Come to South Dakota

• South Dakota overview
• South Dakota history
• South Dakota Law
• Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park Badlands National Park, in southwest series of papers about North American South Dakota, preserves 242,756 acres fossils, 84 distinct species had been (982 km2)[1] of sharply eroded buttes, discovered in North America - 77 of pinnacles and spires blended with the which were found in the White River largest protected mixed grass prairie in Badlands. In 1870 a Yale professor, O. the United States. C. Marsh, visited the region and The Badlands Wilderness protects 64,250 developed more refined methods of acres (259 km2) of the park as a extracting and reassembling fossils into designated wilderness area[2] and is the nearly complete skeletons. From 1899 to site of the reintroduction of the today, the South Dakota School of Mines black-footed ferret, the most endangered has sent people almost every year and land mammal in North America. remains one of the most active research The Stronghold Unit is co-managed with institutions working in the White River the Oglala Sioux tribe and includes Badlands. Throughout the late 1800s and sites of 1890s Ghost Dances and a former continuing today, scientists and United States Air Force bomb and gunnery institutions from all over the world range. have benefited from the fossil resources Over 11,000 years of human history in of the White River Badlands. The White the park pales in comparison to the River Badlands have developed an ages-old paleontological resources also international reputation as a fossil found there. Badlands National Park rich area. They contain the richest contains the world's richest Oligocene deposits of Oligocene mammals known, epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 providing a brief glimpse of life in million years old. Scientists can study this area 33 million years ago. the evolution of mammal species such as Comparisons between the fossils here and the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig in fossils of similar age around the world the Badlands formations. have helped paint a picture of life on Human History earth millions of years ago. American Indians Homesteaders For eleven thousand years, Native Aspects of American homesteading began Americans have used this area for their before the end of the American Civil hunting grounds. Long before the Lakota War; however, homesteading didn't really were the little-studied paleo-Indians, impact the Badlands until well into the followed by the Arikara people. Their 20th century. Many hopeful farmers descendants live today in North Dakota travelled to South Dakota from Europe or as a part of the Three Affiliated the East Coast to try to eke out a Tribes. Archaeological records combined living in this hard place. The standard with oral traditions indicate that these size for a homestead was 160 acres. This people camped in secluded valleys where proved far too small to support a family fresh water and game were available year in a semi-arid, wind-swept environment. round. Eroding out of the stream banks In the western Dakotas, the size of a today are the rocks and charcoal of homestead was increased to 640 acres. their campfires, as well as the Cattle grazed and crops like winter arrowheads and tools they used to wheat and hay were cut annually. butcher bison, rabbits, and other game. However, the Great Dust Bowl events of From the top of the Badlands Wall, they the 1930s combined with waves of could scan the area for enemies and grasshoppers proved too much for most of wandering herds. If hunting was good, the hardy souls of the Badlands. Houses they might hang on into winter, before built out of sod blocks and heated by retracing their way to their villages buffalo chips were soon abandoned. Those along the Missouri River. By one hundred who remained are still here today - and fifty years ago, the Great Sioux ranching and raising wheat. Nation consisting of seven bands Gunnery Range History including the Oglala Lakota, had The Stronghold District of Badlands displaced the other tribes from the National Park offers more than scenic northern prairie. badlands with spectacular views. The next great change came toward the Co-managed by the National Park Service end of the 19th century as homesteaders and the Oglala Sioux Tribe, this 133,300 moved into South Dakota. The U.S. acre area is also steeped in history. government stripped Native Americans of Deep draws, high tables, and rolling much of their territory and forced them prairie hold the stories of the earliest to live on reservations. In the fall and Plains hunters, the paleo-Indians, as early winter of 1890, thousands of well as the present day Lakota Nation. Native American followers, including Homesteaders and fossil hunters have many Oglala Sioux, became followers of also made their mark on the land. There the Indian prophet Wovoca. His vision is a more recent role this remote, called for the native people to dance sparsely populated area has played in the Ghost Dance and wear Ghost Shirts, U.S. history: World War II and the which would be impervious to bullets. Badlands gunnery range. Wovoca had predicted that the white man As a part of the war effort, the U.S. would vanish and their hunting grounds Air Force (USAF) took possession of would be restored. One of the last known 341,726 acres of land on the Pine Ridge Ghost Dances was conducted on Stronghold Reservation, home of the Oglala Sioux Table in the South Unit of Badlands people, for a gunnery range. Included in National Park. As winter closed in, the this range was 337 acres from then ghost dancers returned to Pine Ridge Badlands National Monument. This land Agency. The climax of the struggle came was used extensively from 1942 through in late December, 1890. Headed south 1945 as air-to-air and air-to-ground from the Cheyenne River, a band of gunnery ranges. Precision and demolition Minneconjou Sioux Indians crossed a pass bombing exercises were also quite in the Badlands Wall. Pursued by units common. After the war, portions of the of the U.S. Army, they were seeking bombing range were used as an artillery refuge in the Pine Ridge Reservation. range by the South Dakota National The band, led by Chief Big Foot, was Guard. In 1968, most of the range was finally overtaken by the soldiers near declared excess property by the USAF. Wounded Knee Creek in the Reservation 2500 acres are retained by the USAF but and ordered to camp there overnight. The are no longer used. troops attempted to disarm Big Foot's Firing took place within most of the band the next morning. Gunfire erupted. present day Stronghold District. Land Before it was over, nearly two hundred was bought to leased form individual Indians and thirty soldiers lay dead. landowners and the Tribe in order to The massacre at Wounded Knee was the clear the area of human occupation. Old last major clash between American car bodies and 55 gallon drums painted Indians and the U.S. military until the bright yellow were used as targets. American Indian Freedom actions of the Bulls-eyes 250 feet across were plowed 1970s, most notably again, at Wounded into the ground and used as targets by Knee, South Dakota.Wounded Knee is not bombardier bombing flights. Small within the boundaries of Badlands automatic aircraft called "drones" and National Park. It is located 60-foot by 8-foot screens dragged behind approximately 45 miles south of the park planes served as mobile targets. Today, on Pine Ridge Reservation. The U.S. the ground is littered with discarded government and the Oglala Lakota Nation bullet shells and unexploded ordinance. have agreed that this is a story to be For safety, 125 families were relocated told by the Oglala of Pine Ridge and from their farms and ranches in the Minneconjou of Standing Rock 1940s. Those that remained nearby recall Reservation. The interpretation of the times when they had to dive under site and its tragic events are held as tractors while out cutting hay to avoid the primary responsibility of these shells dropped by planes miles outside survivors. of the boundary. In the town of Fossil Hunters Interior, both a church and the building The history of the White River Badlands housing the current post office received as a significant paleontological six inch shells through the roof. Pilots resource goes back to the traditional in practice, operating out of Ellsworth Native American knowledge of the area. Air Force Base near Rapid City, found it The Lakota found large fossilized bones, a challenge to determine the exact fossilized seashells and turtle shells. boundaries of the range. Fortunately, They correctly assumed that the area had there were no civilian casualties. once been under water, and that the However, at least a dozen members of bones belonged to creatures which no flight crews lost their lives in plane longer existed. Paleontological interest crashes. in this area began in the 1840s. Just as it was difficult for pilots to Trappers and traders regularly traveled determine the gunnery range from the the 300 miles from Fort Pierre to Fort air, it is challenging to find your way Laramie along a path which skirted the when exploring the Stronghold District. edge of what is now Badlands National There are few roads. The natural Park. Fossils were occasionally conditions of rain and snow add to the collected, and in 1843 a fossilized jaw complexity. Throughout the Stronghold fragment collected by Alexander District are spent 50 caliber machine Culbertson of the American Fur Company gun shells and 20 mm cannon shells. found its way to a physician in St. Larger explosive shells are occasionally Louis by the name of Dr. Hiram A. Prout. found eroding out of the Badlands In 1846, Prout published a paper about buttes. If you find any shells, do not the jaw in the American Journal of touch them. Note where you are. If you Science in which he stated that it had have a map, note on the map where you come from a creature he called a are. As soon as possible, report this to Paleotherium. Shortly after the the White River Ranger Station at (605) publication, the White River Badlands 455 - 2878. The National Park Service, became popular fossil hunting grounds working with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the and, within a couple of decades, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army Corps numerous new fossil species had been of Engineers are undertaking a clean up discovered in the White River Badlands. effort for this sacred ground. Do your In 1849, Dr. Joseph Leidy, published a part. Leave all objects you find in the paper on an Oligocene camel and renamed park in place. Report anything unusual Prout's Paleotherium, Titanotherium you find to a park ranger. prouti. By 1854 when he published a 1 A B C D 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108