South Dakota State
Agriculture is fundamental to the history of South Dakota. Farming and ranching form the bedrock of the state’s economy, and the land and climate are integral to its experience.
The Missouri River splits South Dakota geographically, with the central lowlands or east river region suited to crop production and the Missouri plateau or west river region, with a shorter growing season and less rainfall, acclimated to ranching. The Black Hills define the western edge of South Dakota.
South Dakota’s history is characterized by cultural diversity, environmental challenges, and periods of agricultural prosperity and depression. Prior to European American settlement, the agrarian Arikara and the itinerant Sioux (Dakota) inhabited the land that is now South Dakota. White westward expansion brought dispossession and exploitation of the native peoples, irrevocably disrupting their cultures and livelihood.
In 1803, the land was acquired by the United States government as part of the Louisiana Purchase, and in 1861, it was organized into Dakota Territory. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 consigned native populations to the Great Sioux Reservation, which comprised the western half of present-day South Dakota. Even with the Homestead Act of 1862, the settlement of eastern Dakota at first progressed slowly and was essentially confined to the southeast corner of the territory. Then the arrival of the railroads, aggressive advertising, and favorable weather patterns gave rise to the Great Dakota Boom. From 1878 to 1887, the rush for land spurred phenomenal growth in the eastern half of Dakota Territory. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the opening of the hills to white settlement also stimulated development. The boom brought Scandinavian, German, German-Russian, Bohemian, Irish, and Dutch immigrants. The 1900 census identified over 60% of South Dakota’s total population as foreign born or of foreign stock, primarily of northwest European origins.
In 1889, the year of South Dakota’s statehood, the Great Sioux Reservation was broken up into six smaller reservations, and in February 1890, some nine million acres of land were opened to settlement. The lack of railroads west of the river, and the availability of good land in eastern South Dakota limited western agricultural settlement, however. Until the turn of the twentieth century, the cattle industry reigned supreme in western South Dakota. Then from 1902 to 1915, with the expansion of the railroads, the state sustained a second agricultural boom, which tripled South Dakota’s population in the west. Over four million acres of Indian land went on sale, allocated by lottery. Many of the new settlers were of American stock, recruited from Southern Plains states and eastern cities.