A New South Dakota History

by Herbert T. Hoover, Rex C. Myers, John E. Miller

This is a new story of South Dakota's past--a fresh telling of South Dakota's always interesting, often colorful, and yet sometimes painful history. The first full-scale interpretation of the state's history in more than forty years. A New South Dakota History emphasizes the geographic and cultural diversity of the nation's fortieth state. Acknowledging rather than igonoring the problems of the past, this history offers new and varied perspectives on the state and, in so doing, provides a foundation for a better understanding of the issues facing South Dakota now and in the near future. This history also celebrates the achievements of the state in such areas as agriculture, urbanization, communications, tourism, and the arts. Featuring essays by nationally recognized authors as well as full-length chapters by noted scholars, this 650-page history is intended for general readers, college students, and teachers of South Dakota history. The text is illustrated with over 100 photographs and includes chapter chronologies, notes, a selective readings list, and an index. Beginning with an essay on Sioux understanding of the land, this history moves to chapters on geography, early Native peoples, the fur trade and exploration, Missouri River culture, Native Americans in Dakota Territory, Yankee and European immigration, cities and towns, territorial and statehood politics, farming and ranching, the Black Hills religious institutions, the literary, visual, and performing arts, health care, communication technologies, transportation and tourism, modern tribes, and the challenges and opportunities facing South Dakota in the twenty-first century. Along the way are essays on the African American experience, small towns, women writers, and the traditional Sioux family today. This is the story of a new South Dakota.

648 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2005

About the author

Herbert T. Hoover was one of South Dakota’s most influential historians and a long-serving professor at the University of South Dakota (USD). Over more than four decades, Hoover built a career defined by deep engagement with the region’s complex past, particularly in the field of American Indian history. His contributions ranged from academic scholarship and oral history projects to personal involvement in major events like the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973.
Born in 1930 and named after President Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt, Hoover grew up on a Minnesota farm and developed a lifelong love for history, encouraged by his schoolteacher mother. After serving in the Korean War as a Marine, he initially pursued chemistry at the University of Minnesota but found his passion in history. He earned his master’s degree at New Mexico State University and later a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied under Eugene Hollon and was influenced by prominent Western historians like Walter Prescott Webb and Gilbert Fite.
In 1967, Hoover joined the USD history department, where he would become a central figure in the study of South Dakota’s past. His classes increasingly focused on the Sioux and American Indian history, an area in which he was both an academic expert and a lived participant. A man of Ioway heritage, Hoover lent ceremonial and logistical support to Native American communities, hosted traditional spiritual ceremonies on his farm, and cultivated relationships with American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders during a period of growing Native activism.
Hoover authored numerous chapters and articles and contributed significantly to A New South Dakota History and South Dakota Leaders. He compiled two extensive bibliographies on the state’s history, including one solely dedicated to the Sioux. His research led to over 4,000 annotated sources and more than 750 oral interviews preserved in USD archives. His work has made South Dakota one of the most documented states in the West.
Outspoken and unafraid of controversy, Hoover remained committed to truth over comfort. He criticized both white and Native communities for perpetuating divisions and lamented the decline in spiritual leadership among tribes. Even in retirement, he continued to work on a new book about the American Indian renaissance, aiming to shed light on both its achievements and shortcomings. Hoover passed away at 89, leaving behind a legacy as one of South Dakota’s foremost chroniclers of its diverse and often turbulent history.

Reviews

[Kristi Thielen]

Copyrighted in 2009, there are some out-of-date mentions, especially in the last chapters of this multi-author book: Lead does, indeed, get the neutrino lab it had sought. But the volume’s clear-eyed view of where South Dakota really has been (despite what boosterism has touted) and what South Dakota citizens face in the future (an emptying out of rural areas and the fact that aside from the cities on each end of it, many counties have reverted to frontier) makes for a refreshing look at the Rushmore State.
The chapters cover it all: the geology of the land, the native peoples original to it, the coming of fur trappers, gold miners, farmers and European immigrants; the rise of schools, churches, towns, industries and culture. As each chapter is written by a different writer, there are many voices in the mix which is how it should be in any book about a state’s history.
Because it does not deal with recent politics, it does not discuss how the reddening of the state – and the pull of the far right and Christian nationalism – has impacted if not warped how our state government works and how South Dakotans see the world and interact. I only wish that the gifted writers who contributed to this work could create an updated text that deals with those thorny issues and how they may blight our future.
The volume ends on the note that our past, “sold to tourists and residents today in the form of nostalgia is not nearly as bright as we might like to believe; and the future is not nearly as dim as some would have us believe.” That seemed fair to have been said in 2009.
Unfortunately, much has changed since then.

[Paul Lunger]

"A New South Dakota History" is one of the more comprehensive books I've ever seen on the history of a state & honestly could serve as a textbook on the state itself. Across 27 chapters the book covers pretty much all aspects of life across the entirety that people have lived in the state & does a very good job of familiarizing the reader with all the little intricacies of the state from the church to health care to higher learning to the complex history with it's native peoples. As someone who visited the state this past year & fell in love with it, this book was an ideal souvenir to pick up & further enjoy learning about a state I can't wait to go back & visit again this time w/ an even greater understanding of things.

[Mikie]

This is a really thick book. since I'm reading it for my history class it will take me forever to finish it. I read like a half chapter a day.