Established as the Pine Ridge Agency in southwestern South Dakota between Nebraska and the Black Hills in 1878, Pine Ridge became a reservation in 1889. The second-largest reservation in the country, comprised of almost 2 million acres, it is home to 38,000 residents, almost 18,000 of whom are enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The history of the Pine Ridge Reservation is laden with both ...
The Black Hills have been famous ever since the gold rush days of the 1870s when General George A. Custer’s expedition in the summer of 1874 found and advertised placer gold in the Black Hills valleys and a rush to the Hills began. Indian claimants to the area were placated, defeated or ignored and by 1875 a gold rush that continues to the present was under way. The Homestake Mining Company ...
Published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the admission of South Dakota to the Union, "South Dakota Leaders" profiles 29 men and women whose achievements have figured prominently in the history of the 40th state. The editors have included essays on such famous South Dakotans as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, George McGovern, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. There are also profiles of lesser known ...