South Dakota

South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889, as the fortieth state. Located in the western north-central United States, it is bordered by Nebraska , Wyoming , Montana , North Dakota , Minnesota , and Iowa .

Although the area was once home to several Native American tribes, by the mid-1830s the Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) were dominant. The United States acquired present-day South Dakota through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through in 1804 and 1806.

The Dakota Territory was organized in 1861 to include present-day Wyoming and Montana as well as the Dakotas. Within seven years it included only the Dakotas. A gold rush in 1867 brought thousands of settlers and prospectors to the Black Hills.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most residents made a living by farming and livestock raising. Others sold grain and mined for gold. After a road system was built and a tourist industry developed in the early 1900s, the job market opened up. In the 1930s the state was heavily hit by drought and the Great Depression , but the economy revived after World War II (1939–45). Federal programs helped both whites and Native Americans during periods of difficulty.

In 1890, responding to an uprising, the U.S. cavalry massacred hundreds of Sioux in the Battle of Wounded Knee. In 1973 about two hundred armed Sioux, led by members of the American Indian Movement , took over the village of Wounded Knee and staged a demonstration, protesting broken treaties, that lasted for seventy days. In 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an award of $105 million in compensation for land in the Black Hills that had been unlawfully taken by the federal government in 1877. Native Americans, who wanted not money but land, refused the settlement.

South Dakota's population in 2006 was 781,919. About 88 percent were white, with 8.4 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 1.9 percent Hispanic or Latino. The largest city is Sioux Falls, with 139,517 residents. The state capital is Pierre.

Agriculture continued to dominate the state's economy in the early twenty-first century. Grains and livestock are the main farm products. South Dakota's manufacturing employees work primarily in food and food-related products industries, computer equipment, and machinery. The state's largest industry is tourism. Most tourist attractions lie west of the Missouri River, mainly in the Black Hills region. Visitors come to see Mount Rushmore , the Badlands National Monument, and the childhood home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957).