The 40th state admitted to the US was South Dakota, on November 2nd, 1889. South Dakota is the 16th largest state in the US with the motto "Under God, the People Rule". The top industry for the state is agriculture, and the second largest industry is tourism. Black Elk Peak, the highest point of the state at 7,242 feet, is also the highest point in the country. Little House on the Prairie was filmed in De Smet, South Dakota, and more than 68,000 South Dakota residents served in World War II. The capital of South Dakota is Pierre, the state bird is the Ring-Necked Pheasant, the state flower is the Pasque, and the state tree is the Black Hills Spruce.
The Paleo-Indians arrived to South Dakota over 11,000 years ago. "Mound Builders" hunted and lived in pop-up villages with earthen homes buried in mounds. Eventually, the Native American tribes found their way to the state. The Sahnish, or Arikara, migrated along the Missouri River from Central America, establishing trade until 1832. The Mandan combined farming with hunting and gathering, and eventually relocated in the 18th century. The Sioux, divided into the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota, each had their own beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies and lived in this area independently for many years. Today, there are nine federally-recognized tribes in South Dakota who make up less than 1/2 of the Native American population on the reservation.
In 1742, French brothers Louis-Joseph and François Sieur de la Vérendryes were the first Europeans to arrive onto South Dakota territory. The French gave South Dakota to the Spanish at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. The Spanish returned the gift to the French in 1800, and the US bought the entire area from France in 1803 for $15 million with the Louisiana Purchase. The first written accounts of the area came in 1804 when Lewis and Clark set out for their expedition. A fur trading outpost in Fort Pierre put South Dakota on the map with the oldest and most successful white settlement. At the same time, the state was mostly uncolonized, and by 1860, less than 5,000 white settlers lived there. In 1861, the Dakota Territory was established. White settlers looked to gain Indigenous land as they moved west for farming and industry. European trappers hunted the bison on the plains for fur, and the Sioux Indians saw bison as sacred. The bison population decreased in large numbers, which affected the Indigenous and their uses of bison for food, clothing, weapons, tools, trade, and shelter. Twenty-four million acres from South Dakota to Iowa, to Minnesota was sold to the US with treaties. Almost no payments were ever made, and the government allowed settlers to encroach areas they didn't own. The Dakota Uprising of 1862 ended in the removal of Native Americans who lived in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Gold was found in the Black Hills, and minors flooded the area. A war eventually broke out between the US military and the Lakota Sioux over treaty violations, and the greatest Indigenous victory occurred at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, or Custer's Last Stand. After that, the US fought back until all of the Indigenous land was confiscated in 1877. A railroad line was built in 1872, and the "Great Dakota Boom" brought a rush of "gold-diggers" from 1870-1890. In 1889, the "Omnibus Bill" was adopted to divide the Dakota Territory into North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to create constitutions. Soon after that, South Dakota entered statehood with North Dakota as the 40th state to enter the union.
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