history

COMMENTARY
A man poses with a homestead shack in the area between Dupree and Eagle Butte, on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. (Palmer Sigvald Gilbertson Collection, University of South Dakota)

The cost of free land and either-or history

BY: - November 20, 2023

Some white South Dakotans love to talk about their generational connection to the land. I’m one of them: a proud, fifth-generation descendant of Dakota Territory homesteaders. The federal government awarded nearly 100,000 parcels of free land to South Dakota settlers via the 1862 Homestead Act and successive rounds of related legislation. Modern South Dakotans celebrate […]

The descendants of poet/author John Neihardt work to ease a 3,200-pound monument into place at the state historic site dedicated to Neihardt. The study in the background is where Neihardt wrote “The Song of Hugh Glass,” the subject of the monument. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

Mysterious monument for mountain man Hugh Glass has been moved to Nebraska

BY: - October 23, 2023

BANCROFT, Nebraska — A 3,200-pound concrete “altar of courage,” holding a mysterious and possibly valuable literary manuscript, found a new home Monday in this northeast Nebraska farm town. With the help of a powerful forklift, the monument, built by poet/author John Neihardt and others to honor the heroic crawl of mountain man Hugh Glass after […]

The Hugh Glass monument was originally placed on private ranchland near Lemmon, at the confluence of two forks of the Grand River. But it was later moved to make way for construction of a Bureau of Reclamation dam. (Courtesy of Joseph Weixelman)

Federal agency clarifies it would permit a replacement marker in South Dakota for mountain man

BY: - October 19, 2023

LINCOLN, Nebraska — A federal agency is clarifying its stance on allowing a replacement marker to be installed after the removal this upcoming weekend of a monument to the heroic odyssey of a 1800s mountain man in a remote corner of South Dakota. Elizabeth Smith, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said Wednesday […]

The monument to Hugh Glass, as seen today, at its new location. (Courtesy of Joseph Weixelman)

Families of poet John Neihardt and South Dakota rancher seek ‘silver lining’ to removal of monument

BY: - October 16, 2023

LINCOLN, Nebraska — Later this week, a backhoe is scheduled to tear into the prairie along northwest South Dakota’s Shadehill Reservoir, removing a 100-year-old monument to the heroics of a mountain man. The removal of the small, concrete obelisk dedicated to the determination of Hugh Glass, who reportedly crawled 200 miles after surviving a vicious […]

The monument to Hugh Glass, as seen today, at its new location. (Courtesy of Joseph Weixelman)

Family of famed poet plans to breach century-old monument to unlock mystery inside

BY: - September 25, 2023

LINCOLN, Nebraska — After gaining federal permission, the family of a famed poet/author plans to trek to a remote corner of northwest South Dakota in October to retrieve a century-old monument dedicated to a heroic mountain man. The goal is to finally unlock a mystery hidden inside the monument, erected at the direction of writer […]

From left, Tamara St. John of the Lake Traverse Reservation and Spirit Lake Tribe Chairwoman Lonna Street talk with Chris Koenig and Meredith Hawkins Trautt, Army Corps of Engineers archeologists and tribal liaisons, at the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery in Pennsylvania. The Sisseton Wahpeton representatives were in the state to begin the reinterment process for two children who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late 1800s. (Courtesy of Tamara St. John)

‘Just a knee bone’: Reinterment brings pain and healing to Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate

BY: - September 20, 2023

They only found a knee bone. That was all that was left of Amos La Framboise in his grave at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where the 13-year-old Sisseton Wahpeton boy was sent to assimilate to white culture in 1879. He died just three weeks after arriving at the school. ‘They are important […]

From left, Nancy Renville, Justine La Framboise, John Renville, Edward Upright and George Walker pose on the bandstand on the Carlisle school grounds in the late 1800s. Amos La Framboise is not pictured. The six children were members of the Spirit Lake and Lake Traverse bands of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. (Photo by John Choate, courtesy of Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center)

‘They are important to us’: Remains of Sisseton Wahpeton children returning home

BY: - September 19, 2023

Amos La Framboise and Edward Upright didn’t know that they’d never see their homes and families again. The boys, of the Spirit Lake and Lake Traverse bands of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, set off to Pennsylvania in 1879 to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.  They didn’t know they would die at the school before […]

Lakota children gather and sing around a drum during the ground blessing for the new Maȟpíya Lúta, formerly Red Cloud Indian School, Heritage Center on Sept. 14, 2023, in Pine Ridge. (Photo by Amelia Schafer, ICT/Rapid City Journal)

Ground blessing marks Pine Ridge’s first stand-alone museum

BY: - September 19, 2023

PINE RIDGE — The new Màpíya Lúta, formerly Red Cloud Indian School, Heritage Center will mark the first stand-alone museum on the Pine Ridge Reservation and will feature one of the largest art collections in South Dakota. “This was one of the institutions that suppressed our culture, but here it is evolving into a place […]

The Hugh Glass monument was originally placed on private ranchland near Lemmon, at the confluence of two forks of the Grand River. But it was later moved to make way for construction of a Bureau of Reclamation dam. (Courtesy of Joseph Weixelman)

Relative of famed author wants to find out what’s inside mysterious South Dakota monument

BY: - August 2, 2023

A lonely monument to the heroics of a frontier mountain man may surrender its secrets after all. That is, if someone can determine who actually owns the monument erected in 1923 to commemorate Hugh Glass, who purportedly crawled, limped and rafted 200 miles after being mauled by a bear and left for dead. This week, […]

The Hugh Glass monument was originally placed on private ranchland near Lemmon, at the confluence of two forks of the Grand River. But it was later moved to make way for construction of a Bureau of Reclamation dam. (Courtesy of Joseph Weixelman)

Group seeks to unlock mysteries surrounding South Dakota monument

BY: - June 9, 2023

On the windswept plains of South Dakota lies a lonely, century-old historical monument holding a literary mystery and wrapped up in a legal conundrum. The concrete capsule honors mountain man Hugh Glass, who crawled, limped and rafted 200 miles after being mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his colleagues in 1823 […]

Teachers of the Oceti Sakowin Community Academy gift backpacks to their inaugural class of kindergarten students in September 2022. (Courtesy of NDN Collective)

States were adding lessons about Native American history. Then came the anti-CRT movement

BY: - April 18, 2023

When the debate over teaching race-related concepts in public schools reached Kimberly Tilsen-Brave Heart’s home state of South Dakota, she decided she couldn’t in good conscience send her youngest daughter to kindergarten at a local public school. “I knew that the public school system would not benefit my child without the important and critical history […]

COMMENTARY
The public listens to testimony on the proposed social studies standards at the South Dakota Board of Education meeting at The Rushmore Hotel in Rapid City on Feb. 10, 2023. (Courtesy of South Dakota Education Association)

Social studies standards would benefit from compromise and more work

BY: - April 4, 2023

A final vote on the proposed social studies standards by the South Dakota Board of Education Standards will be on the agenda for the April 17 meeting in Pierre. This is the last of four statutorily required meetings during the public comment process. As the only principal who served on the 2022 Revision Commission, I […]