South Dakota Books

Amelia Prescott was from New York City -- boy were things different in the Wild West.
She was traveling to the Dakota Territories to find her brother, Parker and convince him to come home.
Her prim and proper upbringing would not allow her to encourage the attentions of a roguish gambler like Gabriel Hatch.
Blonde haired and blonde mustached Gabriel was just too handsome to be trusted.

She was very upset when she found out that Gabe was her brothers' partner.
And to have to find her brother in a brothel.

Gabriel Hatch found it very interesting to bate Amelia with his sense of humor but she was not someone that he intended to get further involved with.

Cassandra had cured him of any romantic illusions when she took off with another man.

Yet he found it hard to ignore and stay away from this city gal.
Amelia soon came to understand that her brother was in love with a fallen woman. Maybe the freedom he was seeking was allowable to her also?

Boy did her brother explode when he found her in bed with Gabe.
This was a challenge in the making. Should she consider herself a fallen woman? Yup, if the shoe fits.

Amelia agreed to give her brother six weeks and then he was to agree to go home to New York. Well a lot can happen in 6 weeks.

Amelia couldn't believe that Gabriel had a wife. Parker couldn't believe Gabe would commit adultery with his sister. What a mix-up!

Big Jim Connors, owner of the Lucky Horseshoe saloon was going to ruin Gabe and take Parker down with him. Somehow he found Cassandra and brought her back. What a coil.

Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable story except for these loose broads -- but I can't knock the writing.

Will recommend --M great way to pass the evening -- now onto #2 "Lucky Bride" Parker's story.

Robert P. Watson has edited a brilliant tribute to the life and legacy of George McGovern. Included in this work are thoughtful essays about McGovern's upringing, military service, and Congressional and Senatorial terms. His immeasurable impact upon the reform of the Democratic Party is well presented in a chapter by Stephen Ward. Russell Willis and Thomas Knock offer insightful essays on McGovern's statesmanship and legacy. A chapter by Ahrar Ahmad regarding McGovern's directorship of Food for Peace is a fitting and touching tribute. As Senator Tom Daschle observed, "admirers of George McGovern will have their admiration for the man reinforced...even many who disagree with his politics are likely to discover a new respect for the man."

Harry Young's memoir is an evocative description of life at the sharp end of the early West.
As a young man, Young left New York to see the wild west he had read about in dime novels as a child. His travels took him through infamous towns and brought him into contact with the famed and storied figures of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. Young's account of Hickok's death is by no means the only highlight in this true-to-life drama, but it certainly offers another perspective and is a true eye-witness version of the demise of one of the West's great characters.
The book reads very well and is an enjoyable romp through the life of Harry Young.

This is a terrific book! Anyone who has ever lived in a SD small town should have this on their coffee table. From the stars over Capa, a sheep show in Howard, & children on a swing in Millboro, to a wedding in Henry, bagpipes in Scotland, and an outdoor theatre in Redfield, Latza does a marvelous job of capturing the essence and spirit of life in a small town.

"Honoring the Grandmothers" is a slim book, barely bigger than your average sized pamphlet. Edited by Sarah Penman, a video and radio commentator living in Minnesota, the book is a collection of musings by four Dakota/Lakota grandmothers about traditional Indian knowledge and customs and how they relate to today's fast paced world. Penman captured the stories on tape over a period of years, working hard to overcome many obstacles to get the stories to us, the reader. There is little commentary on the stories; Penman allows them to speak for themselves. Two of the grandmothers have since passed away, but their words do continue to speak about maintaining dignity and culture in a world that likes to forget about the Indians and their way of life.

Celane Not Help Him is the first speaker presented in the book. Celane did not have an easy life; she lived in poverty for most of her life, with little formal education. Her family lost their property when the United States Air Force confiscated it during WWII for use as an artillery range. Celane is the granddaughter of Iron Hail, a Lakota who survived the Battle of Little Big Horn and the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890. Celane provides an oral history of Wounded Knee that is both enlightening in historical terms and depressing in an emotional sense. It is hard to read Celane's account, as her speaking skills do not land easily on an English-speaking ear. It is best to read the account straight through, and then think about it for a time. When this is done, Celane comes across as clear as a star in the sky.

The next set of stories comes from Stella Pretty Sounding Flute, a Wahpekute-Hunkpati Dakota. The Dakota people, like most Indians, had difficulties dealing with the burgeoning white population of America in the 19th century. After years of declining fortunes, an 1862 uprising in Minnesota brought down every bit of force the American government could muster on the Dakotas. The Dakota did not disappear, but scattered throughout Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Stella does not concern herself with these events as much as she does with the traditions she learned from her own grandparents. Her grandmother passed on skills and knowledge that no school can teach. Stella discusses the loss of the Black Hills, the traditions of pipe carrying, and spiritual beliefs.

The third storyteller is Cecilia Hernandez Montgomery. Cecilia is part Mexican, part Oglala Sioux, and part firecracker. This is one tough dame. Cecilia spent time in a Catholic school (back when they REALLY used the ruler), studied music, and worked herself dizzy at a series of low paying jobs. Cecilia really came into her own when she started a career as an activist in South Dakota, working hard to improve the living conditions of poor people (all poor people, not just Indians). She sits on many boards, committees, and still pounds the pavement when problems arise. She did all of this into her seventies and beyond, not only exploding the myth of the lazy Indian but also causing irreparable harm to the conception that old people cannot do anything of value.

The last narrative comes from Iola Columbus, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota. Like many other Indians, Columbus spent time in an Indian boarding school, where military discipline combined with strict adherence to corporeal punishment attempted to erase the "Indian" from the Indians. Columbus's story is different from the others because she went on to become the first woman elected to tribal chair in the state of Minnesota. She later founded a grandmother's society, where women elders can gather to share traditional knowledge with new generations.

"Honoring the Grandmothers" is really a book about the elderly and their marginalized role in American society. This is occurring not only in white society but in Indian society as well. A couple of the grandmothers lament the fact that their knowledge is not passed on, but disappearing as older members of Indian tribes pass away. In short, the same mentality (of the doddering old fool who is well past his/her prime) that leads whites to toss the elderly into nursing homes happens in Indian society as well. The elderly are rich sources of knowledge and culture in every society. We ignore them at our own peril.

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 51 versions of this book sold; one for each state and the District of Columbia. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

While not a new book, this one is worthy of the readers time. Hasselstrom is a poet, an essayist and a working ranch woman, dividing her time between her ranch in South Dakota and a residence in Wyoming. This book is part poetry and part essay. It is all exceptional. If you want to read of death, life, love, the land and being a woman by one of the best writers in the business, this is the book for you. She has written a number of fine poetry books but I recommend this collection as a start. From here I suspect the reader will go on to her other works. She's that good.

The following review is taken from "Great Books of the Great Plains: South Dakota," compiled by Charles Woodard, South Dakota State University:

"This little-known but excellent novel about pioneer experience in north-central South Dakota was co-authored by a mother and daughter who combined their names to create the book's pen name.

"Well-received nationally when it was first published in 1956, it faded into obscurity until it was reprinted in 1984 by the descendants of some of the people portrayed in it.

"Reminiscent of Willa Cather's novels in its dramatization of a strong and interesting female main character and in its picturesque characterization of the prairie landscape, this book is also a very revealing account of the difficulties encountered by American immigrants as they struggled to adjust to the people and the environment of their new land."

When I read this book myself, I was charmed by the first few chapters of pioneer prairie life. The descriptions of the native landscapes and birds are stunningly apt. The characterization of the Russo-German immigrants - in contrast to the western Europeans, who harbor a prejudice against this group - is memorable.

However, as I read deeper into the book, the charming prairie innocence of this novel faded away. About the time that Mama foiled the robbery and killed a man in her bedroom was when I realized that a new heinous scandal was facing the family in every chapter.

I couldn't believe that the young bridegroom who married the heroine's best friend didn't have guts to tell his mother he got married, even though his suicide left her very pregnant. And I couldn't believe that the heroine actually married the dark, silent type who stole her virginity on the eve of her wedding to another man.

This is one of those books that ends at marriage, as if everyone is trouble-free after getting hitched. The story that *isn't* told is how the heroine holds up after being married to a domineering man who intends her to have a lot of children and still help out in the fields, in the custom of the Russo-Germans, who are seen by the other groups as using up their women as if they were horses.

So, a cautious five stars on this book. The beginning chapters make it worthwhile as pioneer history, but the end of the story make it just another potboiling novel, albeit with brushstrokes of realism.

This is a great book about life on the Great Plains of South Dakota at the turn of the century. Ms. Culp's letters read like a novel. As Ms. Culp was a school teacher, she wrote her letters as though educating the folks back home on what it was like to live the pioneer life. Her letters are entertaining and heartbreakingly honest. She and her husband lived through much heartache, some of it of their own naive doing. Despite her hardships, she was always honest and upbeat about her lot in life. This book reminded me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books "These Happy Golden Years" and "The First Four Years". There are some photographs included to give the reader a good idea of how Ms. Culp's life and surroundings looked. A wonderful book written by a lady who, I believe, hoped to keep the experience of pioneers alive for all history, and with the help of her thoughtful relatives, succeeded quite well.

Don't expect to find everything mentioned in the book; it's been awhile since it's been written. I can only speak for Harrold, SD, but the Centennial Cafe has been torn down, and Bohning's Grocery went out, though the building's still there. Still, it's a good history, and the most thorough one about the state that I've read. That includes the ones about Deadwood and Mt. Rushmore, because of their narrow scope.