Day 12 (D-51) South Dakota / The Lakota / The Black Hills

Day 12 (D-51) South Dakota / The Lakota / The Black Hills

We'll leave Wyoming on Monday, September 9th, the third day of our trip, to spend two days in our third state, South Dakota, and then return to Wyoming.  What a treat: we'll be staying three nights in the hotel in Rapid City.  

A few facts first about South Dakota:

• Capital:  Pierre
• Became a state:  1889
• Population:  815,000  (85% white; 8% Native American) https://suburbanstats.org/population/how-many-people-live-in-south-dakota
• It's named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes.  The Sioux are a confederacy of several tribes--> Lakota, Dakota, Nakota were their different dialects. Lakota and Dakota are different pronunciations for the same tribal name which means "allies".

Click on the map to make it bigger. 

From Wikipedia, Simple English, I'll share this information with you:

The Black Hills are a small mountain range in the Great Plains in South Dakota.

Native Americans have a long history in the Black Hills.  After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took over the territory of the Black Hills.

The Black Hills ("Paha Sapa") are the most potent symbol of the tribal connection between spirituality and sovereignty.  The Hills -- named for their dark silhouettes against the horizon -- have long been of spiritual significance to the Cheyenne and the Lakota.  The Lakota have always called the Black Hills "Khe Sapa", "The Heart of Everything That Is."    

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/2009/kȟe-sapa-and-paha-sapa-russell-means-response-to-david-swallow/ 

In 1868, the U.S. government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.  This exempted the Black Hills from all white settlement forever.

But, when European Americans discovered gold there in 1874, miners hurried into the area, another gold rush.  The US government broke another treaty and sent the Lakota, against their wishes, to other reservations in western South Dakota.  Unlike most of South Dakota, the Black Hills were settled by European Americans from population centers to the west and south.  Miners rushed there from earlier gold boom places in Colorado and Montana. 

As the economy changed from mining to logging, the tourism industry has grown.  The Black Hills have two areas: "The Southern Hills" and "the Northern Hills".  The Southern Hills are home to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Harney Peak, the highest point in the United States east of the Rockies (2,207 m), Custer State Park, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, the world's largest mammoth research center.

My best,

Jane
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--mountain range =  http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/mountain%20range
--to take over =  a phrasal verb, here it means "to take control of something"
--settlement = colonie
--gold rush = la ruée vers l'or
--logging = cutting trees and transporting the logs (rondins) to sawmills (scierie)