Oct. 31st, 2007

Period 4

• The South Dakota Flag features the state seal, surrounded by a golden blazing sun in a field of sky blue. Letters reading “South Dakota, The Mount Rushmore State”, the official nickname, is arranged in a circle around the sun.

• State Bird: Ring-Necked Pheasant

• State Tree: Black Hills Spruce

• State Flower: Pasque

• State Animal: Coyote

• Gemstone: Fairburn agate• Grass: Western Wheatgrass • Insect: Honeybee• Jewelry: Black Hills Gold• Mineral: Rose quartz • Musical Instrument: Fiddle• Song: “Hail, South Dakota”

• Sport: Rodeo• Bread: Fry bread• Dessert: Kuchen• Drink: Milk• Fossil: Triceratops

South Dakota has dramatic weather. Like other states in the middle of North America, South Dakota sometimes experiences huge temperature swings.

Winter days are often far below freezing, and heavy blizzards may strike. Blizzard winds reach 70 miles per hour.

During the summer, long dry periods called droughts can kill a season’s crops. Both tornadoes and floods are common.

A severe drought hit South Dakota farmers hard in 1910 and 1911, causing crops to fail

and forcing many to leave the state for good. Flooding killed 238 residents of Rapid City in 1972, when heavy rain caused a dam to break. Droughts, flooding, blizzards, and

tornadoes have all made their mark on South Dakota’s history.

Miners flooded into the Black Hills when gold was discovered there in 1874. The army tried to keep the miners off of the Sioux lands at first, but this became too difficult. Sioux leaders, like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, attacked the mining camps. Eventually, however, the Sioux were forced onto reservations.

• The arrival of the settlers was not good news for the Sioux. Red Cloud, the chief of the Oglala Sioux, led attacks on the soldiers who protected the trail builders. Red Cloud won, and the government agreed to stop the trail’s construction.

In 1890, the government was afraid that the Sioux would fight again, so they decided to arrest Sitting Bull in the hope of preventing a possible rebellion. On the morning of December 29th, a shot was heard, and the soldiers opened fire on the captives. Twenty-five soldiers and close to 200 Sioux men, women, and children were killed.

• Not many white settlers lived in South Dakota until the 1850s. Because there weren’t a lot of trees around, many settlers built homes called soddies with blocks of prairie grass and dirt. When the railroad reached the area in 1873, it became easier for people to move there. By 1889, South Dakota had enough people to become a state.

I got my Pictures from, Culture Grams, and www.50states.com

I got my information from Culture Grams, and www.50states.com

Power point done by,Ashley Nelson

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