In geologic terms, Black Hills history dates back millions of years. Because that part of our past is covered in the Natural World chapter, this chapter focuses on what is known about humans’ presence here. (For a history of the Badlands, please see the Badlands & Nearby chapter.) It’s an abbreviated account, however, because so much took place in a very short time. Scores of books have been written on the subject, and you’ll find many of them in libraries, bookstores, and gift shops.
South Dakota attained statehood on November 2, 1889, more than a decade after pioneer settlement of the Hills had begun in earnest in 1875–76. From that time forward the story has been one of boom and bust, fire and flood, hunger and plenty—but always one of diligent efforts toward the building of strong, enduring communities.
Black Hills history, however, isn’t just about the spread of European civilization on the western frontier. For the Native inhabitants, white encroachment on the Black Hills region was an invasion of a bountiful and cherished domain, and the struggle for its control was long and bloody. Although American Indians and non-Indians later learned to coexist, bridging the ideological and cultural chasm between the two groups is still a work in progress.
Tensions flared anew in 1973 when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) rioted and set the Custer County Courthouse on fire to protest the killing of an Indian by a white man. The conflict grabbed national headlines when AIM members occupied Wounded Knee village on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, staging a symbolic 71-day standoff to protest the treatment of American Indians in general. Wounded Knee II, as it came to be called, is considered a turning point in modern American Indian life, but it took almost another two decades before Indians and non-Indians in South Dakota reached out their hands in friendship. Accepting a challenge by then Indian Country Today newspaper publisher Tim Giago, the late Gov. George S. Mickelson declared a Year of Reconciliation in 1990, the 100th anniversary of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre. It was the first step of a long journey.