South Dakota: A Historical Timeline

PRIOR TO 1743 PRE-EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
900 CE	Constructing earth lodges within villages, the ancestors of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes begin to plant corn and sunflowers to supplement their hunting practices.
1500	Plains Village tribes live all along the Missouri River valley.
1700s	When the first Europeans arrive in the area, the tribes living in South Dakota include: Arikaras, Mandans, Crows, Cheyenne, and Pawnee. Eventually, the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota move into the area from Wisconsin and further east.
1743–1799 EARLY EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
1743	While exploring for France, the LaVerendrye Brothers become the first white men to leave proof of their presence in South Dakota while searching for a route to the Pacific. They bury a lead plate on a hill on the west bank of the Missouri River near present day Fort Pierre to claim the area for France.
1760	The Chippewa force Sioux Native Americans out of Minnesota, and the Sioux reach the Missouri River. Their arrival ignites a long war with the Arikara for control of the Missouri River Valley in central South Dakota.
1762	France cedes land claimed by Cavelier to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau.
1794	The Sioux finally drive the Arikara out of central South Dakota, ending the 34-year hostilities.
1800–1859 WESTWARD EXPANSION
1800	France regains the Louisiana Territory from Spain
1803	(December 30) The U.S. acquires North Dakota (and 13 other future U.S. states) from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson agrees to the purchase price of 78 million francs ($15,000,000) from French head of state Napoleon Bonaparte. The purchase is lauded by supporters and savaged by critics of Jefferson. It more than doubles the size of the United States and is a defining moment in the expansion of U.S. territory.
1806	The Lewis and Clark expedition, led by William Lewis and Meriwether Clark, enters South Dakota on its way to the Pacific Coast. The expedition marks the first substantial American penetration of the region. Lewis and Clark name American Creek when they pass through the Chamberlain-Oacoma area.
1812	The Missouri Territory is organized. South Dakota is included within its borders.
1821	South Dakota becomes part of unorganized territory when the southeastern portion of Missouri Territory is admitted to the Union as the state of Missouri.
1823	Arikara Native Americans attack a U.S. fur trading party led by General William Ashley. Twelve of the fur traders are killed and 11 are wounded in one of the first battles between Native Americans and whites in South Dakota.
1831	The Yellowstone becomes the first steamboat to travel on the Missouri River through South Dakota.
1832	John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company builds Fort Pierre Chouteau as part of its expansion into the Upper Missouri region. It is one of the most significant fur trade and military forts on the western American frontier. At nearly 300 square feet, it is the largest and best-equipped trading post in the northern Great Plains.
1834	(June 30) The eastern portion of South Dakota becomes part of Michigan Territory.
1836	(July 4) Eastern South Dakota becomes part of Wisconsin Territory.
1838–39	French geographer Joseph Nicollet and American military officer John Charles Frémont conduct several survey expeditions through South Dakota. (July 4) Eastern South Dakota becomes part of Iowa Territory.
1846	(December 28) South Dakota becomes unorganized territory once again when the southeastern portion of Iowa Territory is admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa.
1849	(March 3) Eastern South Dakota becomes part of Minnesota Territory.
1854	(May 30) The remaining unorganized region of South Dakota becomes part of Nebraska Territory.
1855–57	Lieutenant G. K. Warren conducts a series of explorations and surveys in Dakota and Nebraska to determine feasible sites for military posts. These expeditions result in some of the first maps of western South Dakota.
1857	Land spectators stake town site claims at Sioux Falls in search of the cascades of the Big Sioux River.
1858	The Yankton Sioux sign a treaty that cedes much of eastern South Dakota to the U.S. and opens the land for settlement. (May 11) Eastern South Dakota becomes unorganized territory after Minnesota is admitted to the Union.
1860–1888 THE DAKOTA TERRITORY
1861	(March 2) Dakota Territory splits from Nebraska Territory. The new territory includes the previously unorganized region of South Dakota, as well as the present-day states of North Dakota, Montana, and most of Wyoming.
1862–65	The War of the Outbreak starts in Minnesota with the Santee rising of 1862 and spreads into Dakota Territory. Several towns, including Sioux Falls, are evacuated until the end of the hostilities. The war results in the construction of several forts.
1865	The Edmunds Commissions negotiates a series of treaties with the Native Americans in Dakota Territory, which bring about a temporary end to hostilities.
1868	Red Cloud’s War, a two-year war between the Sioux (led by Chief Red Cloud) and the U.S. Army, ends with the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty. Provisions of the treaty create the Great Sioux Reservation. At the time the reservation encompasses all of western South Dakota, but tribal lands are reduced to scattered areas of north-central and southern South Dakota in the coming decades.
1872	The Dakota Southern Railroad becomes the first railroad to operate in South Dakota, running from Vermillion to Sioux City, Iowa.
1874	(July 2) Colonel Custer departs from Fort Abraham Lincoln with 1,000 soldiers and 70 Native American scouts on a 1,200-mile expedition to chart the Black Hills in western South Dakota. The expedition discovers gold in the Black Hills, which leads to prospectors invading Sioux land.
1876	The Great Sioux War—a series of battles and negotiations between the Sioux, Cheyenne, and U.S. over the encroachment by white settlers and prospectors into Indian Territory—begins. Also known as the Black Hills War, it features one of the most infamous battles in U.S. history, the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Homestake Mine, the largest gold mine in the U.S, opens. It is now the oldest continually operating gold mine in the world and produces about 15 percent of the nation’s gold while maintaining huge reserves.
1877	The Great Sioux War ends. The U.S. receives control of the Black Hills, and its Native Americans are forced onto reservations and agencies.
1878–87	Settlers pour into Dakota during the Great Dakota Boom. The railroads provide a major incentive to settlement, and agriculture and industry prosper in the region.
1883	The Dakota Territory is reduced to the present-day states of South and North Dakota when Wyoming and Montana are organized into separate territories. The territorial capital is moved north from Yankton to Bismarck, which rankles those in southern Dakota. The move results in the first attempt to get southern Dakota admitted to the Union as a separate state.
1886–87	Droughts bring the prosperity of the Great Dakota Boom to an end.
1888	(January 12) A major blizzard hits South Dakota, leaving hundreds dead.
1889–1949 THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
1889	The Crook Commission secures an agreement with the Sioux that opens up new land on the Great Sioux Reservation to white settlement as the Sioux agree to move onto reservations with specified boundaries. (November 2) South Dakota becomes the 40th state admitted to the Union.
1889	The flow of settlers to the Dakotas drops off greatly. Some settlers in South Dakota leave to return to their previous homes in the face of drought and a depressed national economy.
1890	The Ghost Dance War begins. The Sioux Native American religious movement known as Ghost Dance spreads panic among white settlers throughout the Dakotas. U.S. troops arrive to try and quash the movement. The Sioux, upset by a series of treaty violations, engage U.S. troops in a series of battles, culminating in the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29. The massacre results in the deaths of more than 300 Sioux. After a public backlash, the government reinstates the broken treaties.
1892	The world’s only "corn palace" is constructed in Mitchell. Today, exterior corn murals are replaced and redesigned by local artists each year.
1898	The first commercial timber sale on Federal forested land in the U.S. is authorized in the area of Jim and Estes Creeks.
1900	The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad reaches the Missouri River at Evarts in northern South Dakota. Evarts becomes a major shipping point for South Dakota cattle until 1906 when the railroad completes its Pacific Coast extension. The extension crosses the Missouri River at the new town of Mobridge, and Evarts is abandoned.
1918	South Dakota grants women the right to vote two years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.
1919	(December 4) South Dakota becomes the 21st state to ratify the 19th Amendment, which grants women nationwide the right to vote upon its passage in 1920.
1927	Sculptor Gutzon Borglam begins work on the Mount Rushmore National Monument, carving the images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln into a granite edifice near Keystone. Its creation takes 14 years and costs $1 million. When completed, it becomes one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation. In 2006, more than 2.7 million people visit the site.
1931	(July 27) A grasshopper invasion in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota destroys thousands of acres of crops.
1938	(August 14) Clarence "Pappy" Hoel, a motorcycle shop owner in Sturgis, organizes a motorcycle rally that attracts 200 riders. The rally becomes an annual event. In 2008, it attracts over 700,000 people in celebration of its 60th anniversary.
1939	President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Badlands National Park preserving 244,000 acres (98,740 ha) of land in southwest South Dakota. It is the largest protected mixed-grass prairie in the United States.
1948	In response to Native American requests for a Mount Rushmore–like monument honoring Native American heroes, Korczak Ziolkowski begins work on the Crazy Horse Memorial mountain carving in the Black Hills, which depicts the famous Sioux chief. At 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high, it is larger than the Mount Rushmore monument, but it remains uncompleted. Some Native American leaders have criticized the memorial as exploitative and assert it desecrates sacred ground.
1950–PRESENT MODERN SOUTH DAKOTA
1966	Built by Northern States Power Company, the Pathfinder Atomic Power Plant near Sioux Falls begins producing electricity. It is considered the world’s first all-nuclear power plant. After one year of operation, it is converted to a conventional power plant because of technical problems.
1973	(February 27) Members of the American Indian Movement occupy the hamlet of Wounded Knee, the site of the 1890 massacre. They protest illegal and discriminatory acts on the part of the Pine Ridge Sioux Tribal Council. The siege lasts for 69 days. Federal forces surround the area, and the occupation ends on May 8.
1979	The Sioux are awarded $105 million in compensation for the 1877 U.S. seizure of their land in the Black Hills.
1980	The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad abandons several thousand miles of track and withdraws from the Pacific Coast. The abandonment affects more than half of South Dakota’s total railroad mileage and causes severe problems for the state's agricultural industry. As a result, South Dakota purchases much of the abandoned Milwaukee track to form the base for an essential core rail system in the state.
1988	South Dakota suffers from severe drought conditions. Lightning causes a large forest fire in the Black Hills in July, destroying approximately 16,000 acres in the vicinity of Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore.