for losses in the rest of the state; therefore, South Dakota's total population continues to increase.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of South Dakota are:
- Christian – 91%
- Protestant – 65%
- Roman Catholic – 25%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 8%
Economy
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross state product of South Dakota was $29.4 billion as of 2004. The per capita personal income was $26,894 in 2004, the 37th highest in the nation and 13.08 percent below the national average. 13.2% of the population is below the poverty line.
South Dakota does not levy inheritance taxes, personal or corporate
income taxes or taxes on intangible personal property. The state sales tax is 4 percent.
Personal and property taxes are local taxes and are the primary source of funding for school systems, counties, municipalities and other local government units. Their administration is a local responsibility. The state revenue department does not collect or use property taxes, but it does centrally assess the property of large companies. Property owners in South Dakota may be taxed by two or more of the following units of government: cities, counties, townships, school districts, water districts, and, in some cases, units such as fire and sanitary sewer districts.
Transportation
South Dakota
license plates are numbered by
county, with the first digit referring to the county of origin. Such a numbering system allows one to easily determine where the vehicle was registered. Counties 1–9 are ranked, roughly, by population., and counties 10–67 are numbered alphabetically.
Law and government
The state of South Dakota has three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial.
The current governor is Mike Rounds.
Currently, there are 35 members of the state Senate and 70 members of the House of Representatives. The state is comprised of 35 legislative districts. Voters elect 1 senator and 2 representatives from each district. The legislature meets once a year on the second Tuesday in January, and also if the governor calls a special session.
The state Supreme Court is the highest court in South Dakota and the court of last resort for state appellate actions. The chief justice and four justices comprise the South Dakota Supreme Court. South Dakota is divided into seven judicial circuits. There are 38 circuit judges serving in the seven circuits. Circuit courts are the state's trial courts of general jurisdiction. There are 12 full-time and 3 part-time magistrate judges in the seven circuits. Magistrate courts assist the circuit courts in disposing of misdemeanor criminal cases and minor civil actions. These courts of limited jurisdiction make the judicial system more accessible to the public by providing a means of direct court contact for the average citizen.
Federal government representation is currently serviced by
Senator Tim Johnson, Senator
John Thune, and
Representative Stephanie Herseth.
Politics
South Dakota politics are generally dominated by the Republican Party, and the state has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 — especially notable when one considers that
George McGovern, the Democratic nominee in 1972, was from South Dakota. In 2004,
George W. Bush won the state's three electoral votes with 59.9% of the vote.
There are only five reliably Democratic counties in the state — most of them with primarily American Indian populations. Republicans have won the last seven gubernatorial elections and have controlled the legislature, with one brief interruption, for over thirty years. Democrats, however, have been successful in winning election to
Congress from South Dakota, including former Senators
Tom Daschle,
James Abourezk and George McGovern; current Senator
Tim Johnson; and current Representative
Stephanie Herseth.
While President Bush received a lower vote percentage in 2004 than he did in 2000, he still received a very strong 60% of the popular vote. Part of the deviation had to do with record turnout driven by the intense Senate campaigns that year. Republicans hold a 9% registration advantage over Democrats and hold large majorities in both the state House of Representatives and Senate. Additionally, all but one of the statewide elected constitutional officers are Republicans.
Senator
Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader of the Senate and a fixture of South Dakota politics for more than a quarter century, lost his seat in a historic political upset by former U.S. Representative
John Thune. The 2004 election defeat marks the first time since 1952 a sitting Senate Leader lost a bid for re-election.
South Dakota, however, has a history of replacing powerful members of the Senate. Former Commerce Committee Chairmam
Larry Pressler lost to then-Congressman Tim Johnson in 1996, and 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern was defeated by Senator James Abdnor in 1980. Abdnor was, in turn, defeated by Daschle.
The state is divided, culturally and politically, by the
Missouri River, which bisects the state. The area east of the Missouri River , is generally more moderate, with views that are more in line with those found in its Midwestern neighbors Iowa and Minnesota. "West River," however, is more conservative, with views that are generally more in line with those found in its western neighbors Montana and Wyoming. On the whole, however, the state is quite conservative. For example, South Dakota is considered one of the most politically
pro-life states in the United States.
Important cities and towns
Education
Miscellaneous topics
A bill for
statehood for North and South Dakota , the Enabling Act of 1889, was passed on February 22 1889 during the Administration of
Grover Cleveland. It was left to his successor
Benjamin Harrison to sign proclamations formally admitting North and South Dakota to the Union on November 2 1889. However, the rivalry between the northern and southern territories presented a dilemma of which was to be admitted first. So Harrison directed his Secretary of State
James Blaine to shuffle the papers and obscure from him which he was signing first, and the actual priority went unrecorded. However, since North Dakota came first in the alphabet, its proclamation was published first in the Statutes At Large; thus it has traditionally been deemed admitted first.
Harney Peak, in the
Black Hills, is the highest point between the
Rocky Mountains and the French
Alps. More than 70,000 people hike to its 7,242 foot summit each year. The ashes of Dr.
Valentine McGillycuddy, the first white man to climb Harney Peak, are sealed in a crypt at the top of the mountain.
The deepest mine in the United States, the Homestake
gold mine is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, near the town of
Lead. Its shaft plunges more than 8,000 feet beneath the surface. From 1969 to 1993, it was home to the Homestake Chlorine Solar
Neutrino Experiment, famous for detecting the
solar neutrino problem. The South Dakota State Legislature and governor recently passed legislation giving the mine to the
National Science Foundation for use as an underground research laboratory.
South Dakota is home to the largest naturally heated indoor swimming pool in the world. Evans Plunge, heated from natural mineral springs, is in
Hot Springs.
The
Black Hills of South Dakota was one of the sites considered for the permanent home of the
United Nations.
South Dakota has the largest U.S. population of
Hutterites, who originally emigrated from Ukraine in 1874, left en masse for Canada in 1918 following persecution over their pacifist religious beliefs, and partially returned in the 1930s.
The largest and most complete fossil of
Tyrannosaurus rex is a genus [i] of tyrannosaurid [i] theropod [i] dinosaur [i]. ...
ever found was uncovered near
Faith in 1990. Named "Sue," the remains are over 90% complete and are currently on display at the
Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago,
Illinois.
Citibank rechartered itself as a South Dakota
bank in 1981 to take advantage of a new law that set South Dakota's maximum permissible interest rate on loans to 25%, then the highest in the nation . However, South Dakota's dreams of becoming a major financial center were dashed when
Delaware matched its move the next year, and banks in search of the right to charge high interest rates flocked to Delaware instead.
The 1990 movie
Dances With Wolves is a 1990 [i] epic film [i] which tells the story of a United States [i] cavalry [i] ...
directed by and starring
Kevin Costner as Lieutenant John Dunbar was filmed entirely in South Dakota.
Three
US Navy&
