South Dakota

South Dakota was interesting country.  To begin with, there are several Native American reservations in South Dakota. This is the area of Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee -  the area where the Sioux 

people tried to hold on to their land and culture at the end of the nineteenth century.  I picked up two books in an effort to learn more about present-day Native Americans and the Indian civil rights movement of the 1970s:  Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog and In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Mathiesson.   Both books are about the extreme racism against Native Americans in S. Dakota and elsewhere in the region.  This is one form of racism that I have not been exposed to in New England.  In speaking with a Native American woman, I learned that the racism still lingers, and she told me about a hate crime committed against some young Indian girls just recently in Rapid City, SD.  

We visited the Crazy Horse Memorial - a work in progress for the past fifty years which will result in a huge granite carving of Crazy Horse in the side of a mountain.

We stayed in a cabin in Custer State Park and saw a lot of wildlife there.  The heavily-advertised Wall Drug in Wall, SD was a waste of time.  The other corny tourist trap is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD (believe it or not, there is only one corn palace in the world.)  It is decorated with corn cobs.  While this is another gimmicky tourist trap, it was interesting to see the murals inside and outside made completely of corn cobs.  Note the Mt. Rushmore of corn and the real Mt. Rushmore.

The other interesting thing about our visit to South Dakota was the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  Perhaps you are like us, and perhaps you don't know about Sturgis "bike week."  Perhaps, like us, you have never even heard of Sturgis, SD.  Well, friends, be warned ...  each year during the first week of August, Sturgis, SD holds its annual motorcycle rally.  Bikers from all over the USA come to South Dakota for bike week.  Louden, NH and Daytona Beach, FL have nothing on Sturgis.  It seems that bike week is being held in the entire state.  Towns block off the middle of their main street so that motorcycles can park along the double yellow line in the middle of the street.  Tee shirts advertising bike week are sold in gas stations many hours from Sturgis.  We met bikers all across the state who were making their way to Sturgis.  These bikers are not the motorcycle gang members that we used to hear about.  These are very nice, fun-loving people who are enjoying the countryside by motorcycle.  They were with us in the state park, in the national park, at Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial and just about everywhere we went.  We weren't in or near Sturgis, but we felt like we had been to bike week ourselves because the bikers were everywhere.  It added some color and excitement, of not noise, to our visit to South Dakota.

Why did no one warn me of Sturgis Bike Week?  Can it be that none of you know of this phenomenon?

Photos:

Chris at Crazy Horse Memorial - Face can be seen in background

Badlands National Park.  Cool geology.  Our hike took us up a steep ladder and around some dangerous rocks with a big droop off.   We arrived at a beautiful overlook with contrasting views of the green prairie, and the gray barren rock.

Mt. Rushmore of stone and Mt. Rushmore of corn

Some bikers we met on the way.

The center of Custer, SD is reserved for motorcycles.