South Dakota’s history starts way back in 1743 when the LaVerendrye Brothers (French explorers) become the first white men to visit South Dakota. In 1794 the Sioux/Arikara war comes to an end, with the Sioux as champions. In 1803 the USA makes the Louisiana Purchase from France, the South Dakota area is part of this purchase. Up till the late 1850’s mostly only Sioux lived in the region of South Dakota, but then, fur trade started growing in the USA and many people began settling in this area. In the 1870’s rumors of gold in the Black Hills were traveling all around. The problem was that the Black Hills land belonged to the Sioux by agreement. So when the Sioux refused to let people mine the land, war broke out. In 1876 Custer and his men (white settlers) were defeated by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in the battle of Little Bighorn. This defeat did not prevent the white men of getting more Sioux land little by little. In 1886 the first train is made, (it still exists today). Also the population increases tremendously.  In 1888 the South Dakotans start planning for a new independent state. And in 1889 South Dakota finally became its own state. In 1890 buffalo becomes scarcer by the minute, and Sitting Bull dies at Big Foot’s massacre. This ends the reign of the Native Americans in South Dakota. By WWI new problems started to emerge. Drought hits South Dakota pretty bad, and the Great Depression didn’t help either. Luckily,in the 1950’s things started going uphill once again. The Democrats improved farming techniques, which helped increase South Dakota’s agriculture and production. Irrigation projects started taking form and an extension of hydroelectric power was built. Measures for protection against wind and water erosion were applied. In 1981 a major bank from New York transferred to Sioux Fall helping the state’s economy. Casinos were legalized in 1989 and until today, tourism is one of the state’s top earnings sources.

     The indigenous people of South Dakota existed many years ago and they were more of hunters and they liked to battle a lot. The indigenous of Bolivia still live like they lived years 1000 years ago. So they haven’t developed much. 
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