Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Photo Credit David McConeghy, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
Badlands National Park is located in southwest South Dakota, United States. This 242,756 acres (982 sq km) national park consists of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. 64,250 acres of Badlands Wilderness is a designated wilderness area, and the site of the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered land mammals in North America.
Badlands National Park contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old. Through studying the fossils in the Badlands formations, scientists can learn about the evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig.
Native Americans have used the Badlands area for over 11,000 years as their hunting grounds. Their descendents live today in North Dakota. According to archaeological records as well as oral traditions, these people lived in secluded valleys where fresh water and game were available year round. Traces of rocks and charcoal from their campfires have been found eroded from the stream banks today. Also found are the arrowheads and tools they used to butcher bison, rabbits, and other game.
Homesteaders started moving into South Dakota towards the end of the 19th century. The US government removed the Native Americans from much of their territory and forced them to live on reservations. In the fall and early winter of 1890, thousands of Native American became followers of a Native American prophet named Wovoka. He called upon the native people to dance the Ghost Dance and wear Ghost Shirts, which he said would be impervious to bullets. Wovoka predicted that the white man would vanish and their hunting grounds would be restored.
In the ensuing confrontation between the Plains Indians and the US military took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Nearly two hundred Indians and thirty soldiers were killed. The massacre was the last major conflict with the US military until the advent of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s.
Wounded Knee is not within the boundaries of Badlands National Park. It is located approximately 45 miles (72 km) south of the park on Pine Ridge Reservation. The U.S. government and the Oglala Lakota Nation have agreed that this is a story to be told by the Oglala of Pine Ridge and Minneconjou of Standing Rock Reservation. The interpretation of the site and its tragic events are held as the primary responsibility of these survivors.
Badlands was established at a National Monument on 29 January, 1939, and was elevated to the status of National Park on 10 November, 1978. It is governed by the National Park Service.
Badlands National Park
Photo Credit: Colin Faulkingham, available in the public domain
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