Members of the South Dakota State Historical Society will soon receive the summer 2021 issue of South Dakota History, the society’s award-winning journal. But for a limited time, a featured article from the issue by Elaine Marie Nelson, Assistant Professor of history at the University of Kansas, will be available to all readers for free.
Nelson’s article, “No where to be found’: Myth-Mapping, Empire, and Resistance in the Black Hills Country, 1800—1860,” explores how the creation of non-Native maps shaped the way Americans understood Black Hills geography. For most nineteenth-century Americans, the size and location of the Black Hills was ambiguous and fluid. Based on Indigenous knowledge, Nelson argues, white soldiers, settlers, and explorers formulated maps and stories to claim the Black Hills as part of a growing U.S. empire. Nelson’s detailed analysis and the multiple high-quality color maps reproduced here will give readers a different perspective on this well-known region’s history.
Readers can access a PDF of Nelson’s fascinating article for the next two weeks by emailing orders@sdhspress.com. Issues from 2011 and earlier are also free to access.
The summer issue includes two other must-read articles. “Charles C. Painter’s ‘How we Punish Our Allies’: Advocating for Gabriel Renville and the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota Scouts” by Valerie Sherer Mathes examines the efforts of Charles C. Painter, an agent for the Indian Rights Association, to restore financial annuities owed to the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota scouts and soldiers who served with the U.S. Army during and after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. In his pamphlet, “How We Punish Our Allies,” which is reprinted here, Painter argued for the fair treatment of the scouts for their service.
Lastly, in “‘Substitute in this army of the Lord’: Missionary Parents, Their Children, and the Conflicted Nature of Missionary Work,” Linda M. Clemmons analyzes the lives and choices of children born to missionaries in the Dakotas in the mid-nineteenth century. While religious leaders saw children who had early experiences with Dakota culture and language as potentially gifted missionaries, the children’s parents worried that a childhood on the frontier would harm their morality and piety.
South Dakota History is a benefit of membership in the South Dakota Historical Society. For information on membership, call 605-773-6000 or visit history.sd.gov/membership.aspx. Individual issues can be purchased at sdhspress.com/journal.