| Human beings have lived in what is today | | | | South Dakota's largest present-day |
| South Dakota for at least several | | | | cities: Sioux Falls in 1856 and Yankton |
| thousand years. French and other | | | | in 1859. In 1861, Dakota Territory was |
| European explorers in the 1700s | | | | recognized by the United States |
| encountered a variety of groups | | | | government (this initially included |
| including the Omaha and Arikara (Ree), | | | | North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of |
| but by the early 1800s the Sioux | | | | Montana and Wyoming). Settlers from |
| (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) were | | | | Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, and |
| dominant. In 1743, the LaVerendrye | | | | Russia, as well as elsewhere in Europe |
| brothers buried a plate near the modern | | | | and from the eastern U.S. states, |
| capital Pierre (pronounced as "peer") | | | | increased from a trickle to a flood, |
| claiming the region for France as part | | | | especially after the completion of an |
| of greater Louisiana. In 1803, the | | | | eastern railway link to the territorial |
| United States purchased the Louisiana | | | | capital of Yankton in 1872, and the |
| Territory from Napoleon, though the | | | | discovery of gold in the Black Hills in |
| native peoples inhabiting most of this | | | | 1874 during a military expedition led by |
| area were not aware of the transaction. | | | | George A. Custer. This expedition took |
| President Thomas Jefferson organized a | | | | place despite the fact that all of |
| group called the Corps of Discovery, led | | | | Dakota Territory west of the Missouri |
| by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark | | | | River (along with much of Nebraska, |
| (commonly referred to as "Lewis and | | | | Montana, and Wyoming) had been granted |
| Clark Expedition"), to explore the | | | | to the Sioux by the Treaty of 1868 as |
| newly-acquired region. In 1817, an | | | | part of the Great Sioux Nation. The |
| American fur trading post was set up at | | | | Sioux declined to grant mining rights or |
| present-day Fort Pierre, beginning | | | | land in the Black Hills, and war broke |
| continuous American settlement of the | | | | out after the U.S. failed to stop white |
| area. Through much of the 19th century, | | | | miners and settlers from entering the |
| exploratory expeditions such as those of | | | | region. |
| Lewis and Clark and Joseph Nicollet | | | | Native Americans were unable to compete |
| coincided with an increasing presence of | | | | with the greater numbers and superior |
| the U.S. Army. In 1855, the U.S. Army | | | | weaponry available to U.S. forces. They |
| bought Fort Pierre but abandoned it the | | | | were also hampered by the sharp decline |
| following year in favor of Fort Randall | | | | in numbers of the buffalo, which was a |
| to the south. Settlement by Americans | | | | major food source of the Sioux. Between |
| and Europeans was, by this time, | | | | 1878 and 1886, the Euro-American settler |
| increasing rapidly, and in 1858, the | | | | population of eastern Dakota Territory |
| Yankton, Dakota, and Sioux resigned | | | | tripled. The last major incident in this |
| themselves to signing the 1858 Treaty, | | | | struggle occurred on December 29, 1890, |
| ceding most of present-day eastern South | | | | at Wounded Knee Creek in present-day |
| Dakota to the United States. Of this, | | | | western South Dakota, when U.S. soldiers |
| Yankton leader Strike-the-Ree said "The | | | | massacred as many as 300 Sioux, mostly |
| white men are coming like maggots. It is | | | | women and children. |
| useless to resist them.... Many of our | | | | Just over a year earlier, on November 2, |
| brave warriors would be killed, our | | | | 1889, Dakota Territory was incorporated |
| women and children left in sorrow, and | | | | into the United States as the modern |
| still we would not stop them." | | | | states of North Dakota and South Dakota. |
| Land speculators founded two of eastern | | | | |