"Little House on the Prairie"

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Have you ever watched “Little House on the Prairie,” a TV series based on two books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, entitled “The Long Winter” and “Little Town on the Prairie?” What she wrote about was the experiences of families who pioneered in South Dakota, where thousands of prospectors came to search for gold in the 1800s. European settlers and trappers came to South Dakota as early as the 1700s. The area was once the hunting ground of the Sioux Nation and the Sioux word Dakota actually means “confederation of tribes.” I have been to South Dakota twice and have been amazed when we visited the Badlands and the Black Hills. The prospectors settled in towns like Deadwood, which we also visited and where Wild Bill Hickok was shot in 1876. Of course we visited Mount Rushmore and also the Crazy Horse site, which is not yet completed. We did not visit Wounded Knee, where the U.S. Army massacred 200 Native Americans in 1890. Cattle ranching and farming are still popular in South Dakota but about 50% of the residents live in cities and towns and most of the Native Americans live on reservations in the northern part of the state. We visited part of the Sioux Reservation and I was not impressed. These residents were living below poverty levels and alcoholism was a huge problem. I am forever saddened by the plight of Native Americans in this country. We also found out that numerous dinosaur fossils have been discovered in the Badlands. Have you ever visited the Badlands? It’s an amazing site. Do you think dinosaurs actually existed?