South Dakota’s history is filled with colorful characters that include the likes of Lewis and Clark, Wild Bill Hickok, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Crazy Horse. The land is the home of several Plains Indian tribes that include the Sioux Nations of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota.

The first tribes arrived in this region several thousand years ago, but the arrival of the Europeans during occur until around the early 18 th century when French explorers encountered the Omaha and Arikara tribes. The French established the settlement of Pierre, which is now the state capital, in 1743, as part of the northern Louisiana colony. This land was thus transferred to the United States in 1803 with the conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase, and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were charged with explorer and mapping this newly obtained land.

Settlement was slow at first, but picked up in the 1850s and 1860s. The Dakota Territory was formally recongized in 1861, and the area attracted settlers from across Europe, and this increased after the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874. While much of the lands had actually been granted to the Sioux by the Treaty of 1868, the tribe declined mining rights and as a result war broke out after the American government was unable to stop the flow of miners and settlers from arriving in the region. The final major engagment during the Plains Indian Wars occurred on December 29, 1890 at Battle of Wounded Knee Creek.

The population of settlers in the region tripled by the end of the century and on November 2, 1889 the states of North Dakota and South Dakota entered the Union.