Portal:South Dakota


The South Dakota Portal

South Dakota (/dəˈktə/ ; Siouan languages: Dakȟóta itókaga, pronounced [daˈkˣota iˈtokaga]) is a landlocked state in the Upper Midwest, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota Sioux tribe, which comprises a large portion of the population and has historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the 17th-largest by area, the fifth-least populous, and the fifth-least densely populated of the 50 United States. Pierre is the state capital, and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 213,900, is the most populous city. The Missouri River bisects the state into two geographically and socially distinct halves colloquially known as "East River" and "West River". South Dakota is bordered by North Dakota to the north, Minnesota to the east, Iowa to the southeast, Nebraska to the south, Wyoming to the west, and Montana to the northwest.

Humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a gold rush in the Black Hills and the construction of railroads from the east. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union; President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them so that no one could tell which became a state first.

Major events in the 20th century included the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, increased federal spending during the 1940s and 1950s for agriculture and defense, and the industrialization of agriculture, which has reduced family farming. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of its population, and a variety of crops grow in the area's fertile soil. West of the Missouri River, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are in West River. The Black Hills, a group of low, pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, is in the southwest part of the state, and contains Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination. South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation levels ranging from moderate in the east to semiarid in the west. The state's ecology features species typical of a North American grassland biome. (Full article...)

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Mass grave for the Lakota dead after the massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, involved nearly three hundred Lakota people killed by soldiers of the United States Army. More than 250 and up to 300 Lakota people were killed and 51 wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died later). Twenty-five U.S. soldiers were killed and 39 were wounded (six of the wounded later died). Nineteen soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor specifically for Wounded Knee, and overall 31 for the campaign.

The event, which was part of what the U.S. military called the Pine Ridge Campaign, occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota people at the camp. The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside approached Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them five miles (eight kilometers) westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. The Army was catering to the anxiety of settlers who called the conflict the Messiah War and were worried the ceremonial Ghost Dance signified a potentially dangerous Sioux resurgence. Historian Jeffrey Ostler wrote in 2004, "Wounded Knee was not made up of a series of discrete unconnected events. Instead, from the disarming to the burial of the dead, it consisted of a series of acts held together by an underlying logic of racist domination." (Full article...)

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Satellite perspective of the tornadic supercells over the Great Plains on the evening of May 5

From May 4–6, 2007, a major and damaging tornado outbreak significantly affected portions of the Central United States, with several strong to violent long-track tornadoes occurring across much of the impacted regions. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms for May 4 over portions of Central Nebraska, Western Kansas, Western Oklahoma, Eastern Colorado and portions of the Texas Panhandle. The most destructive tornado in the outbreak occurred on the evening of May 4 in western Kansas, where about 95% of the city of Greensburg in Kiowa County was damaged or destroyed by an EF5 tornado, the first rated as such on the Enhanced Fujita Scale since its introduction months earlier, and the first to reach such a high rating since the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado (rated F5 on the legacy Fujita scale). The supercell killed 13 people, including 11 in Greensburg and two from separate tornadoes. At least 63 people were injured in Greensburg alone. It was the strongest tornado of an outbreak which included several other tornadoes reported across Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and South Dakota that occurred on the same night.

On the morning of May 5, the SPC issued a high risk across central Kansas and Nebraska. The Storm Prediction Center also issued a moderate risk for southern South Dakota and northwest Oklahoma and a slight risk for most of Oklahoma, northern South Dakota, southern North Dakota, eastern Nebraska, western Iowa and northeastern Colorado. Severe weather reports were already coming in by late morning, and the first tornado reports came in during the early afternoon hours. The most intense activity took place during the late afternoon and evening hours as supercells developed along a long line from South Dakota to North Texas. Over 80 tornadoes were confirmed that day, along with hail as large as softballs and straight–line winds as strong as 90 mph (145 km/h). The activity weakened in the late evening, but not before the last tornadoes were reported in Iowa in the overnight hours. The SPC also issued a moderate risk for severe storms over parts of central Kansas and northern Oklahoma on May 6. The activity was far less than on the two previous days, however there were still several additional tornadoes across the Plains, all of which were weak. 14 fatalities and 89 injuries occurred as a result of the tornadoes, nearly all of which came from the Greensburg tornado on May 4. (Full article...)

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Largest cities

Cities in South Dakota, with their populations (as of July 1, 2020, as enumerated by the 2020 United States census):

2020 rank City 2020 census[1] 2010 census[2] Change County
1 Sioux Falls † 192,517 153,888 +25.10% Minnehaha
Lincoln
2 Rapid City † 74,703 67,956 +9.93% Pennington
3 Aberdeen † 28,495 26,091 +9.21% Brown
4 Brookings † 23,377 22,056 +5.99% Brookings
5 Watertown † 22,655 21,482 +5.46% Codington
6 Mitchell † 15,660 15,254 +2.66% Davison
7 Yankton † 15,411 14,454 +6.62% Yankton
8 Huron † 14,263 12,592 +13.27% Beadle
9 Pierre ‡ 14,091 13,646 +3.26% Hughes
10 Spearfish 12,193 10,494 +16.19% Lawrence
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State capital and county seat

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  • WikiProject South Dakota
  • WikiProject United States

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Sources

  1. ^ "2020 Census Results". United States Census Bureau, Population Division. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  2. ^ "2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File". American FactFinder2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census. Retrieved October 29, 2012.