South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation levels ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west.

In the 14th century, the Crow Creek Massacre occurred, in which several hundred men, women, and children were killed near the Missouri River.

The LaVérendrye group buried a plate near the site of modern-day Pierre, claiming the region for France as part of greater Louisiana.

[21] In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory, an area that included most of South Dakota, from Napoleon Bonaparte, and President Thomas Jefferson organized the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the region.

[23] Settlement by Americans and Europeans was by this time increasing rapidly, and in 1858 the Yankton Sioux signed the 1858 Treaty, ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to the United States.

[28] In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills during a military expedition led by George A. Custer[29][30] and miners and explorers began illegally entering land promised to the Lakota.

[31] The Sioux declined to grant mining rights or land in the Black Hills, and war broke out after the U.S. failed to stop white miners and settlers from entering the region.

A lack of rainfall, extremely high temperatures and inappropriate cultivation techniques produced what was known as the Dust Bowl in South Dakota and several other plains states.

[44] The experiences of the Dust Bowl, coupled with local bank foreclosures and the general economic effects of the Great Depression, resulted in many South Dakotans leaving the state.

[46] In 1944, the Pick–Sloan Plan was passed as part of the Flood Control Act of 1944 by the U.S. Congress, resulting in the construction of six large dams on the Missouri River, four of which are at least partially in South Dakota.

[50] Mechanization and consolidation of agriculture has contributed greatly to the declining number of smaller family farms and the resulting economic and demographic challenges facing rural towns.

Smaller geographic regions of this area include the Coteau des Prairies, the Dissected Till Plains, and the James River Valley.

[59] The Dissected Till Plains, an area of rolling hills and fertile soil that covers much of Iowa and Nebraska, extends into the southeastern corner of South Dakota.

[60][65] Formations from the Paleozoic Era form the outer ring of the Black Hills;[66] these were created between roughly 540 and 250 million years ago.

[74][75][76] South Dakota has a continental climate with four distinct seasons, ranging from cold, dry winters to warm and semi-humid summers.

South Dakota has the nation's largest population of Hutterites,[112] a communal Anabaptist group which emigrated in 1874 from German-speaking villages in what today is Ukraine but at that time was part of the Russian Empire.

American Indians, largely Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota (Sioux), are predominant in several counties and constitute 20 percent of the population in West River.

[117] The reservations' isolation also inhibits their ability to generate revenue from gaming casinos, an avenue that has proved profitable for many tribes closer to urban centers.

[120] Over the last several decades, the population in many rural areas has declined in South Dakota, in common with other Great Plains states.

The I-29 corridor features generally higher rates of population and economic growth than areas in eastern South Dakota further from the interstate.

Rail transportation in the state is mostly freight, but there are two passenger heritage railroads: the Black Hills Central and the Prairie Village, Herman, and Milwaukee.

Today, only three fixed route public transit systems exist in the state, those being in Sioux Falls, Rapid City and on the Yankton Reservation.

[169] Despite the state's general Republican and conservative leanings, Democrats have found success in various statewide elections, most notably in those involving South Dakota's congressional representatives in Washington.

His accounts of the 19th-century Indian Wars and Ghost Dance movement, and his deep thoughts on personal visions and Native American religion, form the basis of the book Black Elk Speaks, first published in 1932.

[190] Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose semi-autobiographical books are based on her experiences as a child and young adult on the frontier, is one of South Dakota's best-known writers.

[197] Retail, finance, and healthcare have assumed greater importance in Sioux Falls,[198] where the economy was originally centered on agri-business and quarrying.

The next eight largest cities in the state, in order of descending 2010 population, are Aberdeen (28,495), Brookings (23,337), Watertown (22,655), Mitchell (15,660), Yankton (15,411), Huron (14,263), Pierre (14,091), and Spearfish (12,193).

Former NBC Nightly News anchor and author Tom Brokaw is from Webster and Yankton,[208] USA Today founder Al Neuharth was from Eureka and Alpena,[209] gameshow host Bob Barker spent much of his childhood in Mission,[210] and entertainment news hosts Pat O'Brien[211] and Mary Hart[212] are from Sioux Falls.

Famous South Dakota athletes include Billy Mills, Mike Miller, Mark Ellis, Becky Hammon, Brock Lesnar, Chad Greenway, and Adam Vinatieri.

Mills is from the town of Pine Ridge and competed at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, becoming the only American to win a gold medal in the 10,000-meter event.