The Dakota

Lakota Tribe The Lakota Tribe was one of the many northern native american tribes. They were the only tribe to win a battle against the Americans, a battle known as the Battle of Little Bighorn.. They still exist today, and live in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota,and Nebraska. Religion, tools, and food were some of the most important things in their culture. The Lakota’s tools were very well-developed. They used bows, arrows, spears, clubs, and shields made from buffalo hide. They also…

In the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, a large granite peak was dedicated in 1925 to be sculpted into a monument. That monument today is one of the most visited monuments in the United States. Mount Rushmore is a staple of the United States. On it, it has the faces of four of the most important Presidents of the United States. According to the Sculptor Gutzon Borglum “The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification…

In 2014, Energy Transfer Partners began construction of a pipeline that would connect North Dakota to Iowa, called the North Dakota Access Pipeline. It is also called the Bakken pipeline, since it is taking the crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota. Since the beginning of the construction, there have been small protests from the local Native American Sioux tribe, but recently the protests have gotten much larger. The protestors have a strong argument. As with most oil production…

The beginning of August 2016, a national issue occurred in a remote corner of North Dakota over the construction of a new 1,200-mile pipeline across Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It is a great fear to the tribe in the Standing Rock Reservation that if the pipeline is to be built in this location near Missouri river a leak is probable. If an oil spill were to happen, it will not only destroy the water supply for Standing Rock Reservation but it would also destroy 50% of South Dakota's potable…

The situation centered around the construction of pipeline that runs through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, and Iowa. Aside from the unexplored environmental damages the creation of the DAPL will bring about, deeper examination of the pipeline proves this is another example of injustice. In the early stages of the DAPL initial schematics…

protestors are not fighting for their land; they are fighting for their way of life. The issue of pipelines is not confined to Keystone XL alone. Currently, the Standing Sioux Rock Tribe is protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline which is supposed to span 1,100 miles across North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa. In this case the protestors are also worried about contamination of their sacred water…

Mercer County, North Dakota, which there are five different Knife River Flint Quarries in Mercer County. The three closest quarries to where the Knife River Flint in this experiment was collected are the Crowley Quarries, Medicine Butte, and Dodge Quarry. With the help of Russell Redhorn, a Native American monitor I was working with at the time, we were able to collect a large quantity of Knife River Flint cobbles from an area about eight miles south of Zap, North Dakota. Which is in close…

mission trip and has lead many trips to Indian reservations and other places in the world. I think that his knowledge and experience were greatly appreciated and was helpful. I believe that I was properly trained and prepared for my trip to South Dakota. Kurt had the group read “Neither Wolf nor Dog,” which gave us a narrative of the interaction between the author, Kent Nerburn and his time spent learning and growing with Dan, a Native American elder. This gave us some insight in how the…

Hidden away in South Dakota lies the forgotten Indigenous people of The Pine Ridge Reservation. The Pine Ridge reservation was established in 1878. It is the second largest reservation in the United States, bigger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. The reservation is about 2.7 million acres but only half of it belongs to the Lakota people, it is the home to about 28,000 to 40,000 people in Lakota and Sioux tribes. According to an demographics article, 35 percent of the population is under…

Rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes, Dakota Ursa emerges from the tiny bedroom door. He adjusts his long, black tie under the pristine, white collar of his button up shirt. Straightening his black blazer over his long arms, he heads for the front door of his small, two bedroom apartment. Dakota snatches the comb lying on a small table and levels his curly, caramel hair. He swoops up his brown shoes with a flame design, tightens the white laces, and stomps them onto his feet. The brown shoes are…