Chapter 1 – A Brief History of the Black Hills
So bear with me everyone – this started as an ongoing list
of “fun facts” in preparation for the family’s May trip through South Dakota
and visit to the Black Hills and has morphed into a full-fledged writing
project. Oh well, someone just needs to
take the keyboard away from me…..
In both a wacky and in a smug way, I take pride in South
Dakota. But, I’m also the first person
to make fun of my home state because of its hick, rural, unabashed “ah shucks”
mentality and persona. So I suppose for all
of these reasons lies the explanation of why I am really, really excited for
this upcoming trip. Partly because it’s
been a long time since I’ve visited places I remember as a very young child and
mostly because I get to share the grandeur and the silliness of it with my
family. And all of that makes me smile.
So as we plan for our upcoming journey, I want to share with
you some background, history, and folklore of this state. Some of this information I already knew, most
I had to verify, and much I also learned along the way using trusted sources
like Wikipedia, the City of Yankton website, and the Black Hills Tourist
bureau. Not exactly “All the President’s
Men” kind of crackerjack research but it will suffice for our purposes.
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| A typical view in the Black Hills |
Gorgeous isn’t it? We
will see lots of lots of sights like this during our stay. To start, here’s a little geography lesson to
put it all in context.
The Black Hills covers approximately 5,000 square miles on
the western third of South Dakota and the far eastern slice of Wyoming. Harney Peak, the highest summit in the state
at 7,244 feet, is found in the Black Hills.
It is the highest point in the US east of the Rocky Mountains. You have to head East (BTW, that’s the name
of a band from my youth, Head East – “Never Been Any Reason” – classic rock
from the ‘70’s) all the way to Europe to find a higher peak.
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| Harney Peak - tallest point in South Dakota |
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| Head East - the Band |
Here's a great YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIRP4gydheQ
Oh yeah, you know you love Head East.....sorry, off topic here.
The history of the Black Hills is truly an amazing
story. It’s straight out of the old
West. There’s also snot-nosed buffalo,
awful tourist traps, and some of the prettiest scenery you will ever see on
God’s green earth.
Native Americans first inhabited the area over 9,000 years
ago. The Arikara are the first known Indian
nation to arrive in the Black Hills around 1,500 AD and still exist to this day
mainly in North Dakota. The Arikara
played a big part in the Lewis and Clark expedition. As an important side note, “Arikara” was the
name given to the homecoming celebration at Yankton High School back when I
attended there in the ‘70’s. Not sure if
it’s still called that in this politically correct times we live in. On the same token, our high school nickname
was/is the “Bucks” – back then it had an Indian connotation, now it’s just for
the wimpy deer.
The earliest recordings of European explorers to the area began
in the 1700’s. The famous explorer Jedidiah
Smith travelled through the Hills in 1823.
In case you don’t remember that name from your history studies – he was
one of the first white explorers to blaze trails through the Rockies, up and
down the West Coast, and throughout the Southwest. His biography shows he survived 3 Indian
attacks and a grizzly bear mauling and was finally killed by the Comanche’s at
the ripe old age of 32 while looking for water along the Santa Fe Trail (which happened
to run through Kansas City).
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| One of many books written about Smith |
A last story relating to Smith. One of the many explorers that joined up with
Smith during his treks was a person by the name of Hugh Glass. In August 1823, while scouting ahead of his
party in the northwestern corner of South Dakota, Glass stumbled upon a mama
grizzly bear and her 2 cubs. The bear
charged and as Glass stabbed the bear with his knife, the grizzly continually attacked
him with her teeth and claws. With the
help of 2 companions, they were finally able to kill the bear but Glass had been
badly injured. The 2 companions were to
remain with him for his burial as Glass wasn’t expected to live. Instead, fearing an Indian attack, they left
him alone with no food, guns, or ammo. Only
the bear hide of the grizzly that mauled him.
(Note: 1 of the companions was Jim Bridger, another very famous explorer
– he was involved with the Donner Party and eventually died on his farm just
outside of Kansas City in 1881.)
Left alone, Glass later awoke and found he had a broken leg
along with cuts and gashes on his head and back. His back had exposed rib bones. During the ensuing ordeal, Glass managed to set
his own broken leg, wrapped himself with the hide of the bear that nearly
killed him, and crawled over 200 miles during the next 6 weeks to Fort Kiowa in
south central South Dakota. Yeah, you
read that right – THE DUDE CRAWLED 200 MILES WITH A BROKEN LEG AND GRIZZLY BEAR WOUNDS! Are you kidding me??!! This guy crawled for 6 weeks eating berries,
grass, and an occasional animal carcass he might’ve stumble onto. This amazing story was chronicled in the book
Lord Grizzly by Frederick Mann. I remember being required to read this book
in high school. It’s a great story of
life in the wilderness, survival, revenge, and forgiveness.
Here’s a cool drawing I found of what the bear attack probably
looked like. Vegas had the bear favored
by 7 ½ points -
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| The Fight |
Below is a map showing the approximate path Glass took
during his 200 mile crawl (remember, no roads back then). Rapid City (and the Black Hills) are in the
lower left hand corner. We will drive
along I-90 so will be close to the last part of his route. Fort Kiowa was located near Pukwana, South
Dakota in the bottom right hand corner of the map about 50 miles southeast of
Pierre.
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| The Crawl |
Sorry for the off-topic story but it was always one of my
favorites. OK, back to the history
lesson.
Prior to the arrival of the white man, the Lakota tribe of
the Sioux Indian Nation defeated the Cheyenne and took over the territory of
the Black Hills in 1776. They called the
Black Hills Pahá Sápa. The term
literally means Black Hills as it represents the area’s appearance from a
distance due to the extensive tree cover.
You’ll see why once we get there.
There are also accounts that to the Lakota, Paha Sapa means
“the heart of all there is”. The Lakota
believed the Black Hills to be a very special and magical religious place. Literally, the heart of their Nation.
This map shows the extent of the Lakota Nation. The right edge boundary is the Missouri River
as it winds up Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota and finally into
Montana. Notice the lower right-hand
corner is where Omaha sits with the Platte River as the southern edge.
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| The Lakota Nation |
The Lakota also have an interesting history. There are 7 sub-tribes of the Lakotas. Names that you might recognize. There are the Brule, Oglala, Sans Arc,
Hunkpapa, Black Feet, Two Kettles, and Miniconjou tribes. Notable Lakota descendants include Sitting
Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk, and more recently, the famous U of
Kansas and Olympic track star, Billy Mills (Billy won the 10,000 meters gold
medal in the ‘64 Tokyo Olympics). Billy
was a member of the Oglala Sioux and grew up on a reservation in south central
South Dakota.
Here’s a cool photo of Crazy Horse (more to come about him
in a later post). He was a real
bad-ass…..just ask General Custer.
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| Crazy Horse |
In 1868, the US Government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 exempting all of the Black Hills from
white settlement forever. Unfortunately,
6 years later, gold was discovered in the region by General George Armstrong
Custer during his Black Hills expedition after the end of the Civil War. Miners and prospectors swept through the area
and soon after the US Government reassigned the Lakota people to other reservations
in western South Dakota. To this day,
the Lakota nation lays claim to the region and continues to try and reclaim it
from the Federal Government. The
counties where there are reservations in South Dakota have some of the lowest
per-capita incomes in the entire US.
During the ensuing gold rush, this area became the most
densely populated region of the entire Dakota Territory as South Dakota didn’t
become a state until November 2, 1889.
Cities like Deadwood and Lead were at the heart of this gold rush.
Throughout our visit, you will see many references to the
area’s Indian heritage and ties to the mining industry as it remains active to
this day.
Piqued your interest, didn’t I? More to come!! Next chapter – the history of Crazy Horse.
