Related Resources

This page includes additional resources on South Dakota from the Library's website.

American Folklife Center State Resources

American Folklife Center Collections: South Dakota
American Folklife Center collections from South Dakota document the diversity of its expressive culture. Starting with Frances Densmore's cylinder recordings of Teton and Santee Sioux singers in 1911 and 1914, the South Dakota collections here are particularly strong in documentation of the state's Native peoples. Notable are the 1940s recordings from Pine Ridge, Wanblee, and Crow Creek made by Columbia University music professor, Willard Rhodes, and the 1955 interview with Dewey Beard, last Native survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Bibliographies and Guides

U.S. State Poets Laureate: South Dakota
This site provides the names of all current state poets laureate of the United States. It also includes a history of the laureateship in each state, as well the District of Columbia, and attempts to provide a comprehensive listing of all prior state poets laureate. Included is information on the position of State Poet Laureate in South Dakota.

Exhibitions Featuring South Dakota

Mapping a Growing Nation: From Independence to Statehood

Mapping a Growing Nation: From Independence to Statehood comprises maps of the northeastern and southeastern regions of the United States. Over time, maps of all fifty states will be included in this online exhibition.

View the Mapping a Growing Nation: From Independence to Statehood Exhibition

Selected highlight from this exhibition:

Official Maps of North and South Dakota, 1889
On November 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the Executive Order that officially admitted both North and South Dakota into the Union as the thirty-ninth and fortieth states, respectively. The two maps shown here are similar in appearance and witness a very enthusiastic pride about becoming states, as is evidenced in the statement “coming into the Union 400,000 strong.”

Historic Newspapers

Chronicling America: South Dakota
This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1756-1963 from more than 20 states and the District of Columbia. Search this collection to find selected newspaper articles that mention events in South Dakota.

Law Library

The Guide to Law Online: South Dakota
The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information on U.S states and territories, including South Dakota.

Resources for Teachers

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.

Features & Activities

Primary Sources by State: South Dakota
The Library of Congress has rich documents and artifacts from every state, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

Lesson Plans

Exploring Community Through Local History: Oral Stories, Landmarks and Traditions
Students explore the local history of the community in which they live through written and spoken stories; through landmarks such as buildings, parks, restaurants, or businesses; and through traditions such as food, festivals and other events of the community or of individual families.
Local History: Mapping My Spot
Students create their town’s history for coming generations and place themselves on the map in a literal as well as figurative sense, by producing portions of an updated version of an early twentieth century panoramic map from the Digital Collections.

Today in History

November 2
On November 2, 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states, respectively. The first European to reach the region was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, a French-Canadian fur trader and explorer who, in 1738, led an expedition to what is present-day North Dakota. In 1742 and 1743, two of his sons, Louis-Joseph and François de La Vérendrye, returned to the territory and ultimately reached present-day Fort Pierre, in the center of South Dakota, where they buried a lead plate as a marker for their mission. At that time, at least eight Native American tribes populated the vicinity including the Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Assiniboin, Crow, Cheyenne, Cree, and the Dakota (Santee Sioux).

Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project (VHP) collects and preserves the remembrances of American war veterans and civilian workers who supported them. Click on the link below to locate veterans from South Dakota.

Veterans History Project: South Dakota

South Dakota: State Resource Guide

History, Humanities & Social Sciences: Ask a Librarian