South Dakota

Summary
A lesson on the state of South Dakota. The reading is accompanied by true/false questions.

Objectives
• To introduce students to salient features about the state of South Dakota and its history.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
South Dakota
South Dakota is located in the north central part of the Great Plains region of the United States which lies just about in the center of the country. The Great Plains are a geographic feature of the North American continent and extend from Mexico well into Canada. South Dakota is flanked by its sister state North Dakota to the north; Minnesota and Iowa to the east; Nebraska to the south; and Montana and Wyoming to the west.

Early History
Historians estimate that sometime between 1300 CE and 1500 CE a Native American people known as the Arikara lived in present-day north central South Dakota near the junction of the Grand and Missouri Rivers. Around the same time, members of the Sioux Nation traveled to eastern South Dakota from Minnesota for hunting and fishing. As the Sioux people divided into groups, each major group settled in a different part of South Dakota.

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