Electronic Archaeology in South Dakota

In the United States, the state of South Dakota is at the forefront of making complete archaeology programs available electronically. The University of South Dakota, the Archaeology Laboratory in Augustana, and the Native American community have built an exciting partnership, and they are examples of what the archaeological community can do to bring the information to the general public.

Archaeological Sites

The Lange-Ferguson Site, where 12,000 years ago Clovis hunters killed and butchered a woolly mammoth on the edge of a Late Pleistocene pond in the White River Badlands of South Dakota.

The Mitchell Village site, dated 1100 AD, is illustrated by both a web site, and a proposed museum reconstruction site, the Archaeo-Dome.

Native American Issues

The Crow Creek Site is an archaeological site in central South Dakota along the Missouri River where nearly 500 people were the victims of a massacre that occurred about 1325 A.D. USD has worked closely with the Native Americans of South Dakota to portray this information sensitively.

The World Archaeological Congress held in South Dakota in 1989 resulted in the Vermilion Accords, the basis for many of the burgeoning reburial and repatriation agreements being written world wide.

Public Education Links

One of the strongest motives for building web sites in South Dakota was to create resources for educators. The University of South Dakota developed a site aimed at middle school students that is a model for many others in the U.S.

Using a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, USD built a web site to provide teachers with appropriate resources in archaeology.

Native American Sites

South Dakota is home to the Great Sioux Nation, including the tribes of the Cheyenne River, the Crow Creek Sioux, the Flandreau Santee Sioux, the Lower Brule Sioux, the Oglala Sioux, the Rosebud Sioux, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota, the Standing Rock Sioux, and the Yankton Sioux.

Charles Alexander Eastman, a Santee Sioux Native American born in 1858 describes his life in this electronic text. As an adult, Eastman was a physician on the Pine Ridge Reservation during the Wounded Knee Massacre where he cared for many of the wounded.