South Dakota 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 […]

A sunrise silhouette of the entrance to the Wounded Knee Massacre memorial in South Dakota. (Getty Images)

Wounded Knee Massacre monument vandalized, damaged

BY: - September 20, 2023

A monument erected over a century ago to honor tribal leaders killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre was broken and vandalized earlier this month on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A decorative element resembling an urn was pulled off the top of the monument, despite being held in place by a pin or rod. The element […]

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 […]

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 […]

Daughter-mother duo Marcella Gilbert and Madonna Thunder Hawk (left to right) pose for a photo for the "Warrior Women" documentary film. (Courtesy of Castle King LLC)

Mission of Wounded Knee activists continues 50 years later with children, grandchildren

BY: - February 27, 2023

The world had largely forgotten about Native American people by the early 1970s, said Marcella Gilbert. Native populations had been decimated by disease and colonization; their sprawling homeland where ancestors had roamed was splintered into reservations. The Lakota language was nearly extinct and practicing the Lakota religion was illegal. “People across the world didn’t even […]

Educators at Harrisburg Freedom Elementary School hold signs opposing the revised social studies standards from the South Dakota Board of Education Standards at a walk-in on Nov. 16, 2022. (Courtesy of Harrisburg Freedom Elementary)

Social Studies standards revision meeting draws nearly 900 public comments before deadline

BY: - November 17, 2022

The South Dakota Board of Education Standards will hold its second meeting since revealing the revised social studies standards that drew controversy again this summer.  A day before the official deadline to register or submit public comments, the Board had received nearly 900 comments from teachers, school board members, parents, school administrators and more. The […]