South Dakota Books

These are great reference maps for generalized recreational activities. Not as detailed as a topo map, but still packed full of outstanding information. I have one for every state and I don't leave home with out them. An improvement over simple highway maps.

The map is beautiful and (reasonably) accurate, but its small scale limits its use for hiking. Many of the contours are so closely spaced, faint, or interrupted by text that they are nearly useless. The publishers tried to squeeze the entire national monument onto one map sheet, which makes for a good overview and planning map, but a poor hiking map.
Unfortunately, you have rather limited options, at least when it comes to paper maps: The USGS 7.5 minute topo sheets are great, but they don't show the trails, local hiking maps are hit and miss (some can be great). State-wide mapping software that lets you print customized hiking maps might be the way to go, but I haven't tried them yet.

This map is part of the Trails Illustrated series covering many national parks. These are all sturdy and convenient.

Your map choices are essentially this one, the National Park Service map, and USGS topos. The NPS map is fine if you're staying at Rock Harbor Lodge and doing light day activities from that base.

If you're backpacking, or doing long day hikes, the Trails Illustrated map is absolutely essential because the USGS topographic maps are outdated. For example, the topo shows a no-longer-existent East Feldtmann trail on the southwest part of the island.

The topo also shows inaccurately the trail that goes over White Oak Ridge in the same area. The Trails Illustrated map shows the trails correctly.

This map also shows (1) group and individual campsites and (2) distances between trail junctions that accord with the NPS signage. Both features make it useful for planning your trip.

My family was recently transferred to North Dakota with the Air Force. Before we moved we wanted to learn more about it, since we had never been here. It was very difficult to find ANYTHING in print about North Dakota. I finally found an older copy of this book in a book store in Anchorage, AK, and then went on-line and ordered the new edition.

While I think this book is pretty decent, I wish I could find a book with more pictures. While North Dakota is hardly considered a popular tourist destination, there IS some pretty scenery. I think this book would be better if they added some sections with pictures. Otherwise, the book is pretty good. I would recommend it to anyone considering travel in North Dakota (or South Dakota, it also has a section on that state), but then again I have not come across a single other book that focuses on North Dakota as much.

I really enjoyed reading all about the Dakotas. I plan on traveling to learn more about my roots. This book will really help me plan my travels.

I used this guidebook for a visit to the Black Hills of South Dakota. If there's a more interesting place to visit than the Black Hills I haven't found it. The scenery is great, the wildlife abundant, and the history is fascinating. For example, the guidebook led me to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Red Cloud Heritage Center and Red Cloud's grave. (Red Cloud was a Dakota chief who defeated the U.S. army in 1868 and forced a withdrawal from Indian lands.) On a different level, the book also led me to Kevin Costner's casino and restaurant in Deadwood, as well as Will Bill Hickok's grave in the same town.

The guidebook divides the Dakotas into six regions and lists interesting places to stay, old-time restaurants, museums and art galleries, annual events, and assorted trivia. Sidebars recount tidbits of Dakota history, especially tales of its cowboys and Indians. This guidebook is light and small and well-organized and all you need to find your way to interesting spots, especially if you're the sort of person who's allergic to shopping malls and cooker-cutter hotels and restaurants

Smallchief

Wonderful glimpse into history from a very bright young girl. Names of those long gone are brought back to life in this narrative. Highly recommend!
T. Addison

This book was excellent. Written through the eyes of a young girl growing up in Deadwood, it makes you feel as though you are there. I live in Deadwood now and it is interesting to actually see the streets and parts of town that were written about in this book.

It was very enjoyable to learn about the west in the days of Deadwood, the place, people and adventures. Ofcourse the real thing is not as exciting as the T.V. series, but I really enjoyed it because its what really happened.

This an awsome collection snippets from the life & times in the Black Hills aroung the 1870's. Written is a way that you feel like you are reading the author's diary. Deadwood was a great HBO series and this book really fills in the blanks. It is a suprise how much pain the early pioneers endured heading west (and how the American Indians were take advantage of!).

This man gives a real account of the real Deadwood and the events of the gold rush. Nothing is made up nor did he embelish. How refreshing. While reading it in the Black Hills, I am in awe of some of the places he describes. Though the topography has changed a bit, its fun to go see where the events happened. Some happy, some sad. Stories about the Sioux and Lakota Indians adds interest.

I would highly recommend this book for true facts of Wild Bill, Calamity Jane and Deadwood gold rush days

After seeing the HBO special about Deadwood I was interested in getting some factual data. This book provided insight and drama to a part of history above and beyond what a HBO special could provide. The historical accounts of people, places and gold give the reader something to chew on while contemplating what it would be like in the American past. SASS members would love the book also.

after the death of a new born early baby Colleen went out to get the widow all was well expet the fact that Colleen's ma was to weak to under stand her baby was dead,she didn't know. So Colleen went out to get the widow and then she saw... You'll find out when read Prairie Whispers. Colleen is a young girl who faces a big challenge ahead of her. She just lied for the first time in her life! This is an exiting good book,sitting there for hours wishing it would never end. I think this is history and action all in one book. You'll here about a snake bite that is deadly a lie comeing from a girl who's never lied in her life a death from a newley born early baby, and a mother who doesn't know! You'll see how it all fits in there when you read Prairie Whispers!

Prairie Whispers is a suspenceful novel all the way through. The begining of the book tells when colleen receives a baby from a woman on her death bed. The woman doesnt want her newborn to have to grow up with an obusive father. along with the newborn baby Colleen gets a strong box with goodies and a golden watch for the baby. while the husband is suspicious of colleen taking his things colleen cant even tell her parents or brother what really happend or she could get in real trouble. The most suspenseful part of this novel is when the man takes the baby away from colleen and threatens not to give the baby back unless he gets the money, for he has no need of the baby. Colleen learns that she needs to tell her parents everything and they will take care of it and also dont steal! Colleen also has many other adventures in this book that are also exiting. Colleen knows there will be nothing like this experience of her lifetime.

I am a 8th grade English teacher. I saw the review for this novel in The Horn Book. It was excellent! The plot is straight forward and the tension in the story does not let up until the last page. It is a good book to develop questions and ethical debates with your students. "What would you do" will be in your head as you read the entire book. Questions as to Clay O'Brien's true character will also come up. You also have to decide if Mary Kathleen O'Brien description of her husband is accurate. It is a good "thinking book. The book is a quick read with only 184 pages. The print is medium size as well. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a bit of suspense thrown in!

This is a great book on the basically unknown ghost towns found in the beautiful Black Hills area. I am originally from the area and still learned quite a bit!

Watson Parker's book is a wonderful reference to use to understand the frenetic development of the Black Hills during its Gold Rush days. It also goes on to show the coming and going of little towns throughout the Black Hills. It is well organized and can easily lend itself to spending a day or more driving through the hills trying to find the remnants of the ghost towns. It is a book that I have gone back to year after year to learn about the Black Hills.

Ella Deloria's classic 1932 collection has been reprinted fully by the University of Nebraska Press (ISBN 080326660X) and partially by the University of South Dakota Press (ISBN 0882490257). Both editions include all the tales collected by Deloria, and give her polished English translations, her cultural notes and her introduction. The Nebraska edition includes all this plus the Lakhota language originals and Deloria's literal word-by-word translations. Those interested in the ethnological and story-telling aspects of the tales will find either edition to be a masterly rendition into English by one of the first native American anthropologists of her culture's literature. Those interested in the linguistic aspects of the Lakhota/Dakota language should get the Nebraska edition. (Since Amazon's computers apply the same rating and review to both editions, I have removed one star for the Dakota Press version.)

If you are interested in Siouan languages, this and Deloria's
Dakota grammar are the books to get - and modern materials published
by the Lakota Language Consortium.

This book describes the life of a hoop dancer for the Lakota. I found it very informative and pleasant to read. You get a real flavor for a person who has chosen to try to maintain the culture of his people. It's not easy.

Lakota Hoop Dancer not only explains about the dancing and dancer, but gives a feel for the land of the Lakota, their views of the world, and the people themselves and their values. The brief glossary and explanations of Lakota expressions within the book help. Students and others interested in American Indian tribes will enjoy this and gain insights. Excellent photographs enhance the text.

This was a such a good book to read! As a 20-something woman myself, living in South Dakota, the story of how these two young women made a life for themselves on the South Dakota prairie was so inspiring. You come to realize how newly settled this land is. The book was an easy, enjoyable story. Kohl writes in such a way as to draw you into the story and you really come to know the characters and love the harsh land. It's a true story with plenty of adventure. Anyone wanting to learn more about homesteading, especially the small population of single women who homesteaded by themselves, will find a fun read and will learn a ton about the process of homesteading and some of the key events that happened in South Dakota's history. She tells about her encounters with the Native Americans (they homestead on a Reservation), wild-life, strangers passing through, and their struggles proving themselves as capable women to themselves and others. Love this book!

Two young women (sisters), from a fairly well-to-do family back East, bought into the turn-of-the-century land-grab hype, and decided to stake a claim to free land in South Dakota. It had recently been acquired from the Sioux Indians by the Federal Government, and was ripe for the taking by persons willing to abide by the rules of claim, which required living on the land for eight months. Eight months in South Dakota, in the dead of winter, in a wooden box called a house, about eight feet by ten feet in size. The only insulation was torn tar paper on the outside of a house which had no stove. When the snow didn't come through the cracks, the blowing sand did. Frozen water had to be melted for drinking, and there was no well on the land.

This is the story of how they lived, endured, and survived, during their time on the land they claimed. Living through almost the same hardships of the Pioneers from 100 years earlier, they were miles from any neighbors, were terrified of the Indians, and for a while, had no horse. And no income.

As I laid in my comfy, warm bed, reading this book a few years ago, I continually felt guilty, for my part, for what they endured to achieve what they wanted. We take so much for granted today, in our country, and never give pause to what those before us went through, suffered through, and the prices they paid. This is a fascinating look into a short period in the lives of these two sisters, and a reminder, that few things of value in life are easily obtained.

Tom Lewis spent ~ 10 years at Pine Ridge, working as a psychiatrist in the local hospital. During that time he had the opportunity to interact with many prominent Lakota healers, including Frank Fools Crow, the most eminent of them all at that time. In this book he presents us with a sympathetic account of his encounters with yuwipi men, Eagle ceremony leaders, herbalists and other medicine people; he also includes interviews with white and Indian informers and his own observations of the life on the rez. He tries to be nice, but many details are quite scathing; the books describes graphically the Lakota disregard for their own environment, health and traditions; the drunken brawls, the dysfunctional family life, the distrust of the white man. The high rate of medical problems among the Oglala is associated with poverty, education difficulties, family disorganization, a disintegrating culture, the absence of an economic base, and pervasive difficulties with role, status and motivation.

The weakest point of the book is that Lewis never bothered to actually learn about Lakota healing; the book is written from a Westerner's "rational" perspective, taking no account of the reality of the indigenous view of the world and its mysteries. "Why", asks Lewis, do these people "rely on the imagery of the unreal, the mysteries of mythological formations, the magical techniques"? His answer is that the modern Lakota healer acts basically as a psychotherapist, reassuring his clients and weaving them back into the web of mutual social obligations. In my opinion, and experience, Lewis' contrast between the "magical thought" of the healers he encountered and the "scientific thought" he ascribes to himself look nowadays a bit naive and passe. They certainly do not reflect modern anthropology or psychiatry. Rather, they represent a white amateur's view of the fascinating world where people are still connected to nature and its whispers, where ancestors and spirits still have a stake in our survival, where conversation and listening become one and the same.

Lewis a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist who stayed at the Pine Ridge Res in the late 60's and early 70's. From the book: "...he describes the Indian Healers - their techniques, personal histories and qualities, the problems addressed and the results obtained" . This is an excellent book for Native American studies, those interested in non AMA healing techniques and also should be required reading for all med students.